{"id":1017,"date":"2016-10-31T11:20:43","date_gmt":"2016-10-31T15:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/?p=1017"},"modified":"2016-10-31T11:20:43","modified_gmt":"2016-10-31T15:20:43","slug":"we-saw-her-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/2016\/10\/we-saw-her-fall.html","title":{"rendered":"we saw her fall"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/metaphor-1209691_1280.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1018\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/metaphor-1209691_1280-300x203.jpg\" alt=\"metaphor-1209691_1280\" width=\"300\" height=\"203\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/metaphor-1209691_1280-300x203.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/metaphor-1209691_1280-768x518.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/metaphor-1209691_1280-1024x691.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/metaphor-1209691_1280.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>For years, I&#8217;ve wanted to create something that would capture the sense of helplessness I feel in the face of horrific onscreen images, the kinds of clips that 24-hour news programming seems to specialize in. Over and over I have had the experience of watching something I couldn&#8217;t bear seeing, powerless to intervene, and it struck me that I was just one of millions observing the same events, unable to do anything to stop them. This seems like a very recent and potent experience for humanity, an experience we have not yet really come to terms with.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve just completed a trio for soprano, flute and piano called <em>We saw her fall.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>Using just seven words to describe an ambiguous image &#8212; one that could be physical, emotional, or metaphorical; a scenario that could be life-threatening or a simple stumble \u2013 I let the music slow the passage of time to a standstill, locking the listener into the moment of observation.<\/p>\n<p>Over the course of six minutes, the text &#8212; <em>we saw her fall, her arms extended<\/em> &#8212; is looped and fragmented, with the piano and flute creating a shimmering halo effect around the soprano line.\u00a0 The last syllable is heard only once; other repetitions end with \u201cn,\u201d the last syllable being the word that cannot be said.<\/p>\n<p>I have some friends who are investigating a possible premiere \u2013 how lucky I am to have such friends! \u2013 which frees me to move on to the next composition.\u00a0 I used to have to expend a lot of energy on that end of things, and I still do occasionally, but fortunately less and less.\u00a0 Here\u2019s hoping they find success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For years, I&#8217;ve wanted to create something that would capture the sense of helplessness I feel in the face of horrific onscreen images, the kinds of clips that 24-hour news programming seems to specialize in. Over and over I have had the experience of watching something I couldn&#8217;t bear seeing, powerless to intervene, and it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1017","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1017"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1019,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017\/revisions\/1019"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}