Browse Items (868 total)

• Tacna Three

  6-MINUTE PIECE FOR VIOLA, LIVE ELECTRONICS, AND GLOVE CONTROLLER

• Take a Place in the Light

  Acousmatic Work

• TaleSpin

  TaleSpin was commissioned by the Montague/Mead Duo (Philip Mead, Piano & Stephen Montague, Electronics). It is a short musical fantasy, written in a quasi-romantic style. It has something of a program, too, whose subject may be evident from some of the section titles: Telltale, Hot Topic, Blissful Ignorance, Morning After Songs, Still Spinning, and Picking up the Pieces. Many of the electronic sounds are processed sounds recorded inside the piano, included stopped and bowed notes, plucked and struck notes, prepared notes, etc. In the outer fast sections, it is similar to a piano 4 hands piece, with the computer responsible for the middle two “hands.” The computer part is relatively simple and accompanimental, however, while that played by the performer – the outer two hands – is soloistic and quite virtuosic.

• terminal loop

• Test Pattern

• The Adventures of Norby

  When I was a child, one of my favorite books to read was a series of science fiction novels by Isaac Asimov entitled Norby, the Mixed-Up Robot. Although I remember very little of these books, the title character still holds a very sentimental part of my heart. In the books, Norby and his boy owner would travel the galaxy, inevitably get in to trouble, and somehow always manage to save the day. The Adventures of Norby (2007) is a theatrical work for piano and pre-recorded electronics that chronicles the exploits (unrelated to the novels) of Norby.

  The piece is very visual, and to be most effective, it must be seen in person, which I suppose makes it an unintentional statement on the societal obsession over recordings. During the piece, the pianist taps various parts of the case with his/her hands and fists, plays drumsticks on the floor, uses hard mallets inside the piano on the iron frame and the strings, and also improvises. The piece also blends several musical genres together.

• The Animus Winds

  The Animus Winds is a composition for flute and electroacoustic sound. Thematically, the composition explores an opposition of two perceptions: the sensual experience of wind against a personification of wind as a supernatural force. The electroacoustic sound recolors and reshapes recordings of wind and flutes, such that flutes take on characteristics of the wind, and wind takes on both musical and vocal qualities. There is also a dramatic schema, in which the flute takes the role of a person who is at times drawn into the natural spirit of the wind, and at other times strongly confronts its more hostile animus.

• The Blind Owl

• 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.

• 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.