Browse Items (868 total)
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Irrational Rationalities
Irrational Rationalities (2015) is loosely inspired by Alvin Loving’s painting Rational Irrationalism (1969).Loving was a cubist painter who concentrated on spatial illusionism, and at first glance, his painting appears to be a series of simple hexagonal shapes intertwined with each other. However, upon closer examination, one begins to see the irrational nature of the work, as none of the lines actually create completed shapes. Much like an M. C. Escher print, a line that at first appears to be the top of a shape is later seen as the bottom, or the side. The lines in Loving’s painting interact with each other and themselves, creating a series of illogical geometric shapes.
Irrational Rationalities explores a similar play but from the opposite direction. The piece is comprised of three distinct thematic ideas, all of which are perfectly rational in isolation: an invented folk tune; weaving polyrhythmic polyphony; and violent – almost cubist – chords. These three thematic ideas are then irrationally layered upon each other and taken out of context, challenging the notion of passive listening.
Irrational Rationalities was commissioned by and written for ensemble mise-en.
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JJ Pop
Uses as source material songs of Jon Appleton’s son JJ Appleton, a singer-songwriter in NYC. -
Kamuela (Return to Waimea)
Bregman Electronic Music Studio, Source material is choral selections from the composer’s opera ‘The Lament of Kamuela.’ Choir conducted by Melinda O’Neal. -
Kapingamarangi
Live Synclavier recorded January 12, 1980. -
Kungsgatan 8
The first computer music composition produced at Elektronmusikstudion Stockholm then located on Kungsgatan 8. -
Latency in the System
A 5-track set of algorithmically generated electronica.
Uses RTcmix embedded in Max/MSP and controlled with a tether. Recordings, code, and more information at the project website above. -
Let's celebrate our corpse-strewn future!
“For what is so grotesquely reduced is, in a sense, liberated from its meaning—its tininess being the outstanding thing about it. It is both a whole (that is, complete) and a fragment (so tiny, the wrong scale).” – Susan Sontag, Under the Sign of Saturn
Let’s celebrate our corpse strewn future! was composed for Brendan Fitzgerald and Wooden Cities in the summer of 2015.