The Night is Full of Dark Imaginings draws its inspiration from the kinds of existential thoughts I sometimes have at night. It is sobering to attempt to fathom our existence — that we live and die, that our loved ones live and die, and that our time is short.

My aim, however, is not to be gloomy or despairing. I intend only to confront the truth of the matter in an effort to better understand it, and to appeal to the shared experiences of others as listeners. As such, I attempt to convey some of the feelings I have had as a result of these thoughts. The feelings of mystery, uncertainty, resignation, anxiety, fear, terror, longing, and sadness are all present in the piece.

I also attempt to capture the way thoughts seem to move, change, and morph fluidly at the threshold between wakefulness and sleep. Waking thoughts, by comparison, seem much more solid and quantifiable. My choice to employ both proportional notation and traditional metric notation reflect this contrast.

Lastly, for this piece I am indebted to the composer Toru Takemitsu. I must credit him for the idea to use this style of proportional notation. More importantly, however, it is the elegance of his music, and the way it moves, which so inspired me.