now, a word on the finished product. of the pallete that i had created, i ultimately used only a small portion. which of course is not necessarily a bad thing, but there is only so much i could use for a short piece without feeling like im just trying to fit as much in as possible.

the pedal is depressed for the entirety of the recorded portion. the recorded part begins with soft timpani mallets striking the cluster A through F in the lowest range of the piano (very little attack, rich resonance). over this, a series of chords on which the soprano line was based is played in reverse with slight reverb. after this dies away, the first section begins: a single line, fragments of the soprano line from the first poem are played backwards and overlapping with another fragment. in the second section, i used several mallets to hit the heads of the screws which were placed between the strings inside the piano. depending of the softness of the mallet the sound ranged from a dull, soft, bell-like ringing with little attack, or a more "bronzey" sound, with a clear attack. after playing 2 melodies in simple counterpoint i added quite a bit of delay and reverb, this section is by far the most rhythmic in the piece. there is a very aimless, wandering quality to the sound. the third section is just 3 descending chords, well, the same chord but down a whole step twice. the sound does not die away, and the resonance of each chord overlaps, creating a very interesting beating. the piece ends with the rumbling bass notes from the beginning returning, and single chord as a palindrome.