Composer’s Note:

Fasting Heart (1987), for solo flute, was inspired by the Taoist discipline “hsin chai.” As Professor Kaltenmark explains in his Lao and Taoism, this is a technique in which one transcends the act of listening with the heart (or mind) to listen with the breath (or soul). I sought to bridge these two. Fasting Heart opens with contemplative music that is twice interrupted by outbursts that suggest struggle before coming to rest in calm. Extended techniques combine timbres of the voice and flute. The opening, for example, involves quiet singing and humming into the instrument, as well as silent trilling that creates a fluttering effect. The flute resonates the sound in a warm and haunting way. Smaller pitch groups are aligned with this contemplative aspect, while more highly chromatic and registrally-torn music interrupts it. Fasting Heart was premiered by Judith Pearce and recorded by Patricia Spencer on her Narcissus and Kairos album on the Neuma label.