Browse Items (868 total)

• Anticenter Stream: Composition, Old Stars

  Anticenter Stream, composition: Old Stars was written in collaboration with astronomer Jeff Carlin, who's research focuses on the streams of stars left behind by these dwarf galaxies when they venture too close to our much more massive Milky Way galaxy. One of these streams, known as the Anticenter Stream, was thought to be part of a much larger ring of stars, but Jeff has shown that it is likely a distinct entity. This discovery adds to our understanding of how large galaxies like the Milky Way are built up over time. Kemper’s composition, Anticenter Stream, composition: Old Stars is a meditation on Carlin’s research as well as astronomy’s role in explaining the construction of the universe.

• Mystification

  Mystification is an exploration of the juxtaposition between simplicity/complexity, consonance/dissonance, and clarity/distortion. This piece consists of two contradictory trajectories. The acoustic instruments move from a highly complex and dissonant texture to a relatively simple and consonant one. At the same time, the computer processing begins by simply amplifying the instruments. Over the course of the piece the computer begins to alter the sounds of the instruments, processing them with increasing complexity. The result is a kind of mirror form with different versions of simplicity/complexity, consonance/dissonance, and clarity/distortion at either end.

• At the Crossing of Five Paths

  At the Crossing of Five Paths consists of five connected short pieces for flute which have been fragmented and rearranged, connected by processed flute sounds. The rearrangement of these elements produces a non-linear temporal experience. All of the elements of a progression remain, but their reordering forces the listener to reconstruct the original linear progression of the pieces after the sound has stopped.

  At the Crossing of Five Paths represents a journey from complexity to simplicity. As the original pieces (in their original order) move from low to high, dissonant to consonant, and rapid to slow, the listener is left with a high, mysterious melody that recedes into the distance. The confusion caused by the fragmentation of these different pieces falls away as a decision is made and a path is chosen.

  This piece was finished in 2008 and written for Wayla Chambo.

• Neoga

• Carcinoma

• Earth

• Back and Forth

• Hirondelle

  Composed for choreographer Ellenore Scott’s eponymous dance piece. Premiered 30 October 2015 at Whitman Theater, Brooklyn College.

• Harmonibots

  A sonic and kinetic installation of harmonica-playing inflatable sculptures

• White/Waves