Famous Last Words was commissioned by Redshift Music Society through the generosity of the Canada Council for the Arts, written for Tiresias Duo: flutist Mark Takeshi McGregor and pianist Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa, to whom the work is dedicated. Premiere was December 16, 2019, Pyatt Hall, Vancouver, “The Aphotic Zone”; Famous Last Words was the first piece on the concert, performed as lights were gradually lowered until audience and players were in darkness. An object onstage can be lit from different angles, changing appearance according to the direction of the light. So too the “frozen” rising and falling notes of the harmonic series, which appear to change depending on the surrounding harmonies established by the flute and piano part. Text is an assemblage by the composer taken from last words of people approaching death, beginning with words related to a perceived dimming of the light. Text (in order): Wolfgang Johann Goethe (1749-1832 ), Gerrit Achterberg (1905-1962), Alexander Adam (1741-1809), Noah Webster (1758-1843), Gideon Blackburn (1772-1838), Aya McGregor (1944-2007), Charles Burney (1726-1814), Jakob Böhme (1575-1624), Kaz Iwaasa (1918-1982), John Abernathy (1764-1831), Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), Peter Abelard (1079-1142),Yukio Mishima (1925-1970), Marie Bashkirtseff (1858-1884), Murray Adaskin (1906-2002).
