1. Rapture
2. Reverie
3. Romance
4. Passage

In Four Reflections, I hoped to explore a compositional framework different from that of my first carillon work, Nine Vignettes for Carillon (2020). Whereas Nine Vignettes was a set of variations on a single motif, I wanted fewer and longer movements in Four Reflections to permit slightly more development of their core musical ideas. Each of its first three movements was conceived to reflect a distinct pathos, a salient aspect of the human experience.

I. Rapture

To evoke the pathos of intense bliss and excitement, Rapture employs a rhythmic motif consisting of pairs of rising eighth notes. Punctuated by rests, these gestures form longer melodic arcs over distinctive 3+3+2 beats in the pedals. A brief percussive passage (measures 8–10) leads to an interlude (mm.11–13) of three longer recursive phrases whose shifting harmonic color carries the music far from its D minor origins. The ensuing four measures (mm.15–18, dolce e cantabile) continue this harmonic wanderlust while staying true to the opening rhythmic motif. During this brief moment, the listener can simply enjoy: the melody levitates without the weight of excess energy or agitation.

The theme returns in measure 20, in A major. The familiar percussive passage and accompanying interlude follow, but they are now infused with more urgent intensity and lead up to a climax (m.29) with emphatic descending phrases above the 3+3+2 beats. Here the D pedal point is not a return to D minor, but the supertonic to the C major in which this movement ends, somewhat abruptly and without fanfare.

II. Reverie

Constructed upon an unfamiliar meter of 8+4+3 note groupings, Reverie seeks to evoke the pathos of dreams, of being lost in thought. The melody appears at first on the manual, punctuated by single notes (G) on the pedals. Other notes appear only as ornaments (mm.39, 41); however, they soon gain musical significance as short gestures and phrases. After a rather austere beginning with a modal harmonic character, the music veers, if only for a brief moment, into more colorful and involved harmonic territory (mm.44–49).

As in Rapture, there is an energetic recapitulation: the theme returns, still carrying the 8+4+3 pattern and bearing almost imperceptible changes (mm.51–52). By now, the pedal notes have coalesced into more potent five-note phrases. Towards the end, as the 8+4+3 theme loses itself in repetition on the manual, the pedal completes its stealthy transformation into a near-complete facsimile of the opening melody.

III. Romance

With a pathos of love and devotion, this movement presented an opportunity to compose, unabashedly, for a simple and beautiful sound. The long, segmented melody floats and turns like a ribbon buoyed by gentle breezes. In measure 69, a second "ribbon" joins in, creating an interplay that continues through the end of the movement. Their entanglement sparks ample moments of collision and dissonance (mm.69–78); in the carillon's middle and upper registers, they create a gentle and magical aura of sound.

The two voices echo one another (m.80) as they emerge from a brief void in a foreshadowing of the ending: Returning to the calm contentment of the movement's beginning, the voices become images of each other, juxtaposed into a single expression (mm.84–88) that drifts up and tapers off into a sweet and lingering silence.

IV. Passage

The listener might, by now, be looking for signs of unifying elements that tie these disparate movements into a coherent work. This is because none has appeared so far, unlike in Nine Vignettes where the "BACH" motif pervades every phrase. Four Reflections is an experiment in a different approach: Instead of presenting a fourth movement about another distinct pathos, I aimed, in the concluding act, to deliver a sort of musical surprise. After a brief prologue, the listener comes upon a realization (m. 95) that the preceding motifs and melodies actually fit together as a musical whole. The levitating theme from Romance; the 8+4+3 melody from Reverie; and the paired upward eighth notes and the dissonant percussive passages from Rapture – they are variously concatenated and layered together to form a self-contained movement, a musical manifestation of a journey. Yet the result is not program music in its stricter sense, as here there is no overt storytelling. Passage speaks instead of a temporal dimension, connoting one's experience of the passage of time, rich in the pathos that I had sought, with music, to paint.

—Joseph Fong, March 2023