Evanescence is the theme of the seven Jan Schreiber poems in this song cycle. Sound dies away, waves break, love fades, time passes. Schreiber’s poetry sings well; I have tried to honor that quality in my vocal writing, and to be especially aware of the inherently evanescent sound of the piano.
At the halfway point of Zeno’s Arrow is the fourth song, “Palindrome,” in which, unlike time, music and poetry both run forward and backward. It is a mirror that does not reflect, but through which we pass to the darker and more intimate emotions of the last three songs.
The seventh and final song, “Zeno,” refers to one of the famous paradoxes of that ancient Greek anti-evanescence philosopher. In this paradox (and the analogous one, Achilles and the Tortoise), Zeno tries to halt the passage of time. An arrow is shot. It flies half the distance to the bullseye, then half the remaining distance, then half of that, never quite arriving at the target, although we all know that it does.
Zeno’s Arrow was commissioned in honor of the 60th birthday of the poet Jan Schreiber, and premiered at a private concert in Lincoln, MA on September 8, 2001 by David Bender, tenor, accompanied by the composer. They performed it again at a concert of the Washington Square Contemporary Music Series at Merkin Hall in New York on March 26, 2003.