I began this piece shortly after seeing the finale of LOST, a television show that I watched faithfully throughout its six-season run. One of the many mysterious plot points in the series was a set of numbers – 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 – that recurred in a variety of circumstances, and whose significance was never entirely explained. This set of numbers formed the basis for much of the harmonic and rhythmic material in this piece, and gave the work its title. Of course, you don’t have to know this connection, or the series, in order to enjoy the music, which was informed by my thoughts about certain aspects of LOST, but is otherwise not connected in any way with the show, or Michael Giacchino’s masterful musical score for it.
