JOHN LIBERATORE
composer

Down the Garden Path was commissioned by Musical Chairs Chamber Ensemble after their 2019 composer search to commemorate the ensemble’s 15-year run.  The work grows from a small rhythmic kernel, which through constant repositioning, branches in many unexpected directions.

 

The title has several meanings, both literal and figurative.  First, to be “led down the garden path” is an idiom that means to be fooled or tricked, a meaning that suits the mischievous, puckish quality of the piece.  I think of the piece as something like a game, but one that deceives the player, like a puzzle that, when put together, creates something unexpected.  Perhaps I was drawn to the idea of games because the commissioning ensemble is named after a party game—an unpredictable game that rewards quick reflexes.

 

At the same time, the structure of the piece (less so the content) reminds me of the architecture of Japanese promenade gardens—a design concept called “miegakure,” or “hide and reveal.” As a visitor walks down a winding path, certain objects and vistas come into view.  The path guides the eye of the viewer.  It curates the experience of the garden, hiding and revealing the garden’s content.  Often, much of the content occurs naturally: a stream that flows from a pond, an assemblage of mossy rocks, or a tangle of roots.  But while these elements are not constructed, the path offers a way of looking at what’s already there.  In this way, this piece is something like a garden path.  The materials of the piece undergo little transformation, but depending on how they’re arranged, they coalesce into some very different objects and situations.

 

—John Liberatore