Glass Flowers (2022, rev. 2023) is inspired by the Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants (colloquially known as "Glass Flowers") made by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka from the late 18th to the early 19th century. These models are indistinguishable from the real thing—the petals embody a gentle softness, the stems and leaves delicately fine and gossamer—the only indication of its unnaturalness being its resting place: on plaque-adorned, thick white boards housed in gently lit antique wooden cases. You peer at them, knowing it's glass, admiring every carefully manicured detail as it subtly reflects the light, relishing in its fragility. The longer you admire them though, the more the model grows and blossoms, and you soon forget that you are staring at a facsimile—the plant comes to life. Small details draw you in: tiny thorns on the stem of a rose, the fuzz on the roots of a water lily, the thread-like pistils on a Great St. Johnswort... and then you remember that all these impossibly tiny details, all these minutiae which we rarely notice in our lives, are made of glass. You're brought back to reality, or at the very least reminded of it, as you stand in awe of the craftsmanship of this glass flower——and then you move on to the next one. But that isn't what I find most beautiful about these flowers. The Glass Flowers were originally commissioned by Harvard as a learning tool, a resource for botany students to understand plants found around the world year-round in Cambridge, Massachusetts. These are permanent representations of the fleeting, lasting renditions of the impermanent. Yet, like real flowers, they wilt—centuries-old paint applied on these flowers contracts over time, slowly but surely cracking the brittle glass. Indiscriminate in its nature, time imparts life upon everything. Glass Flowers was written for Hub New Music with admiration, as part of the Philadelphia Student Composers Project.
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