STAGNANT COLD

PROJECT

“Stagnant Cold” is an eight-and-a-half-minute orchestral work inspired by Wallace Stevens’ haiku “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.” The piece explores the perception of time and movement within an environment of near-complete stillness. Rather than relying on conventional melodic development, the music unfolds through gradual transformations of timbre, texture, and orchestration, allowing sound itself to become the primary source of movement.
A recurring motif quietly persists throughout the work, representing the presence of snow and the seemingly endless landscape surrounding it. Later, a second motif emerges, representing the blackbird—the single moving presence within this otherwise motionless environment. Their interaction gradually transforms the sound world, creating subtle moments of movement within an atmosphere that remains largely suspended.

The use of extended techniques, unusual percussion instruments, and unconventional combinations of orchestral timbres contributes to the cold and distant atmosphere of the piece. These sounds are intended to blur familiar instrumental identities, creating a landscape that feels simultaneously expansive, isolated, and intimate.

One of my main compositional challenges was to create a work that could remain seemingly stagnant while still maintaining the listener’s attention and encouraging an active sense of perception. Rather than presenting a traditional musical narrative, “Stagnant Cold” invites the listener to slow down and notice the smallest changes—to experience movement within stillness and to perceive time not simply as a progression of events, but as a state of presence.

“Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird.”
— Wallace Stevens

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Boston Conservatory Orchestra and Maestro Vimbayi Kaziboni for their dedication and inspiring performance of this work.