Commissioned by the Golden Williams Duo (Diana Golden, cello, and Greg Williams, viola)

Made possible (in part) with public funds from the Queens Arts Fund, a re-grant program supported by New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by New York Foundation for the Arts. Premiered on June 28th, 2026 at The Brownson Center at Maple Grove Cemetery, Queens, NY.

Copyright © 2026 by Nick Revel (BMI)

Total duration: ca. 7 minutes Instrumentation: viola and cello This is a score in C

Program Notes

Global climate change is often associated with the severe devastation experienced by other countries over the last decade, from catastrophic fooding and landslides to debilitating drought. Living in New York City, I've had the privilege of feeling personally sheltered from these impacts. Yet, nature's fury spares no one. Even in Queens, NY, my home for the past ffteen years, climate change is now a palpable danger. Flooding routinely cripples our neighborhoods, subway system, and sewage infrastructure, and each year brings new record-high foods claiming more lives, usually directly in people's homes. The encroachment of rising sea levels on NYC real estate is a grim inevitability. Mother nature is enraged, and her lifeblood—water—threatens to drown us.

Dedicated to those who have suffered catastrophic loss from a major weather disaster, this composition follows an emotional arc that begins immediately after the loss and traces the stages of grief. The work simultaneously refects the loss of environmental stability through increasingly dissonant intervals between the two voices and incorporates a variety of unpredictable, chaotic- sounding improvised techniques—such as col legno, pitchless ricochet hits, glissandi, and overpressure—to depict the resulting chaos and profound loss.