“When I was a child, people used to talk about what would happen by the year 02000. For the next thirty years they kept talking about what would happen by the year 02000, and now no one mentions a future date at all. The future has been shrinking by one year per year for my entire life. I think it is time for us to start a long-term project that gets people thinking past the mental barrier of an ever-shortening future. I would like to propose a large (think Stonehenge) mechanical clock, powered by seasonal temperature changes. It ticks once a year, bongs once a century, and the cuckoo comes out every millennium.” — Daniel Hillis

I was reading about the Clock of the Long Now, and I tried to imagine this huge machine chiming in a distant future, for the first time in centuries. Who would be listening to these sounds? What would they hear? And what future would they be dreaming of?

Harp
Percussion (1 player): glockenspiel, vibraphone, bass drum

6’

Commissioned by and written for Remy van Kesteren and Ramon Lormans.

March 23, 2015 in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam by Remy van Kesteren and Ramon Lormans.

Available for purchase from Deuss Music.