In This Place

Built around two principal elements, an original plainchant tune (a fragment of which is presented at the outset in the violin) and a kind of melancholy, lilting triadic figure given to the piano, In This Place is also a study in tonal minimalism, as its entire pitch structure consists of only the seven notes of a G Aeolian scale. The climax of the piece features a strong unison statement of the chant in clarinet and violin, now harmonized by the piano with the triadic idea from the opening. And while this is certainly the dramatic high point of the piece, it is not until the long coda that the tune achieves its most "perfect" state: the piece ends with a strict four-part mensuration canon on the tune. Here the chant both harmonizes itself and resolves into itself, achieving a state of completion denied to it elsewhere.

From the composer's notes to In This Place (Enharmonic Records, 2013).