Transmigration by Phillip Richardson

Written for marimba quartet, this work focuses not on the individual performers’ rhythm or melody, but instead on the composite lines and harmonic rhythms that result from their interplay. The melody is consistently divided amongst the four players. These layered entrances overlap, creating dense sonorities that highlight the resonant quality of the instrument. This piece was conceived after reading the following quote:

Schopenhauer believed that art, in particular music, had – has – the power to cause the will, the irrational, striving will, to somehow turn back onto and into itself and cease to strive. He considered this a religious experience, although temporary. Somehow art, somehow music especially, has the power to transform man from an irrational thing into some rational entity that is not driven by biological impulses, impulses that cannot by definition ever be satisfied.
– Philip K. Dick, “The Transmigration of Timothy Archer”

Transmigration is meant to exemplify the reflective nature of music, and its ability to (at least temporarily) transform us into rational beings.