This work began as an isolated melody, which is never stated in its entirety but which serves as the source of all material in the first movement. Each of the five distinct sections of the first movement deals with a different fragment of the melody. The movement is further motivated by its tuning, which is in turn also derived from this melody; the tuning sets up just intonation against the equal-tempered piano, allowing the thirds and sevenths of the melody to be heard in several colliding intonations.

The second movement further develops this tuning system through repetition of a new melody shaped to the tuning system’s nuances. With each statement of the melodic line, the rhythm is elongated in a different proportion and the pitch content becomes richer: it is stated first as a rhythm without notes attached, and eventually with the full microtonal potential of all retuned strings, each repetition slowly adding to the realm of pitches. Whereas the first movement uses all available notes for one very elongated statement of the melody, the second movement starts with few notes and adds more notes with each repetition.

Once these aspects of the form were set up, the compositional process was more fluid; each section was composed freely by ear within the constraints described above, and the boundaries between sections are occasionally somewhat blurred.

The first movement, Inventions, was premiered on July 2nd, 2015 at Big Barn in Putney, VT by Jin Young Yoon, Cara Pogossian, Noah Koh, and Nadia Azzi, coached by Ari Isaacman-Beck. A revised version was premiered on February 7th, 2016 at Fulton Recital Hall in Chicago, IL by Clara Lyon, Doyle Armbrust, Russel Rolen, and Ann Yi.

The second movement, Isorhythms, was premiered on June 22nd, 2016 at the Dublin School Auditorium in Dublin, NH by Hanna Hurwitz, Victor Lowrie, Mariel Roberts, and Steven Beck.

The full piece was premiered on November 21st , 2017 at Hatch Recital Hall in Rochester, NY by Shannon Leigh Reilly Steigerward, Sam Edwards, Rachel Rice, and Sean William Calhoun, conducted by Edo Frenkel.