Seven Dreams of the Nooksack Glacier
A work for string quartet work exploring glacial motion, septimal tuning, and sustained harmonic drift.
First Presentation:
October 24, 2021, SunShip: The Arc That Makes The Flood Possible — Arts Letters & Numbers, CityX Venice (2021 Venice Architecture Biennale Virtual Pavilion), Virtual/USA/Italy
Credits:
- Composed by Joey Largent
- Performed by Del Sol String Quartet
- Kathryn Bates — cello
- Charlton Lee — viola
- Sam Weiser — violin
- Benjamin Kreith — violin
- Michael Harrison — artistic direction (CMO 2021)
Seven Dreams of the Nooksack Glacier was composed as an explorational work examining glacial motion through sustained harmony, tuning systems, and slow-form development. Originally conceived as a sketch, the piece has remained a standalone work, allowing its material to exist without being folded into a larger cycle.
The 7-limit just intonation tuning system for the work is derived from a hybrid of Raga Darbari and the Dorian mode with a lowered sixth degree. The harmonic language and pacing of the work draw deeply from my studies in Khyal of the Kirana Gharana, particularly movements learned from Rose Okada in the lineage of Pandit Pran Nath, Ustad Hafizullah Khan, and Ustad Mashkoor Ali Khan. These influences shape the piece’s slow unfolding, its emphasis on sustained pitch relationships, and its attention to subtle approaches and departures from stable tones. While the work occasionally departs from traditional raga movement, these deviations are intentional, responding to the practical and perceptual realities of sustained just intonation on strings.
An additional influence comes from my long-standing engagement with the work of La Monte Young. Much of his string music exists primarily through live performance and documentation, inviting imagination and speculation. Rather than attempting imitation, this piece emerged through inhabiting that imaginative space, using it as a site for inquiry rather than replication.
The work premiered alongside other composers’ works from the program as a live streaming on October 24, 2021, as part of SunShip: The Arc That Makes The Flood Possible, an Arts Letters & Numbers exhibition presented in CityX Venice, the Italian Virtual Pavilion of the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale. The performance was given by the San Francisco–based Del Sol String Quartet as part of the Arts Letters & Numbers Creative Music Online Workshop + Residency, directed by Michael Harrison.
I am deeply grateful to Kathryn, Charlton, Sam, and Ben of Del Sol for their commitment, care, and openness throughout the development process, and to Michael Harrison for his deep guidance and support.
