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Spinning Zone

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.

Spring Tides

Spring Tides, scored for amplified Pierrot Ensemble (fl, cl, vln, vc, pno) was called '...a rich and evocation of the power of nature..." by the New York Times

Spring Tides, scored for amplified Pierrot Ensemble (fl, cl, vln, vc, pno) and interactive electronics, was inspired by the pull of the moon and sun on the flow of the tides, highest when the moon and sun are directly lined up with the earth. The very highest, or spring tides, occur when the moon is either full or new, and the gravitational pull of moon and the sun are combined. In Spring Tides this process animates the pull between acoustic and electronic sound, between controlled improvisation and exactly specified elements, between slow and surging motion, and between shifting fields of timbre and pitch. Spring Tides was commissioned by and is dedicated to Da Capo Chamber Players.

Spuyten Duyvil

Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center.

Stairway Fragments

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

Star Chant

Premiere: Electronic Music Marathon, Center for the Visual Arts (Boulder, CO), November 8, 1986. Work is an arrangement of the third movement of the composer’s Series Two (1976), for solo Bb clarinet.

Star Map

Star Map (2014) is an electroacoustic piece for flute and quadraphonic playback that is inspired by the Forsyth Petroglyph, a rock with carvings that was first discovered in Forsyth County, Georgia in the early 1800s. The carvings consist of circles and other designs that are thought to be astronomical in nature, representing the constellations Draco, Scorpio, and a fragmenting comet. A comet event occurred around 3300 BC, and the carvings may represent this event due to the presence of other symbols that could be interpreted as the Cosmic Crocodile from Mayan mythology, which was decapitated, leading to a massive flood. The comet impact of 3300 BC caused tsunamis that destroyed coastal civilizations of the time.

The piece is in three sections: the first features the constellations Scorpio, Draco and Sagittarius, and more specifically, the red giant star Antares in the Scorpio constellation (evoked by the drones and flute centered around the pitches B and C) and x-ray flares sent out by the constellation Sagittarius. The second section illustrates the comet breaking into fragments, and the manipulated recorded flute signifies our perspective of time. The third section returns to the environment of constellations from the first section.

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