Commission by percussionist Daniel Heagney and premiered at Hampden Sydney College in Virginia on February 9, 2015.
The genesis of Thought Echoes was a quotation by David Pogue, the host of the popular US television series “NOVA.” A segment of the show dealt with the future of mindreading through examination of the EPOC headset, a device developed by Emotiv Lifescience that uses sensors to pick up electrical signals produced by the brain to detect user thoughts. Pogue soon discovered that the system is not necessarily mindreading, but must be trained to recognize the user’s brainwave patterns when thinking about basic commands. Since the system uses sensors on the scalp, a userʼs brainwave signal becomes weaker as it travels to the surface of the scalp. After discovering how the device works, his response was, “So they’re not thoughts. It’s not mindreading. It’s like the echo of neural activity deep in my brain?” I found the imagery of “the echo of neural activity deep in my brain” to be interesting and profound. I also discovered that echoes of brain activity have been researched in other studies. While using fMRI scanners, scientist have found that patterns of neural activity within a particular region of the brain observed during a concentration task are still present in a resting state, even 24 hours later. It reminded me of the concentrative process of creating a new work, which leaves musical ideas perpetually echoing through my head.
