Madeleines

Trumpet and organ
15 minutes
2025

This is a minimalist work for organ and trumpet. Given the static nature of time in minimalist works, often due to reduced harmonic material, rhythmic ostinatos, consistent tempi, static register, amongst other elements, I wanted to build on how to illustrate time not just as static, but as non-linear.

To pair with the organ's indirect sound diffusion, I chose the trumpet, which has a direct sound delivery. My experience studying minimalism coloured this project from the outset. I found that the kind of listening that happens during minimalist works and the transformation that time goes through when listening to minimalist music is thought-provoking. I thought about other media that deal with the transformation of how time passes. Namely, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, and its aliens. Given the static nature of time in minimalist works, often due to reduced harmonic material, rhythmic ostinatos, consistent tempi, static register, amongst other elements, I wanted to build on how to illustrate time not just as static, but as non-linear. This is accomplished in the organ part, as the performer is instructed to play each line out of order. The constant pulse of the pedal is there to show that time is always in motion, but the non-linearity between each line illustrates that what we might be perceiving could be past, present, or future. On the other hand, the trumpet’s part happens linearly, to provide contrast and the objective, linear passage of time.

The other literary work I drew influence from was Proust’s well-known “madeleine scene”. This scene explores time as it relates to action versus memory. I thought that Proust’s “involuntary memory” provides a similar sense of irregularity in relation to time. The unconscious relation of an action with a time and/or place can transport a person in time through their memories. As the speaker repeats the action of eating the madeleine and searches through his memory, the perceived time for himself and the reader jumps around as the speaker figures out his feelings.