Time Paradigm

Ashley Feist

General Info

Year: 2014
Duration: c. 7:00
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Manuscript
Cost: Score and Parts - $0.00   |   Score Only - $0.00

Movements

I. In the Beginning
II. Clocks
III. Life: The Serious Cereal

Instrumentation

Multiple Percussion: Woodblocks (2); triangle; small windgong; "Life" Cereal

Program Notes

I wrote about Time because I couldn’t get away from it. We revolve around what time it is. Time tells us to eat cereal because it is morning and to eat lunch because it is noon. We leave one place and go to the other because Time tells us we have to. It decides when one day is over and the next begins. Time has to be kept in order to be organized. Time has to be kept when you are a percussionist who is expected to be the rhythm and heartbeat of all the sound around us. We have to keep it together. Time became my obsession and before long I had written dozens of pages all about the subject of Time. I think of Time as a person, Father Time, because he will always be there counting forward. Sometimes we don’t have enough Time, sometimes we have too much Time on our hands, and sometimes we have the Time of our life. Time will always matter because what we choose to do with it starts to become who we are or what we are good at. We are slaves to Time and I get tired of all the obligations that come to me just because of Time. It’s not fair because I can’t control the days, but every day I get older. We can fight it, but Time doesn’t have to sleep, eat, or drink to keep going, so we will always be behind. Although, Time must get irritated that he can’t look backwards to see if he has footprints or owns a shadow….Time reaches into his pocket and hands us a timeline. Once it is ours, it becomes a lifeline and we have that long to make something of ourselves. This composition is full of the many definitions of Time and what they mean to me. - Ashley Feist

In The Beginning

Time is walking right beside me
he wants to be

my best friend.

Then seconds
turn to minutes.
He changes
to different faces,
but his pace is always the same

and I think I’m going insane

because his ticking phrases

don’t make sense when we’re talking

because I’m talking
and he’s ticking;

Picking me up

putting me in a different place

because Time will do that to ya.

He moves me around, like I’m the chess piece
and he’s the human hand.
Dragging me, from
square to square
school to school
city to city like I don’t have a choice
because ready or not,
here Time comes!
and I better hurry
because Time is on my heels
and if I get caught
not knowing which way to turn,
Time will keep turning.

I have to remember
to breathe.
I have to learn that I can slow down time
because he’s walking right beside me
and I control the steps
Right?

Recent Performances

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Works for Percussion by this Composer

Time Paradigm - Multiple Percussion; Poetry