quartet for the end of time

Abyss of birds, the third movement, composer's notes:

The abyss is Time with its sadness, its weariness. The birds are the opposite to Time; they are our desire for light, for stars, for rainbows, and for jubilant songs.  

The tension created by duality, polar opposites waxing and waning. This particular movement reflects that theme in that the figure spends as much time on floor as in the stars. The slow motion falls, rolling, swirling and ascent repeat with variation. Each fall reflects the opening into a larger reality, a fuller state of awareness or consciousness. With a scarf of wings the image is reminescent of a aboriginal totem pole, figures come to life and moving through space. The original image was a figure with rainbows emiting light from it's hands, and a sense of arcing rays of light. I envisioned the movement of the northern lights across the sky opening and closing, shifting, changing. The brief flutter with the scarf shifting from wings to rope to noose recalls the darkness of the abyss, the sadness and weariness of time and the heaviness of the body, it's dense structure of bones and connective tissues grounding the spirit in the manifest world. The mask accents the eyes and the movement of the eyes. Shifts the identity of the figure from recognizably human to an enigma. The internal rotation of the legs and feet suggest a being unaccostomed to the demands of walking, suggests that this being is more comfortable in another medium, a kinder enviroment, more vulnerable when on land. The feathers of the mask suggest air, the shells indicate water, the costume in motion spirls to creat a vortex which moves around the figure's internal. vertical axis. The falls demand absolute relaxation, complete surrender to gravity, the the magnetic attaraction of the earth, created as our planet turns on it's own axis in space. The ascent which follows needs nothing more than awareness of the rebounding motion of the turning falls and subtle guidance of the rebound. Tension and release, the process of breathing, and singing. The lungs and diaprgm create a vaccum, the air rushes in, the muscles relax and return to their original position. The sound is produced by the changing shapes and the inner structures of the throat and mouth as the air rushes past the vocal cords.