Levi Raleigh Brown
Anatomy of a Breath
when god decided to invent
everything he took one
breath bigger than a circustent
and everything began
when man determined to destroy
himself he picked the was
of shall and finding only why
smashed it into because
- e.e. cummings
Based on this poem by E.E. Cummings, the piece explores the idea of the universe as a complete, single, all-encompassing breath, versus humanity’s tendency to break everything into categories, definitions, functions, causes, and effects. Musically the piece follows a chaotic but beautiful “circus” of the world as it is distilled and divided into musical segments, possibly offering temporal direction and meaning, but ultimately providing no more than attempt at an anatomy of a breath.
An alto saxophone duet, this piece is expected to be performed soon by Charlotte Leung and Maria Torres-Melgares.