THE SOUND OF ETERNITY: TEMPORAL STILLNESS AND FLUIDITY IN JONATHAN HARVEY’S ...TOWARDS A PURE LAND; AND AN ORIGINAL COMPOSITION, AGNOSTIC AMBIGUITIES, FOR SEVEN MUSICIANS

My foremost research objective in this paper is to analyze the compositional techniques used to manipulate time to create a transcendental listening experience in Jonathan Harvey’s ...towards a pure land, and my research involves examining how Harvey’s work plays with time by embracing stillness, fluidity, and the cyclical nature of form. Beyond music, the Buddhist ideas in the piece include impermanence, emptiness, samsara, and the eternal present, and these philosophical and religious ideas suggest a temporal experience that moves beyond Western classical music’s linear conception of time, where both linear and non-linear times coexist.In the first chapter, Harvey’s writings and his belief system will be discussed in depth. In Chapter 2, the role of the Ensemble of Eternal Sound will be analyzed in terms of how it plays a strategic and functional role. In Chapters 3 and 4, the temporal fluidity and stillness, and the “arch form with developments” will be the center of the discussion. In Chapter 5, I will conclude by addressing the more significant issues surrounding time outside of Buddhism, emphasizing the ideas of presentism and eternalism.