The odd title of this piece combines two elements. Of Observation and Experience is a placeholder title for works of mine that don’t immediately suggest a clever title.  The phrase likely popped into my head after reading too many books on psychology and philosophy. “Sowing Song” came about partly because of my poor spelling: I thought that sowing seeds and sewing a shirt were spelled the same way. I guess they are still homonyms, but I enjoyed an image that combines both acts of repair and planting for new growth. Oh well.  

Of Observation and Experience IV is based on an previously composed bit of orphaned material in need of a home, and has eight continuous sections: 

Incantation I
Lux Æterna I
Canto I: Hymnus
Canto II: Berceuse d’étoiles
Canto III: Psalmodia
Canto IV: Sowing Song
Incantation II: Waltz
Lux Æterna II

Incantation I begins with an ominous solo in the bass clarinet, perhaps representing an impartial observer who exists outside the central drama of the work. The sections titled Lux Æterna are based on a favorite chord of mine—a spacing of a chromatic hexachord which sounds oddly consonant, suggesting a logic beyond our comprehension.