Browse Items (868 total)

• The Mirror of Enigma

  The Mirror of Enigma (2004/2008) interprets antiphonal form in relation to the programmatic idea of an enigmatic mirror—a mirror that reveals a coexistent space in which behaviors and meanings appear in mysterious relations. There are three movements. The first, “Videmus nunc per Speculum in Aenigmate” — we see now through a mirror in an enigma, presents an initial confrontation with the enigmatic mirror. In the second movement, Images Fugitives, reflections take flight within the mirror, then in the concluding movement, Transfiguration and Ecstasy, the reflections are mysteriously transfigured and attain a state of ecstasy. The electroacoustic sounds are created from recombining transformed spectra of harp tones, as well as from samples of the instruments played in the acoustic ensemble.

• The Mind is its Own Beautiful Prisoner

  This piece was inspired by an e.e. cummings poem of the same name. The poem is told through the voice of a man who has lost his lover and covers various themes such as loss, betrayal, paradoxical dichotomy and mental self-imprisonment. I wanted to explore some of these ideas in my own music and set out to do so using the wind quintet. The piece consists of a harmonic progression that is presented roughly five times throughout the piece with the ultimate goal being to present it as a clear homogeneous unit, however, it is only heard clearly in the final section of the work. The wind players present the progression through angular, jagged melodic figures throughout the rest of the piece, sometimes working together and other times working against one another. The electronics act as a constant antagonist, always adding layers to disrupt the wind players or add a distant layer of complexity that serves to disrupt their motion toward group singularity. The quintet represents the idea of self-imprisonment – a single unit that is constantly seeking solidarity and individuality of the component parts – while the electronics represent the idea of the lost lover – a distant and completely autonomous entity within the framework which remains completely unaffected by the acoustic element. It is simultaneously a self-contained voice and an interacting medium that only serves to disrupt any attempts the quintet makes toward their ultimate goal.

• The Lightning Field

  The Lightning Field for baritone, bass clarinet, trumpet, bass trombone, and computer was written for the loadbang ensemble with text by poet, Anne Shaw. The Lightning Field is a land-art work in the western high desert of New Mexico by Walter De Maria. The work consists of 400 stainless steel poles sticking out of the earth in the shape of a grid. The poetry was written during a trip to view the work.  The overriding concepts at play during the compositional process were isolation and introspection. This work is the fifth collaboration between myself and Anne Shaw.

  The four seamless movements track various emotional states that Anne encountered while walking through the field and writing. The third movement exhibits a numerical connection with the original land-art. The first 400 unique words of the poetry were recorded and are played at random creating a murmuring texture above the ensemble. The harmonic material likewise was put through process of my own design, which involves pitch set evolution as opposed to variation. The final movement features Anne’s own voice reading a letter about her time spent at the field while viewing the piece.

• The Lament of Kamuela

  A full length musical/dramatic work with an original lyrics and libretto by the composer.

• The Hostage

  Musical, scored for live Yamaha DSR-2000 synthesizer
  
  University of Denver Theatre Program commission. Composed as a musical to the 1958 Brendan Behan play. A variety of song and dance numbers plus a 30-minute, electronically-sequenced prelude and interlude. Opened at the University of Denver, May 12, 1988, Susan Romaine Tobiska, Director; Composer, synthesizer. Also available is a 2:37 prelude excerpt plus a recording on synthesizer by the composer of selected songs.

• The Gate

  The Gate was conceived in conceptual collaboration with dancer and choreographer Ashley Bowman. Ashley and I had been speaking for a few years about writing a piece for string quartet and electronics for the specific purpose of being choreographed. Since the first piece we had ever worked together on was In My Mother’s Garden, we decided to revive the garden theme for this piece as well. As such, The Gate is a programmatic journey through gardens. However, these gardens do not merely consist of flowers and plants. The journey takes place as if in a dream where the rules of reality, while present, can be bent, broken, and completely disregarded. The settings and situations are based on my own reoccurring dreams.

  The journey begins with the character in a “labyrinth” or maze garden. Tall hedges prevent any sense of bearings. The journey consists of decisions en route to the middle of the labyrinth. Once the character has reached the middle, they find “the gate.” A decision of whether or not to pass through it looms and is musically represented by a chord which will return in fixed pitch and register assertion; a chord that presents a question. The character passes through the gate which leads downward; underground.

  The character is immediately ensnared by many vines, aggressively pulling the character downwards. At first, out of shock, the character does not struggle. Then, when their fate is realized, the character begins their attempts to escape. The vines will not release. The clash becomes more violent. Fear pervades the character. Not only do they see their doomed fate before them but, they are battling an opponent completely foreign; an opponent without logic or reason. After many escape attempts (represented musically by the first violin), the character, exhausted and ready to submit to the end, makes one final attempt to break free and does so. Now, a chase in dark tunnels ensues. Just as the vines are about to assail the character, the character leaps out of reach and into space, suspended, without knowing what lays before them.

  The character wakes in a room, the first garden, empty except for objects hanging from the ceiling. No section of ceiling is exposed as pieces of wood, metal, and glass are suspended in a close grid resembling wind chimes. The character begins to explore the space, apprehensive at first and then more playfully. They touch some objects at one end of the room which creates a wave effect throughout the space. A hole in the floor opens revealing clear, blue water. The character jumps in.

  The second garden, an underwater garden, is cultivated by its inhabitants; fish, crustaceans, rays, etc. Though the character is human, they possess the ability to breathe underwater and swim effortlessly. The character dances among the surroundings while sunlight streams down from the surface.

  Just as in the dreams, the surroundings immediately change. The final garden is that of memories. The character finds themselves in a dark empty room with many flickering projections of memories. Home sick and alone, in a unfamiliar place, the character yearns for the security of home. Musically, the movement is almost completely made up of a single sonority.

  The character sees emotional memories and starts looking for a way out of this garden. In this search, hints of the vines return. Suddenly, the room lights up and the character is surrounded by the vines. The chase begins.

  The final iteration of the question chord appears and unlike the previous occurrences, it is now resolved. The resolution is built from the same sonority of the third garden. The sonority of memories of home become the sonority of home as the character escapes and returns back to reality; waking from a dream.

  The Gate

  I. labyrinth
  II. down the rabbit hole
  III. Garden I: suspended from the ceiling
  IV. Garden II: light below the surface
  V. Garden III: memories on the walls and on the floor
  VI. in pursuit

• The Floating Bridge of Dreams (夢浮橋)

  (SCORE AND FULL RECORDING AVAILABLE BY REQUEST – jacob.sudol@gmail.com) 

  The Floating Bridge of Dreams (夢浮橋) is the fourth and final piece of a cycle of works for solo string instruments for live electronics based upon chapters from the Japanese novel Tale of the Genji. The work takes its title from the last chapter of the novel and, like the last three pieces of the cycle, it is based on the unresolved relationships and cycles of desires and disappointment that form the emotional core to the later Uji chapters. Following this constantly progressing yet cyclical form, this movement contains multiple transformations of materials from the previous pieces in the cycle as well as suddenly introduces and leaves unresolved multiple new transitional materials.

  The work was written for the violinist Mari Kimura and who premiered it at the Miami Beach Urban Studios as part of the ISCM New Music Miami Festival on March 20, 2015.

  Jacob David Sudol
  August 7, 2015
  Taipei, Taiwan

• 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.

• The Bringer of Life

  Performance Notes: The Bringer of Life is a programmatic composition representing the Panspermia Theory with musical elements. The sharp rhythms, dense textures, and freely chromatic harmonies are orchestrated in a manner that, in my mind, programmatically represents celestial bodies impacting our planet in it’s beginning stages billions of years past. This work should be performed aggressively, in strict time (no rubato), and with no breaks (rit) in between ‘sections.’ It might be helpful to imagine comets striking our planet’s surface when internalizing The Bringer of Life.

• The Bremen Town Musicians

  Concerto for Piano and Twelve Toy Double Structure with Narrator. Based on folk tale with solo pianoforte and various commercial toy instruments. Live recording from Spaulding Auditorium at Dartmouth College, October 31, 1971.