Composer’s Note:

The title of the piece is a quote by Noam Chomsky, from an interview published on July 12, 20191. Chomsky was speaking about climate change, but when I read it I was immediately struck by the fact that the quote can be extrapolated and applied to just about everything going on in our nation and world today, from politics, socio-economics, and international military conflicts to the global rise of racism, nationalism, anti-semitism, and gender & sectarian violence.

Throughout much of the piece the ensemble plays in different spheres; not just in terms of physical space, but also in different meters and tempos. What emerges slowly over the course of time is that the heart of the piece is a virtuosic percussion solo; the percussion becomes the voice of Chomsky — and all of us — basically saying “Wake the %@ up! There isn’t much time!”

The Task Ahead Is Enormous, and There Is Not Much Time was written for [Switch~ Ensemble].