Agate (2015)

for solo harp.  dur: 5'.

Program Notes:  "Agate" is a type of Quartz characterized by its parallel bands of brightly colored mineral layers.  Generally these lines will form concentric shapes from the outside walls of a geode, building inward upon each other towards a center which may be hollow or full of murkier, less geometric Quartz.  Such a geode is a beautiful visual metaphor for introspection-- a fully formed rock which is so brilliantly and definitively outlined on the outside layers gradually becomes more ambiguous, murkier, or perhaps hollow at its center.  This piece is a fantasy on that type of introspection.  Like Agate, it has many geometric layers, but an ambiguous core.