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Infinity Room was written for the Appalachian State University Percussion Ensemble and Dr. Brady Spitz.
In 2019, while on vacation, I visited an art museum and came across a transformative exhibit. As I wandered around, I was immersed in increasingly mesmerizing surroundings. One of the spaces appeared to be a small room, and as I walked through the door, my perspective immediately exploded in all directions. All of the walls were mirrors and the room was filled with glowing pinpoints of light that gradually shifted from one color to another. I felt like I was in an infinite space, floating and disconnected from reality. I had encountered an exhibit by the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, and my first trip into an "Infinity Mirror Room" was extraordinary and unforgettable.
This piece captures my wonder and awe from that experience, while mimicking the visual multiplicity of the room. Many of the musical textures and elements evolve slowly like how the colors inside the Infinity Room morphed slowly between cool and warm tones. Starting with bell-like clangs across the whole ensemble, delicate musical gestures played by the wooden end of the mallets begin to echo. Moments of clarity emerge when quick running passages are played in unison, but the texture always reverts back to a diffuse imitation of these small gestures. A chorale is stated in parallel chords to create a growing sense of direction, eventually arcing towards the highest registers of each instrument. This chorale is then echoed and mirrored between high and low instruments before the steady flow of notes in the accompaniment is flipped from background to foreground. The chorale returns in the bass voices underneath a cascade of repeated notes echoing across the ensemble. Eventually this continuous echo begins to fade in intensity and it transforms back into the more sporadic texture from the beginning of the piece. A final burst of echoing energy rolls across the ensemble before finally fading away into infinity.
Infinity Room is originally scored for Lou Harrison's American Gamelan. Known as "Old Grandad," this unique and beautiful instrument uses resonant metal pipes of all sizes to create a wide range of bell-like tones. Its pitch selection is limited to the seven pitches of a D major scale, but its use of just intonation gives it a striking harmonic color that stands out in our equal-temperament world.
Infinity Room was premiered at PASIC in November, 2026.
Duration: ca 9'30"
Infinity Room is scored for either American Gamelan or a mixed percussion sextet.
American Gamelan:
2 Soprano Keys
2 Tenor Keys
1 Baritone Keys
1 Bass Keys
Mixed sextet:
2 Vibraphones (4 players)
1 Marimba (5 octaves)
1 Set of tuned bass gongs: A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G
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