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In Ictu Oculi Three meditations (2017)
In Ictu Oculi is another work forming part of a current cycle of works that have the idea of Momento Mori, or Vanitas and memorial, at their centre. Such concepts provide an underlying tension to a growing number of works in my output. This particular piece, (the meaning of the title being in the blink of an eye), is an extended meditation upon the transience of time and that all things come to an end – tempus edax rerum, be they cultures, individuals or civilisations. The notion of journey is important here and the formal architecture it employs utilises metaphors of labyrinth (a single, but convoluted through-route) and maze (a pathway with many branches, choices of path and dead-ends) in negotiating its musical structures.
The work runs continuously without a break, though it is articulated by the following titled sections:
Ubi sunt qui ante nos fuerunt? [Where are those who were before us?]
Stele I [A marker stone, slab or column decorated with figures or commemorative inscriptions, common in prehistory]
Ozymandian fallacy
Stele II
Timor mortis conturbat me [the fear of death dismays me]
* * * * * * * *
Hoc in memoria mea avia.
© 2017 K.Hesketh