crawl

for amplified violin and piano

performed by Shannon Reilly (violin), and Wei-Han Wu as part of the 2021 June in Buffalo Festival.

This piece is inspired by Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground. In translating the title from Russian to English, “underground” is understood to be more like a “crawlspace”. The Man from Underground is constantly in conflict with his own contradictory thought patterns leading to what he and the reader perceive as changing shifts in consciousness. One can interpret these shifts as indicators of his slow emergence from underground, only to finally realize that he will always
be trapped due to his learned habits and thought patterns. These shifts of his consciousness are reflected in the piece by viewing very specific thematic elements in different ways throughout the work.

Full Score