Version for solo guitar (2010)
Version for solo guitar and mixed ensemble (2014)
Train Journey Fragments is a set of miniatures on open, anonymous, barren, forbidding landscapes and impressions. Written for solo classical guitar in 2009-10, this was my first microtonal/sixth-tone piece. In the succeeding years to the present, sixth-tone microtonality has become an integral part of my musical language. Coming back to this piece now (re-editing) is like reconnecting with an old, almost forgotten friend. Certain fragments are musically independent, occupy their own world, while others relate to each other on different levels. Motives and harmonies when they recur are refracted, as if appearing through shifting lenses. The fragments are organized together into three main sections.
In the original solo version, at the conclusion of each section a “distant melody” is heard. In the score, the part labeled distant melody is defined as “performers (voices and/or any instrument/s or sound sources) not visible to the audience” producing an “incorporeal, mysterious, maybe not easily identifiable sound,” preferably heard off-stage.
The original solo guitar piece was premiered by guitarist Yovianna García in 2010. In 2014, I created an arrangement for guitar and small ensemble, for a composer’s forum/performance at the Atlas Theater in Washington, DC. I like both versions of this piece for different reasons.