Eternity in an hour is the second part of my orchestral cycle Time and Eternity. As the title (taken from a line in William Blake’s Auguries of Innocence) implies, I am interested in the paradoxical possibility that ‘eternity’ - an extraordinary state of ‘non-time’ - could exist and might sometimes suddenly appear within the flow of time, which defines our normal experience of being alive. I think that is what William Blake is getting at when he says: 

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower 
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand 
And Eternity in an hour 

Immensity contained within the minuscule, the emergence of the remarkable from the ordinary, the transcendence of the quotidian: Each line of the poem conveys the potential ecstasy of a shift in perception. Sometimes music can offer this too, but one can’t really deliberately put that into a piece of music. After all, any such perceptual shift depends more, I think, upon the state of the experiencer than the inherent qualities of the object of experience. It might happen, it might not. Like seeing a Kingfisher when you take a walk by the river. You just have to be in the right place at the right time, and keep your eyes (and ears) open. 

The other aspect of this piece is more existential. The other side of the coin I suppose. For some time I collaborated with writer Chris Goode on a possible opera. The libretto was to be based on verbatim material, interviews with people about their thoughts and feelings, their hopes, dreams and fears. I composed a number of scenes (for a trio of trios: three voices, three actors and an ensemble comprising flute, tuba, cello) and in June 2017 we had some initial workshops at the Coronet Theatre, Notting Hill. Finally, we decided not to take that material any further. Nevertheless, some of the scenes stuck in my head and I chose to re-work them here. The chorus ‘At the end of the day’ became movements II and IV, while the soprano aria ‘The omnipotent God’ became movement V. Though the new orchestrations are without singers, the ghosts of the words still hover behind the music. 

At the end of the day [source text for movements II and IV]

it is what it is at the end of the day 

it is what it is and there’s just no changing it

unless God can change them

angry’s not going to change it

Who am I going to be angry at? At the end of the day                                                who?  

The omnipotent God [source text for movement V]

all the stuff they tell you at school I mean the thing about the omnipotent God the one that watches you whatever you do I had in my mind translated       um        as a child         into                                                                      that there is kind of people with cameras in in the walls everywhere and that you’re constantly sort of on record and constantly on film.

By the time I               I was a teenager, I found that quite oppressive! I think that was the thing that really made me question it.                                                                                 You know, is this really Constantly feeling sc-...

                                              Under scrutiny             as it were.