Aleph
Duration: 10 min.
Aleph was inspired largely by the geometric patterns of Islamic art, an art derived from the same proportions and numerical symbolism as the tuning systems of the ancient Greeks and Byzantines. In this music I have adopted similar just intonation systems, as well as intricate and slowly transforming patterns of pitches and timbres. Writers such as Keith Critchlow have connected the arithmetic symbolism of this art to the Arabic language and alphabet, the first letter of which, aleph, is a single vertical stroke. This stroke represents the descent of light, the "creative ray which initiates existence." From this simple division follows the expansion into creation, and the connection of all people to the cosmological rhythms of number and pattern.