Less is more

Molly Joyce

2017

Percussion, piano

Less is More was written in the spring of 2017 for the Passepartout Duo for the inaugural Eighth Blackbird Creative Laboratory, with commissioning support from Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting. The work was written in New Haven, CT, and premiered in June 2017 at Besant Hill School in Ojai, CA. With this work, I wanted to engage in perhaps two artistic “guilty” pleasures of mine: pulse and light, and thus I also composed a lighting part for the piece which I aimed to have equal importance to that of the live performers. I wanted to observe what would happen musically, visually, and overall aesthetically if I lay my two “guilty” pleasures out in the open, with minimal tactile material yet perhaps maximal capacity for interaction and synergy. I therefore hope that through exploring such a minimal yet boundless interaction, I am able to truly uncover what is less and what is more.