Browse Items (868 total)

• Dominant

• Swirling Sky

• Swirling Sea

• Flurry

• Biota

• Apparitions

• Coelacanth

  For Bass Trombone, Amplified Octet, and Responsive Electroacoustic Environment
  
  The bass trombone, in the foreground in Coelacanth, snakes through a landscape populated with brittle noise, buzzing tin foil, homemade rubber-band instruments, and bouncing Ping-Pong balls. Exploring extreme juxtapositions of noise versus pitch, density versus sparsity, and synchrony versus asynchrony, the piece is pervaded by a feeling of tension and disquiet. Like an oscillating spring–mass system, Coelacanth constantly seems to be losing energy, in danger of grinding to a halt, only to receive another push just in time to continue on a bit further. Central to the aesthetic of the work is an eight-foot suspended walnut-wood plank. The sound of this instrument, referred to by Greek composer Iannis Xenakis as a “simantra” in reference to an instrument of Byzantine and Eastern Orthodox providence, is rich in noise and high harmonic partials. These pitches, untangled from recordings of the instrument with the help of software, form the basis for the harmonic language of Coelacanth. Equally important to the work is the timbre of another unusual instrument, the bullroarer. Consisting of an airfoil swung around the head to produce an eerie buzzing noise, examples of suspected bullroarers have been found in caves in France dating from the Palaeolithic Era. The timbre of this instrument is explored in Coelacanth through software algorithms that translate the unmistakable pulsing drone of the bullroarer into chords that slowly transform as they disperse throughout the ensemble. Like the work’s namesake, Coelacanth is bony and awkward, but among all the sharp teeth and superfluous fins, a fearful beauty seems imminent.

• Bright Waves- piano solo

  Bright Waves is inspired by the concept of a luminescent ocean wave. In some tropical oceans, bioluminescent plankton (drifting organisms) in the water column glow when the sea is disturbed. A wave containing these microorganisms can be seen simultaneously on the micro and on the macro level; each individual swirl and eddy within the wave approximating a fractal (self-similar reproduction) of the wave as a whole. In Bright Waves, I use a series of dynamic loops and randomized delays to move musical material seamlessly between foreground and background. The slow rate of change, simple macro structure, and micro polyphony are meant to evoke the gathering, cresting, and chaotic breaking of a single powerful ocean wave.

• Bright Waves- percussion duet

  Bright Waves was inspired by the concept of a luminescent ocean wave. In some tropical oceans, bioluminescent plankton (drifting organisms) in the water column glow when the sea is disturbed. A wave containing these microorganisms can be seen simultaneously on the micro and on the macro level; each individual swirl and eddy within the wave approximating a fractal (self-similar reproduction) of the wave as a whole. In Bright Waves, I use a series of dynamic loops and randomized delays to move musical material seamlessly between foreground and background. The slow rate of change, simple macro structure, and micro polyphony are meant to evoke the gathering, cresting, and chaotic breaking of a single powerful ocean wave.

• Contrails

  Aus Liebe Will Mein Heiland Sterben
  
  

  The idea of a “contrail,” a trail left behind after something’s passing, is interpreted in several ways in this piece. The electronics serve as a “contrail” to the flute, capturing and sustaining certain resonant frequencies of the flute’s sound. The whole work is also a contrail of Bach’s aria, “Aus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben” from St. Matthew’s Passion, about the compassion of Christ’s self-sacrifice. Most of the material in this piece was derived from a spectral analysis of the aria. The compositional process involved using an original computer algorithm running in ACToolbox to “morph” smoothly between spectrally generated material and the original flute melody found in the aria. This interpolation occurs in nearly every parameter of the music (rhythm, pitch, dynamics, etc.). The effect is that one musical idea gradually recedes from the texture revealing a second idea hidden within or beneath it. As this patina dissolves, notes or phrases from the original aria are sometimes heard to emerge from the resonant, fluttering abyss from which the work begins.

  A stereo version of Contrails exists as well.