Browse Items (868 total)

• Heliacal Rising

  An interactive acoustic piece for pianist, Disklavier, and Max.
  
  Heliacal Rising (2015), from the Greek heliakōs, is the rising of a star or celestial object while or just before being obscured by the sun. I approached this second interactive player piano piece with a similar set of processes but a very different mindset, focusing more on texture and expression.

• Alphabet for solo percussion and fixed electronics

  Alphabet for solo percussion and fixed electronics is a flexible multi-movement work for a single percussion instrument and fixed electronics comprised of that instrument. Each short movement is based on a letter of the alphabet.
  
  As of December 2015, “X” for snare and “T” for bowed cymbal are complete. Scores are available from the composer.

• Big Gizmo

  computer-assisted composition and computer-generated sounds (additive synthesis) produced with DISSCO
  
  Big Gizmo is a computer-assisted (algorithmic) composition using additive synthesis sounds. It was produced with DISSCO, original software for composition and sound design developed at the Computer Music Project of the UIUC Experimental Music Studios and Argonne National Laboratory. It is also a manifold composition: the total duration of the piece, the durations of sections and events, their start times as well as various characteristics of the sounds (spectrum, frequency, loudness, modulations, spatialization, reverberation, etc.) depend on random selections within set limits. Multiple runs produce multiple variants of the same structure, a family or a class of compositions whose members are equally valid.

• GATES

  Eight channel acousmatic composition awarded First Prize in the 2014 ASCAP/SEAMUS Student Commission Competition.
  
  Completed in 2013, GATES is an electroacoustic composition that was partly inspired by the Pleiades constellation. A musical mapping of an image of the constellation occurs in the middle and at the conclusion of the composition. One can hear this depiction in the “wood block” timbres. This representation of Pleiades relates to a passage from Ignatius Loyola’s autobiography, St. Ignatius’ Own Story as Told to Luiz Gonzalez de Camara (1555).
  
  It was his [Ignatius’] greatest consolation to gaze upon the heavens and stars, which he often did, and for long stretches at a time, because when doing so he felt within himself a powerful urge to be serving our Lord.
  
  (From A Commentary on Saint Ignatius’ Rules for the Discernment Of Spirits, Jules J. Toner, 1979.)
  
  I chanced upon this unique passage after an evening of stargazing. Initially, I did not think much of it, but re-evaluated the occasion after unintentionally opening to the following passage in Vladimir Solovyov’s essay, “Nationality from a Moral Point of View” (1895). … “the Spanish genius Ignatius Loyola founded the order of the Jesuits for the struggle with Protestantism on peaceful grounds” (Ed. & Trans. Wozniuk). Following this discovery, and seeing as it was one of two mentions of Ignatius in Solovyov’s entire collection of essays, I resolved to use the musical mapping of the constellation as a central and unifying element in this composition. The title refers to the use of noise gates during the creative process. Bending string and brass timbres, time stretched voice, and layers of filtered noise contribute to the drama of this composition. The composer is grateful for the assistance of the many musicians who participated in recording sessions that were utilized in this composition; especially Chicago-based musician, Tyler Beach, for his valuable insights and session performances on the acoustic and electric guitars.

• Stairway Fragments

  Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello, Piano, Fixed Media

• Weav-Weav-Weaving for harp and interactive electronics

  Three movement work for harp, electronics, and motion sensor inspired by the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay

• Heterogeneous

  This piece is an expression of the duality of human beings, torn between desire and solitude.
  
  This piece is an expression of the duality of human beings, torn between desire and solitude. The bigger the desire becomes, the tougher the solitary confinement of our minds becomes. The marble in a glass plate and a large closed door in the piece represent desire and solitude respectively. The marble slowly rolls towards the desire. It rolls faster and faster–and louder and louder–but cannot depart from the confines of the plate. The marble stands before solitude. When solitude vanishes, the marble rolls again. The closed door is human solitude. The door is attempted to be prized open but remains shut still. It is pushed against more strongly, to the point of being dented. The door groans in pain. It still remains shut as if being full from within. It defies any entrant. The marble and the door are unified in their isolation. Self-confined space is sad.

• the calling

  In this work, the flute and live sound processing are threaded together seamlessly to create rich textures of multiple sonic stories, performed by a single performer on stage. The composer/performer recorded all the sounds from many parts of the world: street vendors in Kyoto, an ancient On-Matsuri festival in Nara, construction sites, coffee shops, the Humpback whales of Alaska as well as glaciers calving are manipulated by the flutist in real-time. This open-structured work reinvents itself in every new performance and recording.

• Traces/Huellas

  Centered around the story of the “hero’s quest” (inspired by Joseph Campbell’s writings on the subject) this open-structured, five-movement quadraphonic work relays the musical journey of a hero and her inner/outer struggles.

• Convexed Origins

  for moving flutist and pre-recorded electronic part
  
  Influenced by the movement of traditional Noh actors, Convexed Origins links ancient Japanese gestures as both sound and movement. This is a summoning to one’s ancestors through the simplicity of line, shape and texture of sound and body. The pre-recorded electronic part dictates the form, the flute outlines the body and the movement extends the boundaries of the music.