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Lei Liang
A Book of Time I
| Subtitle | for piano |
|---|---|
| Year(s) composed | 2023 |
| Publisher | Schott Music |
| Duration | 21' |
| Premiere | February 28, 2025; Scandinavia House, New York City; Han Chen, piano |
| Commission | Commissioned by the ProtoStar Group and pianist Han Chen with generous support from the Foundation of Chinese Performing Arts, Brigitta & Adrian Gut, Eleanor Eisenmenger, and Dr. Li Wu, Founder & Chairwoman of Virtusan |
| Composer note | A Book of Time I (for piano, 2023) is about listening to the earth’s own harmonies hidden in rocks. Rocks are made of different minerals that deform at different speeds, with each constituent experiencing time differently. Some rocks from deep within Earth are brought to the surface in a violent eruption at supersonic speed. This extremely rapid transport process preserves the information these rocks record and help us understand the inaccessible regions of the planet. Each rock is a book of time. Our team (“Lei Lab,” launched in 2023) developed the idea and technology to use X-ray fluorescence analysis of minerals to trace a series of data points delineating their elemental peaks. These data points are then transformed through software into harmonies that we can hear. A Book of Time I is based on the first rendition of harmonies created by our “Singing Earth” team (see credit below) in close collaboration with geologist Emily Chin of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Each segment (mostly demarcated by double bars) consists of notes from one mineral, unless noted otherwise. The minerals are indicated on top of the first note of each segment. Composing this piece is to listen to how the earth’s minerals sing. – Lei Liang |