The concept for this piece comes from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a collection of words invented by John Koenig that “aims to fill a hole in the [English] language—to give a name to emotions we all might experience but don’t yet have a word for.” The title for this piece comes from the definition for “ambedo.”

This piece was premiered by Liz Karney, McKayla Philips, Nick Martinez, and Lauren Molloy at the 2018 So Percussion Summer Institute Princeton PhD Concert, and is dedicated to them.

ambedo

n. a kind of melancholic trance in which you become completely absorbed in vivid sensory details—raindrops skittering down a window, tall trees leaning in the wind, clouds of cream swirling in your coffee—which leads to a dawning awareness of the haunting fragility of life, a mood whose only known cure is the vuvuzela.

Read more of John Koenig’s beautiful definitions at dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com