Life Studies is based on a recording of Helen Vendler reading Shakespeare's sonnet number 65 ("Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea") that was released on a CD accompanying her inspiring book The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets (Belknap Press, 1999). I transformed the recording using granular synthesis and comb filters that ring out in response to the varying rhythm and inflection of her reading. In the resulting composition a steady pulse becomes the background for a more gradual and multi-layered development. The first movement traverses the entire sonnet and the method of transformation changes phrase by phrase. In the second movement the poem's first couplet is expanded to last almost eight minutes. Although the identity of the original recording as a spoken text is heavily veiled, the human music of Vendler's voice and Shakespeare's words shines out from the mechanical surface of the piece to reflect the metaphorical paradox of bright love shining in the black ink of the poem.

date: 2004
duration: 13:00
premiere: June 1, 2004, New York, NY, Friends & Enemies of New Music.