“…and it gave a lovely light,” or Ruminations of the shadow self (2020)
two hand drums, prepared kick drum, and tape
commissioned by and dedicated to Amanda Sealock
premiered virtually by Amanda, May 13, 2020, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Program Note
"All of life is wager... I feel I've burnt the candle at both ends and it gave a lovely light." – Christopher Hitchens, reflecting at the end on the nature of his existence.
When considering the repressed aspects of a subject’s identity, the Swiss philosopher Carl Jung conceived the shadow self. “The shadow,” Jung wrote in Aion (1951), “is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality… To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.”