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The Realm of Possibility is inspired by relatively recent concepts of chaos theory as well as more established ideas from physics, some over a century old and still breathtaking. The work is partly a reflection on the notion that, in a chaotic system, multiple outcomes can arise from identical initial conditions. The opening Outburst -- heard repeatedly at the outset and occasionally throughout -- contains elements, forced together as if under compression, from which the further ten sections spring. This unfolding process may also suggest the expansion of the initial singularity that contained all the matter, forces, and possibilities of the universe to come. Of course, in the end it's all music, itself a possibility contained in those initial conditions. Evidently, even the most intimate human expression was inherent in that unimaginable original violence of creation.
After Duchamp is written so as to be playable on harpsichord or piano, to entirely different effect. This collection of ten pieces takes its cue from Marcel Duchamp's motto:
I force myself to contradict myself so as not to follow my own taste. I have accordingly poked at some of my own artistic principles and aesthetics to extend my range and to challenge the listener, not through shocking sounds but through rhetorical provocation or formal eccentricity. Paradoxically, the breaching of some of these inhibitions allows for some traditional practices I don't usually permit myself, including miniature forms, programmatic association, over sentiment, multiple repetition and quotation.
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