“What I possess in my consciousness is for me. ‘I’ is this void, the receptacle for anything and everything, that for which everything exists and which stores everything within itself. Every human being is an entire world of representations buried in the night of the ‘I.’ The ‘I’ is thus the universal in which abstraction is made from everything particular, but in which at the same time everything lies shrouded. It is therefore not a merely abstract universality, but a universality that contains everything within itself.”

–G.W.F. Hegel

this piece was written to satisfy a (both academic and personal) requirement in my senior percussion recital at the University of Central Florida. it was written during a time where i was facing my final semester of my Bachelors and witnessing a metamorphosis of self; this was, incidentally, also a time where i was at an intersection of philosophies. i had picked up a knack for Hegel, as well as the films of Francois Truffaut, Jacques Tati, and Jean-Luc Godard, but i had also began reading the words of the Buddha. this resulted in an ablation of my “self,” as i saw it. if had earlier presumed that the self does not exist, this presumption was validated by the dialectical theory i had consumed. i reconciled the lack of a self with the unity of community, this piece being an extant listing of my findings, in a self-aware hybrid play/musical performance format.

the concerto is for solo percussionist, who plays snare drum, zarb, sings, and plays the stage itself, amongst other improvisatory acts. accompanying the soloist is three percussionists, and an actor, who plays the part of “The Self,” a personification and literal embodiment of the concept of a “self.” throughout a prologue, three movements, and an epilogue, the troupe explores change, leaving home (and your legacy thereafter), and identity.

"we join our performers as they first encounter each other, colleagues and already lifelong friends. they begin a journey through themselves and the world around them; namely, they explore how relationships define us, and how change affect us all. ...how change can inspire us, deplete us, scare us, temper us, and what it means to will your own change. this, this moment is their meditation... on their nature, our nature.”