Flashbulb|Proximity

instrumentation: piano quintet (violin, viola, violoncello, double bass, and piano)
duration: c. 12’00”
dedication: to Allison, for love, comfort, and support
premiere: March 18th, 2019 by Fifth House Ensemble; 2019 RED NOTE New Music Festival-Normal, IL

A "flashbulb memory," or an "exceptionally vivid 'snapshot' of the moment and circumstances in which a piece of surprising and consequential news was heard." There are three central factors in determining the impressionability of this type of autobiographical memory: importance and distinctiveness of the event, consequentiality and surprise, and proximity and personal involvement.
 Flashbulb|Proximity
demonstrates these factors through material that is heard and unheard. Sound unexpectedly flickers in and out of focus to depict a similar stream of constant consciousness tethered by moments of intense clarity followed by the fogginess of false recollections. 