Browse Items (868 total)

• Ascension

  Ascension was originally composed in 1988 for Gary Hill and the UMKC Conservatory Wind Ensemble. It is dedicated to my college roommate Kenneth Wayne Hill, who was killed in action in the Persian Gulf in April, 1988, shortly before I was scheduled to begin this work. It is also lovingly dedicated to his family and to our mutual friends. Kenneth's volatile, hilarious, energetic, and complex personality formed the basis of my musical ideas, while my own emotional reactions to the news of his death and to the heroic and poignant events surrounding the last day of his life, which were released by the U.S. Marines only very slowly and ultimately in incomplete form, shaped the work's structure.

  Kenneth's life was often marked by tremendous obstacles, but my lasting memory of him is one of a spirit impossible to keep down. I imagine his life and his death as one grand ascension.

  The original version was composed using the technology of the day, primarily with synthesized sounds that were selected for their timbral similarity to those of the wind ensemble. In this new version, most of these sounds have been replaced with sampled sounds of various instruments, providing an even more integrated sonic environment. I am very much indebted to James Smart for suggesting this idea. In the process of putting the new accompaniment together, I also fixed several score errors, added some more audible cues, adjusted the score and the playback for more precise synchronization, and lengthened the opening gesture to aid synchronization.

• Phenomena

  Commissioned by the Fromm Foundation and written for pianist Anthony de Mare. Premiere performance March 14, 2007 in Kansas City, MO.

• Alter Ego for 'cello and Fixed Media: Homage á Hrothgar

  Alter Ego was written for my friend and colleague Carter Enyeart, who provided not only the idea behind the piece and its reason for being, but also the recorded sound material for the fixed media. Alter Ego combines a live instrumental performer with playback of organized and sculpted sounds taken from that same instrument. Hence the sound world of the performance remains that of the acoustic instrument, but the resulting piece enlarges that sound world with all the techniques that the digital medium provides.

  The combination of live performance with fixed playback provides the opportunity to explore the changing relationships between the two entities. The live performer is the focus, both visual and emotional, for the audience, while the sounds in the speakers serve as invisible accompanist. As with a human accompanist, there are opportunities for leading as well as supporting roles as the piece progresses. After an opening instrumental solo, the CD playback begins to “learn” what the ‘cellist is doing. Its contribution begins as subtle environmental ambience, then moves through harmonic/rhythmic accompaniment to real counterpoint and eventually independence. At this point the roles reverse (the alter ego comes to the fore), as the CD provides a short solo, then begins a different type of music which the live performer begins to “learn.” The finale features the most complete integration of the two elements and the most tightly knit music of the piece. By this point the roles are as equal and cooperative as possible.

  One other important note…in January of 2006 one of my most important mentors, Roger Hannay, passed away. I learned an enormous amount about composition, and especially about being a composer, from Roger, whose own alter ego, if he would allow me to characterize it that way, was ‘Hrothgar’, a Danish king from the Beowulf legends. Alter Ego is an homage, both to the man and to his music, with fond appreciation for both.

• Vox Metallica

  VOX METALLICA (2006), for fixed 2-channel digital media, uses a collection of recordings of non-singing sounds from several different voices, plus recordings of guitars, bass guitar, drum set, and organ as sound sources. Context being a critical part of our memory and pattern-recognition processes, Vox Metallica plays with familiar and non-familiar juxtapositions of elements from “classical” electro-acoustic and popular music. After all, it’s both a short walk, and a very long walk, from uptown to downtown…

• Voices: In Memoriam

  Written for pianists Leah Hokanson and Daniel Koppelman, and dedicated to the 343 New York City Firefighters who lost their lives in the attacks on 9/11/2001.

• Study for Vox Inhumana

  Study for Vox Inhumana (2000) is a brief exploration of the sound world that is to form the basis for a series of larger and varied works that combine vocal sounds (non-singing) with each other (tape compositions and works for vocal improvisation ensemble), with instruments, and with combinations of live vocal and instrumental sounds with both recorded and interactive computer elements. The human voice is the most varied instrument of all, and its rich soundfield has yet to be tapped fully – in fact it may never be. The sounds in this recording were produced and recorded by the composer, representing only one of thousands of vocal treasuries. The piece uses Csound and sound editing software to combine collage techniques with grooves and other devices. The structure is at times controlled and at times rhapsodic, reflecting the moods and bends of the creative (snapped) mind of its composer.

• Icarus Wept

  Icarus Wept is a five-movement work commissioned by Keith Benjamin for his trumpet and organ duo Clarion, with organist Melody Turnquist-Steed. This version of the work is for trumpet and tape only, with organ sounds on tape. It was funded by a Composers Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, “a federal agency”; therefore the original concept, involving full frontal nudity, had to be abandoned. The tape sounds are drawn from an impromptu recording session and brain fry in which we came up not only with trumpet sounds of all kinds but also with the formula for a partially androgynacious anodized serial copolymer (patent pending). We also recorded a wide variety of other sounds (e.g. Keith’s trumpet stand, swirling coins, laughter/vocal sounds, and various expletives). The title, Icarus Wept, was loosely inspired by the legendary flight of Icarus toward the sun and the sudden realization of the fatal mistake. Three movement titles reflect themes of Icarus or of the sky. Getting Waxed, Climbing the Blue Staircase (from a Native American Peyote Song), and Eleven Feet from the Sun. However, Somebody Else’s Face and the newly completed first movement, Strap on Your Lobster, have nothing to do with Icarus at all, or with weeping either, pretty much.

• TNT (Turetzky'n'Tape)

  In 1987 I saw Bert Turetzky perform Kenneth Gaburo’s ‘INSIDE’ and Tom Johnson’s ‘FAILING’ at a contemporary music festival. I remember hoping at the time that I would one day get the opportunity to write for Bert. I also remember being impressed not only with his bass playing but also with his ability to control the bass and his voice at the same time. When he asked me, some years later, to compose him a piece, I decided to incorporate vocal sounds into the fabric of the piece, though in a rather different way from the two pieces I had heard. As a result, TNT (Tureztky ‘N’ Tape) uses both vocal and bass sounds to make the tape part, and calls upon the performer to use both instrument and voice simultaneously, with extensive and intricate interaction between soloist and tape, especially in the rhythmic “groove” sections. In these, soloist and tape participate in the formation of, or improvisation over multi-layered grooves that might be at home in a jazz or latin sound. The tape part was constructed entirely of bass and vocal sounds, collected, edited, and mixed using Csound software on a NextStation computer. It was performed by Bert Turetzky as a work-in-progress in 1997, then revised, remixed, and completed for premiere performance by bassist Robert Black in Estonia in 2001, with a recording on the CDCM series.

• Into the Maelstrom

• Spontaneous Combustion

  Spontaneous Combustion (1991), was commissioned by and is dedicated
  to saxophonist Timothy Timmons, and is the ninth in a series of
  works that combine soloists with a computer-generated
  accompaniment that is comprised solely of sounds from the solo
  instrument. The effect is rather like a concerto for performer and
  him/her self, exhibiting all the dramatic relationships of any
  concerto, such as solo and “tutti” passages, changing relationships between the participants (leader, follower, antagonist, partner), etc.
  The saxophone sounds were recorded, edited, and stored on a 386 machine, manipulated and mixed using Csound software, and
  converted using Micro Technology Unlimited’s DS16 ADA
  converter.

  The title describes the volatile, unpredictable, and highly charged
  character of much of the piece, which is built on horizontal and
  vertical layerings of small ideas that interact and interlock to form
  a whole which is, I hope, greater than the sum of its parts.