As an undergraduate at Princeton, I spent many hours in this chapel. I sang in Penna Rose’s exuberant choir. I worked at the desks in the narthex and the back of the nave until late in the night. I sat in the pews and let my mind go blank. The air here is heavy with meaning for me. It means aimless contemplation and hard mental labor; it means the pure joy of sound and the glory of annunciation.
Glyptics refers to the art of carving channels or grooves into stone—of scratching a surface. The result might be a symbol or a letter or a gem. It seemed like a good metaphor for feeling of proto-thought and coming-into-knowledge that guides this piece.
This music was written in close creative partnership with Matt Barbier, Weston Olencki, Eric Plutz, and PLOrk. I can’t thank them enough. They are dream collaborators. Thank you to Rosalie Kaplan for lending her voice to the loudspeakers and to the members of the Chapel Choir for lending their voices to hers.
And of course, we all owe a massive debt of gratitude to Jeff Snyder, Dan Trueman, Andres Villalta, Wally Gunn, Penna Rose, and Liz Powers for making this concert possible. Thank you.