Inexpressible v.2 (2015)
flute, violin, cello
written for Ensemble Pamplemousse (v.1) & Third Sound (v.2)
In "Inexpressible," each voice is treated as a unique line, its activity independent from the other. In a way, this is a piece of music for three soloists played simultaneously. Whereas polyphonic music traditionally found the relation between voices in a shared "harmony," the musical lines in "Inexpressible" share two things: speed and energy. Harmony, though existent, is subsumed by velocity and athleticism, gesture and force.
The text, ghosted within the notes, is Ludwig Wittgenstein, words from his "Tractatus"about the impossibility of knowing.
"Inexpressible" was originally written for Ensemble Pamplemousse (voice, flute, violin, cello) and premiered in New York City in April 2013. "Inexpressible v.2" was adapted for Ensemble Third Sound (flute, violin, cello) and premiered in November 2015 in Havana, Cuba.
Text:
Excerpted from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein
(5.6) Die Grenzen meiner sprache bedeuten die Grenzen meiner Welt.
(The limits of my language mean the limits of my world)
(5.62) …die Welt meine Welt
(…the world is my world)
(5.621) Die Welt und das Leben sins Eins
(The world and life are one)
(5.63) Ich bin meine Welt. (Der Mikrokosmos)
(I am my world. (The microcosm))
(6.4311) Der Tod ist kein Ereignis des Lebens. Den Tod erlebt man nicht […] Unser Leben ist ebenso endlos, wie unser Gesichtsfeld grenzenlos ist.
(Death is not an event in life: we do not live to experience death…Our life has no end in just the way in which our visual field has no limits)
(6.44) Nicht wie die Welt ist, ist das Mystische, sondern dass sie ist.
(It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists)
(6.5) Zu einer Antwort, die man nicht aus sprechen kann, kann man auch die Frage nicht aussprechen.
(When the answer cannot be put into words, neither can the question be put into words.)
(6.521) Die Lösing des Problems des Lebens merkt man am Verschwinden dieses Problems
(The solution of the problem of life is seen in the vanishing of the problem.)
(6.522) Es gibt allerdings Unaussprechliches. Dies zeigt sich, es ist das Mystische.
(There are, indeed, things that cannot be put into words. They make themselves manifest. They are what is mystical.)
Third Sound (Sooyun Kim, flute; Karen Kim, violin; Michael Nicolas, cello) performing at the Havana Contemporary Music Festival in November 2015.
The concert was part of an American Composers Forum-led artist delegation to Cuba which featured a program of ten stylistically diverse pieces by established and emerging composers from across the United States.