Blue Tigers
Emilio Greer - Bb Clarinet
Soojin Huh - Basset Horn
Gleb Kanasevich Bass Clarinet
Jonny Allen - Percussion (Vibes, Cymbal, Bass Drum with superballs)
Candy Chiu - Percussion (Crotales, Tam Tam, Thunder Sheet with superballs)
Suzana Bartal, Piano
Benjamin Firer - Conductor
PROGRAM NOTES
Alexander Craigie, professor of logic, investigates reports of blue-colored tigers in a remote Indian village, but instead, to the villagers dismay, discovers mysterious blue stones. The stones pop into and out of existence, multiply and disappear without any apparent logic.
Craigie obsesses over the "obscene miracle" of the stones that violate the laws of physics which begin to haunt his dreams. He wishes he was mad, since that would be "less disturbing than the discovery that the universe can tolerate disorder. If three plus one can be two, or fourteen, then reason is madness."
As he manipulates "the stones that destroyed the science of mathematics" he thinks of the "those Greek stones that were the first ciphers and that had been passed down to so many languages as the word 'calculus'. Mathematics had its origin and now has its end in stones. If Pythagoras had worked with these..."
Blue Tigers is inspired by the short story of Jorge Borges of the same name.
The music is dedicated to my friend and former teacher Ryan Vigil.
~Justin Tierney
JustinTierney.com
