I am learning to: remember for piano and fixed electronics (2019)
In the summer of 2018 I travelled back to the homes I grew up in around Minnesota – each one in a di!erent part of the state’s diverse landscape –"to take #eld recordings of the sonic spaces I once inhabited. Months later while sorting through my recordings, a sonic geography created by dozens of common threads began to appear. $e more I listened, the more commonalities illuminated my memories – sonic, personal, musical. $ese commonalities became the genesis for I am learning to: remember.
I am learning to: remember consists of two components: an electronic soundscape composition, and an instrumental (piano) part. $e former was created using the #eld recordings I took at my childhood homes; separate sounds, memories, converging to create one, evocative of each home, their composite, and none at all. $e piano, then, serves to extend this exploration of memory; gestures appear and disappear, transform and remain the same. $rough constantly and inconsistently referencing itself, I am learning to: remember invokes the act of remembering on the part of all those involved. Even letting the name of this piece come from your own mouth makes you its subject.
In that way, this piece is as much about me as it is about you. I am learning to: remember captures, embodies, the timelessness of memory and the act of remembering, regardless of what is being remembered, and, as a result, is truly a collaboration between composer, performer, and listener. $is is to say that although my memories and the way I remember are di!erent from yours, I am learning to: remember embraces this, creating a sonic space in which di!erent modes of remembering and listening can exist simultaneously, collaboratively, musically.