Mundaka

However many high-minded philosophical conceptions may precede the fact, once a particular tone row enters the voices of any actual material instruments: all bets are off. Music itself - even when attached to a specific text - can communicate no certain logical meaning to anyone, beyond what the auditor may imagine out of their own experience. This slender piece was composed right up to the last possible moment using an oboe in one of the voices; and beautiful as the instrument is, I swapped it out for a Bb Clarinet at the end, because the ensemble as a whole was just too d**ned bright.

For the uninitiated, the Mundaka Upanishad is one of the noblest and most ancient Hindu scriptures:

"Brahman is supreme; he is self-luminous, he is beyond all thought. Subtler than the subtlest is he, farther than the farthest, nearer than the nearest. He resides in the lotus of the heart of every being."