Hearsay

for flute quartet (2021)
Duration: 6’

Gossip and rumor are everywhere. Hearsay—the spread of second-hand information—is a key way we communicate ideas. But it is imperfect: information passed from person to person is subject to revision, obfuscation, and misinterpretation.

This piece was inspired by that process. Throughout the piece, the four players constantly quote (and misquote) one another, passing around musical ideas like a game of telephone. Whether the ideas they share are trivial chatter or intimate secrets, anything one player says is apt to be reinterpreted by the rest of the ensemble. The piece reflects the intrinsic imprecision of communication.

This piece was composed for a collaboration between Peabody Conservatory composers and members of Marina Piccinini’s flute studio.