ONE THING AND ANOTHER

John Steinmetz's One Thing and Another was commissioned by Kelly Johnson through a University Research Council grant from the University of Central Arkansas.

From the composer's program notes:
'One Thing and Another has two movements (two chapters). I tried to write music that wouldn’t need any explanation (at least for people who like listening to music without words or images), but maybe it would help to know that both movements are full of different kinds of transitions. If you’re curious to know more, I’ll tell a little about my process and what resulted.
I had been wanting to write some music with quick mood changes (I admire music that can turn on a dime emotionally, whether in operas, avant-garde chamber works, jazz improvisations, or cartoon soundtracks), so I started working on this piece by trying to compose fast mood swings. Eventually a movement developed, 'Daydreams', with tempo changes, role reversals, mood shifts, style switches. At first the changes are gradual, but near the end they happen more quickly, like thoughts or memories flitting by, or like things of the world seeming to arise and disappear. To my surprise, the quick shifts at the end called up some kind of grief in me, so I began working on mournful music to start the second movement, which eventually got titled 'Mourning, Dancing'. It begins with the instruments singing sadly, and then a dance starts, seeming at first to honor a mournful situation (at least I think so). As the dance unfolds, it goes through its own transitions.
I don’t like to say too much about what a piece of music means or what it’s about, because listeners have such different experiences with the same piece, and I like that. But when I was working on this music, a phrase came to me: 'We are all damaged, we are all radiant.' Those words became the subtitle for the second movement. When living on this planet, it’s easy to see a lot of damage: inner and outer, human and non-human. Living here also brings beautiful glimpses of radiance: inner and outer, human and non-human. The arts often address these contradictions; for example, a poem by Adam Zagajewski begins, 'Try to praise the mutilated world.'

• Daydreams
• Mourning, Dancing

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