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Solis Overture

This is an overture to my opera Pedr Solis, though the instrumentation is quite different.

Though atypical in many ways, this piece is in fact an overture for my upcoming opera, titled Pedr Solis. For one thing, it will probably never be heard in front of the opera as the instrumentation is quite different. It was also written before the opera, and thus acts as more of a sketch pad than a summation of primary themes. The material types and the melodic fragment toward the end of this piece do play key roles in the larger work however, which had been under development for some time when the overture was composed.

The opera chronicles the fictionalized tale of an actual Norwegian author, Pedr Solis, whose work was best known in Scandinavia during the 60s and 70s. Solis wrote only two novels, the most famous of which is Stillaset, published in 1970. It is perhaps the most extreme example of literary modernism to emerge from Norway, and, as with many of his writings, takes literary modernism itself on as a subtext. A third, still unpublished novel was apparently well underway when Solis disappeared from the public eye. Many speculate that he isolated himself in the far north of Norway, though this was never officially confirmed. The libretto for the opera, by Paul Schick, draws upon this account of Solis’ life, as well as von Hofmannsthal’s play The Tower.

The melodic fragment heard toward the end of the overture in the strings is a modified version of a traditional Finnish song reminiscent of a joik, the traditional song form of the Sami people of northern Scandinavia. The song is Kuu kulta kivestä nousit as performed by Me Naiset. Regarding the electronics, though all the instruments are amplified their sound receives no further processing. The piece does include electronic sounds though, all of which are pre-recorded and played back by laptop onstage.

This piece is dedicated to Wild Rumpus.

Solis-EA

The percussion is accompanied by a virtual 8-string instrument with LOTS of feedback and distortion.

The electronics for Solis-EA are organized around a physical model of an 8 stringed instrument capable of producing a huge amount of distortion and internal feedback. This instrument responds to the material played by the percussionist, attempting to track the pitch of these sometimes “unpitched” instruments as best it can.

The piece is loosely inspired by the novel Stillaset Brandt, by the Norwegian author Pedr Solis. Having created several other pieces that are tightly connected with the principle (unnamed) character in the novel, Solis-EA is more concerned with the author himself, his unusual and dichotomous life, and his mysterious disappearance (or tragic end, depending on which biographer you read).

This piece is dedicated to Ryan Packard

Wood Machine Music

This piece is an exercise in distortion and overpressure. The string quartet is processed, while the clarinet and percussion are merely amplified.

Though the term noise describes a wide variety of sonic terrains, my interest is with what might best be described as disrupted resonance and distortion. The piece is made up of three basic material types, the most significant of which is the opening sound bed. This is expressed in the strings through various types of overpressure, on the clarinet with multiphonics, and in the percussion as grinding wood against metal. Though each of these techniques results in a certain level of unpredictability, the actions undertaken by the performers are highly prescribed. The second material type involves the contrapuntal use of pitch, and the third, percussive effects distributed across the various instruments. Each of these material types has its own developmental trajectory. It is these trajectories, along with the interaction between the material types, which guides the piece through its various distinct and cyclical sections.

Wood Machine Music is dedicated to the Callithumpian Consort.

Of Dust and Sand

This piece uses the Electromagnetically-Prepared Piano, a device co-created by the composer. The electromagnets vibrate the piano strings while the performer attempts to manually dampen them. Releasing that damping results in a note.

Of Dust and Sand uses the Electromagnetically-Prepared Piano device, a rack of 12 electromagnets which is suspended over the strings of a piano. Each electromagnet is sent an audio signal and in turn excites its respective string, much like a stereo speaker made from piano strings. In this piece a subset of the magnets remains active throughout, the performer physically silencing the strings by pressing down with fingertips. Thus the instrument becomes a kind of anti-piano – lifting a finger frees a string to vibrate, producing sound. In addition, various items, such as paper and a plastic ruler, rest directly on the strings further altering the timbre. Remember – everything you hear is entirely acoustic.

While working on this piece I was deeply immersed in the novel Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann. The title is in part drawn from an image that recurs throughout the novel, that of the hourglass of mortality, which Mann in turn drew from the etchings of Albrecht Dürer. The material of the piece is connected with the novel, though in ways so tenuous as to escape relevance.

Of Dust and Sand is dedicated to The Kenners.

(NOTE – the two channels specified above are for optional -but recommended- amplification of the piano and saxophone)

Monument III: Charleston, Summer of 2015

Two movements for wind ensemble and live electronics, dedicated as a tribute and memorial to the nine men and women murdered in an act of racist terrorism while at prayer in Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina in June 2015.

Browse Items (868 total)

Solis Overture

Solis-EA

Wood Machine Music

Of Dust and Sand

Monument III: Charleston, Summer of 2015

Pentecost

Four Songs from The Caucasian Chalk Circle

Queen of Heaven

Patriot Missile

Recombinant Serenade