for Two Wind Instruments, Percussion, Piano, 2021 - Open Duration

This piece is based on two measures in Strauss’s 3 Ophelia Songs, op. 67 no. 3, “Sie trugen ihn auf der Bahre bloss” (below).

Each of these songs comes from text spoken by Ophelia in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, who famously ends up dead in a lake. When translated by Oxford Lieder, the first line is “They carried him naked on the bier,” but when translated by Google Translate, the line is “They just carried him on the stretcher.” The weight that this line carries when you consider Ophelia’s fate is striking, and especially so when you connect the inability to breathe with this current moment. Either you are literally unable to breathe because of the pandemic, or it feels like it because of the way modern American society is drowning – which is where the title of the piece comes from.

This piece is also an exercise in personal warning. At the time of this composition, my uncle is currently in a medically induced coma due to complications unrelated to Covid-19. He has since passed. He had been intubated and is unable to breathe on his own.

The idea of breathing is weighing heavily on my mind.