Strange Loop
Dedicated to Maestro Otto Tausk and the Indomitable Musicians of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra on their 100th Anniversary. Thank-you so much to Marnie Carter for funding the writing of Strange Loop,
which was the final piece that I wrote in my residency with the VSO; written in 2019
and premiered June 11, 2019, by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra under Otto Tausk,
at Vancouver’s Orpheum Theatre.

Program Note:

The concept of a “strange loop” – where despite apparently moving upwards or downwards, one nonetheless
ends up where they started – was first developed by Douglas Hofstadter in his book Gödel, Escher, Bach.

The concept can easily be viewed in a picture of an Ouroboros (a snake eating its own tail) or any number
of Escher drawings, for example, one of his continuous staircases that one could climb forever…

For myself, I viewed it as a whimsical and fun/frenetic way to approach the idea of “Here we are, at the end
of 100 years, and at the beginning of 100 years!”