Text: Verse One of Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

trans. Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English

Featuring Matt Cook, Derek Stein, Argenta Walther, and Alex Wand

Darkness Within Darkness is a setting of Verse One of the Tao Te Ching. It is part of a series of compositions I have worked on for several years with the goal of setting to music the eighty one verses of the Tao Te Ching. My first encounter with the Tao Te Ching was in 2013 when on a music tour from Shanghai to Tibet with Wang Ping, a Chinese poet and writer. She introduced me to the book and has since encouraged my setting it to music. The piece features Harry Partch’s gourd tree, cloud chamber bowls, and adapted guitar I, as well as voices and cello. I hope to express the meaning of the text with the intonation and unique timbres of these instruments.

Verse One of Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, translated to English by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English.

Copyright 2011. Used by permission of Jane English, eheart.com.