Score

percussion quintet

6:00

While watching the waves curl and crash at Seal Beach one fall night, a blue-green explosion of light in the water caught my eye. The bioluminescent reaction of single-cell algae agitated by the breaking waves created a kaleidoscope of glowing patterns, blooming and disappearing in the froth. A fish darted near the surface in spastic S-curves, the light-trail betraying its secret path. Above the ocean, a half-moon wandered in and out of cloud thickets, sometimes casting its silvery light on the crests, and other times abandoning the water to its dark ways. And then, just as the tide began to push forward again, to heave its heavy shoulder once more into the sand: Look! the sea and everything in it glows.