Olivia Davis

“Steeped”

”Steeped” is a personal reflection and response to the time that we live in, including but not limited to the pandemic that has flipped “normal” upside down, and a political and social climate in the United States that have done the same. The concept of steeping ó whether it be tea or something else entirely — as a representation for these situations surrounding us acts as the catalyst for this piece's inspiration. Each movement's title draws from more traditional Italian musical terms, while playing on the meanings of each of those terms in a way that corresponds to “steeping” situations in my world. The piece begins with an impromptu — not unlike how our pandemic began, in addition to its sharing similarities with the responses to social and political movements (however, those had been ‘steeping’ for much longer prior). The second movement is full of constant motion, a literal representation of the mental stress and exhaustion I can speak to having felt throughout the pandemic as well as in response to political and social events. The final movement is a cadenza, which not only plays with the traditional structural placement of a cadenza (now it is ending a piece), implying that we are not truly finished with any of the aforementioned situations — we are only so far going — but allows the performer to contextualize the Self in all that has been happening and beyond, as cadenzas truly are about the individual. The ending — regardless of which ending the performer chooses (as there are multiple endings I have given the performer to choose from), is meandering and somewhat lost (as I have sometimes felt during this last year); it is expressionist; it is exhausted, yet there is potential for and yearning for hope and betterment. —Olivia Davis

“Steeped” was generously and jointly commissioned by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society (Philadelphia, PA) & Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music (Boonville, CA)