Travis Laplante: The Golden Lock

“The compositional process of the Golden Lock began during October of 2021 at a nine-day artist residency in Maine at the School of 3 Lights: a school devoted to the training of artists’ inner muse. There were approximately 20 artists participating; choreographers, painters, poets, etc. all working in our own spaces but also coming together on a regular basis for conversation and performances. I was fortunate enough to be able to work in a small cottage and be in close proximity to my teacher during this time. I believe it was because of the energetic container of the residency that I was able to begin composing from a place of innocence and oneness, without my self-critical mind interfering as much as if we were at home. I felt vulnerable enough to compose simple melodies and harmonies without feeling the need to demonstrate technical skill to prove myself as a musician or to feel self-worth. Between October and now, composing The Golden Lock has been at the center of my creative practice. Part of my practice for this piece has been to play the harmonic/chordal parts over and over, and then when I’m too tired, play a recording of them on repeat, so I am living inside of them for many hours at a time. As I am living inside of the various harmonic motions, I wait for the melody to arrive. Sometimes this arrival literally happens in a moment with seemingly no effort, and at other times I have to wait many months, just listening to the harmony, trusting that there is a melody in the air somewhere but it has yet to be heard despite my best efforts. I have lived inside the harmonic currents of The Golden Lock for more hours than I care to admit, but I am happy that the melodies for the piece did all finally arrive, even though some waited until much closer to the first performance than my nervous system would have preferred. The piece began as seven distinct movements but as time progressed the movements began to communicate with each other, as if the composition itself was teaching me how to write it. The seven individual movements ended up marrying into one, while still maintaining some semblance of the initial structure. This process is congruent with the title of the piece which is from a Taoist Ode/esoteric acupuncture protocol (medical protocols and odes/songs used to not be considered separate from each other) that is said to be able to heal all the many diseases. In the ode, entitled The 12 points of the Starry Skies and Able to Heal All of the Many Diseases, it states that “the golden lock teaches us to snap it open.” This accurately describes my experience of how the composition has come to its current state.”

– Travis Laplante