PPROM (2018) by Joey Brink

Composed and performed by Joey Brink on May 26, 2018 at the Rockefeller Carillon New Music Festival, University of Chicago. This recording is made by Christopher Willis, recording engineer, of the premier performance.

At 32 weeks into pregnancy, my partner “PPROM-ed”, and we spent the next nine days in the antepartum unit of the hospital waiting for our baby to arrive. Uncertainty and anxiety dominated our thoughts, mixed in with terror, boredom, excitement, and an overwhelming feeling of unpreparedness - we were supposed to still have 7 weeks to figure all this out. Yet we were glad to be spending so much time together - playing games, watching movies, receiving visitors, and brainstorming names for our boy/girl to be, wondering what he/she will be like.

PPROM is a reflection on these 9 days in the hospital. The first movement is contemplative, exploring the thoughts that permeated my sleeplessness late at night. A resonant voice and the click of a bicycle chain accompany descending arpeggios on the carillon.

The second movement depicts our daily routine in the hospital: waiting, passing time, listening to the ultrasound, anxiously evaluating the baby’s heartbeat. Waiting for a change. Thinking there is a change, but then no, we’re still waiting. Taking a look again in a few hours. Repeating daily. The pulsing, rhythmic carillon part is accompanied by sounds that have been burned into my mind: a ticking clock, heart rate beeps, and the ultrasound machine.