Listen for free on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/zaq-latino/graspinginfinity-for-solo-piano
 
Program Notes:
graspinginFINity takes its name from the phenomenal Ada ​Limón​ poem, ​The Noisiness of Sleep​.
The first stanza reads as follows...
Careful of what I carry
In my head and in my hollow
I’ve been a long time worried about ​grasping infinity
and coaxing some calm
out of the softest part
of the pins and needles
of me.
 
Even now as I cite this stanza I have tears in my eyes​—this is my favorite poem I have ever heard. This idea of forever grasping for something just out of reach, or grasping for the everything that is all around us, clung to me and loosely inspired the composition of this piece, not in terms of programaticism but in ideal, in feeling. The repeating parts are never exactly the same upon their return; there is something always dynamic, shifting, and evolving within this music. Originally written for the Sigma Alpha Iota Piano Composition Competition in 2018, this piece has remained in my performance repertoire and is one of the few pieces of my own I can [attempt to] play. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, and thank you for listening and/or playing.