An Air of Stillness

2026 | Solo Work

Piano

Program Note

​This piece is inspired by the natural phenomenon of snowflake sublimation—the seemingly instant vanishing of snowflakes before they even get the chance to touch the ground. While we can’t actually see this happening with the naked eye, when observed under microscopes, scientists have found this disappearance of snowflakes to be a process where snowflakes gradually lose their shapes and details until all that remains is water vapor suspended in the air. The goal of writing this piece was to musically depict this process by gradually deconstructing a musical idea until it’s no longer recognizable when compared to what it started as. To do this, the main musical gesture of the piece, a quick septuplet, is rhythmically distorted through augmentation and the pitches of each figure gradually stray from the original idea that we heard at the start. What we’re left with are musical ideas suspended in time that are related to the original septuplet figure but have gradually morphed into something different. 

​Written for

"Esther" Huijae Lee, Piano

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Duration

3'

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Premiere

March 28, 2026 by "Esther" Huijae Lee at Auer Hall, Indiana University (Bloomington, IN, USA)