The Infinite Recursion of Joy
(parts 1 and 2)
Brad Garton (with Terry Pender and Gregory Taylor), 2/2009
This was a particularly good trip, complete with terrific news from son Daniel. I drove under a crystal-blue sky, and the rolling hills of western Virginia tempted me to take a slight "short cut" along some smaller roads parallel to route 29. It was good to be alive right then.
As I was driving, I put on a recording I had made playing with friends Gregory Taylor and Terry Pender in our PGT improvisation ensemble. At one point during the playback, my iPod hit a section where we had collectively constructed a passage that seemed to me, well... joyous. A feeling of intense elation enveloped me that built upon itself, combining with the wonderful day. It was good to be alive.
I recall thinking "wow, if I had to name this as a separate piece of music, I would call it The Infinite Recursion of Joy!" because that's how it was. I glanced down at the track/time information with an idea that somehow I would use this in a future piece.
A few weeks ago (I write this on February 20, 2009) I was
learning a new mixing program and exercising some software
I had written, and I thought again of that happy experience. The
problem was that when I went back to find the passage of my
memory, I found two different sections that I thought may
have been what I heard. Neither of them corresponded to the timing
information I remembered. So I decided to use both segments
in two compositions, and here they are: