Pelagic
Posted on 1 January 2008 | Comments Off
2007
Pelagic, for Wind Ensemble is inspired, as many works are, by the ocean. Pelagic is meant to portray images of the sea in various states. Although there is no program for the order of these states, definite moments of calm and rough seas are apparent throughout the work. The word pelagic means “open ocean.”
Pelagic was composed with the aid of athenaCL, a algorithmic composition tool, by Arriza. Pelagic is part of the continued experimentation by the composer using weighted interval sets as a means of organizing pitch.
The Feel of May
Posted on 1 January 2008 | Comments Off
2007
- Premiere: Student Composer’s Concert, Champaign, IL 11.13.2007 – Smith Recital Hall
The Feel of May, for solo bassoon, commissioned by Stephanie Koher.
While reading poetry I came across several lines concerning the passing of time and how specific times of year have a “feel” to them. This notion of a perceived “feel” intrigued me, because, while I can associate with having these feelings, I am also aware that I am sometimes (it seems like most of the time) too busy to notice what is going on around me. After making these connections I have found myself making greater efforts to “take in” my surroundings, and to not let the simple beauties around me become a blur, as if being passed in a speeding car. This is not always easy or even possible. In fact, there is now something similar to a tug of war going on within me at all times: one side wants to take all necessary steps to see that the business of life remains in order, and the other desires even the briefest respite in which to essentially “stop and smell the roses.” While the month of May is arbitrary (it is merely the month in which my journey began), this tug of war, or tension and release, is the premise behind The Feel of May. Wanting to slow down and experience life and then being sucked back into the unpleasantly necessary business is something we can all relate to. Hopefully life will allow us a few more breaks in the future so we don’t miss the beauty which surrounds us.
Concept Drawing No. 1
Posted on 28 February 2007 | Comments Off
2005
Concept Drawing No. 1 was approached with two goals in mind, to follow a strict set of rules governing pitch, rhythm, and texture and to have an aurally pleasant result. Some of the rules consist of maintaining an almost constant running 16th note, that there will be no “non-chord” tones, the work will progressively become more complex (for the most part), and that each measure’s harmonic identity will be determined by the rolling of dice. To this end, I first composed ten sonorities; some of these were traditional in construction and others I composed as a situation based rule. For example, this sonority will be the same as the last sonority “chosen” except with these changes… like adding or removing intervals from the “fundamental” of the sonority. I then proceeded to roll and 12d for the “fundamental” pitch class and a 10d for the sonority for every measure of the work, a number that I obtained by multiplying the results of two rolls of a 20d. So, aside from a trip to the local gaming store, the completion of this piece required the analysis of the derived materials for the best possible route to the double bar.
Grey Departure
Posted on 1 January 2007 | Comments Off
2007
Grey Departure, for string quartet derived from String Quartet No. 1, which is the result of a fascination with two differing sources: the compositional process of Iannis Xenakis and Morton Feldman’s characteristic slow evolution of material. As such, Grey Departure and String Quartet No. 1 are explorations of the use of stochastics in the compositional process and slowly evolving materials. Aside from these aspects and an attempt to stretch the possibilities of the program MusicGen (a compositional aid), a strict algorithmic process was followed. This process centered around a trajectory that mapped overall density, intervallic content, and note duration.
Grey Departure, a truncated version of String Quartet No. 1, was created for the purpose of furthering performance possibilities.
Pantheod
Posted on 1 January 2007 | Comments Off
2006
- Premiere: Daniel Swilley, Conductor-Graduate Composition Recital, Atlanta, GA, 2.24.2007 – Kopleff Recital Hall.
- Recorded: Daniel Swilley – Conductor-GSU SCI Student Chapter CD In with the New vol. 2, 12.2006 (mvnt I.Zephyr)
Pantheod, for chamber ensemble(10) – draws inspiration primarily from John Keats’s poem Song of Four Faeries. The titular faeries, named Salamander, Zephyr, Dusketha, and Breama, are each associated with an element in Keat’s poem and throughout mythology: Salamander to Fire, Zephry to Air, Dusketha to Earth, and Breama to Water. Pantheod’s four movements are a portrayal of these faeries/elements. Because of the differing characteristics of each faery and element each movement is approached differently in terms of pitch, rhythm, texture, and time. The first movement Zephyr (wind) utilizes overlapping augmented triads for pitch material, non-retrogradable rhythms, and is mostly aleatoric. All of these choices were made to emphasize vastness, fluidity, and a sense of unendingness. The subsequent movements follow this notion of characterizing the faeries and elements.
Pantheod’s title is derived from a manipulation of the word pantheon, which is a monument or temple dedicated to all gods of a religion, or in this case Keats’s faeries and their associate elements.
The instrumentation for Pantheod is an expansion of the instrumentation of Stravinsky’s L’histoire du Soldat (The Soldier’s Tale), with additions (flute, horn, and viola) to balance each family of instruments.
Pantheod was composed with the aid of the computer programs MusicGen and AthenaCL.
The Song of Four Faeries by John Keats:
SALAMANDER.
HAPPY, happy glowing fire!
ZEPHYR.
Fragrant air! delicious light!
DUSKETHA.
Let me to my glooms retire!
BREAMA.
I to green-weed rivers bright!
SALAMANDER.
Happy, happy glowing fire!
Dazzling bowers of soft retire,
Ever let my nourish’d wing,
Like a bat’s, still wandering,
Faintless fan your fiery spaces,
Spirit sole in deadly places.
In unhaunted roar and blaze,
Open eyes that never daze,
Let me see the myriad shapes
Of men, and beasts, and fish, and apes,
Portray’d in many a fiery den,
And wrought by spumy bitumen.
On the deep intenser roof,
Arched every way aloof,
Let me breathe upon their skies,
And anger their live tapestries;
Free from cold, and every care,
Of chilly rain, and shivering air.
ZEPHYR.
Spirit of Fire! away! away!
Or your very roundelay
Will sear my plumage newly budded
From its quilled sheath, all studded
With the self-same dews that fell
On the May-grown Asphodel.
Spirit of Fire–away! away!
BREAMA.
Spirit of Fire–away! away!
Zephyr, blue-eyed Faery, turn,
And see my cool sedge-bury’d urn,
Where it rests its mossy brim
‘Mid water-mint and cresses dim;
And the flowers, in sweet troubles,
Lift their eyes above the bubbles,
Like our Queen, when she would please
To sleep, and Oberon will teaze.
Love me, blue-eyed Faery, true!
Soothly I am sick for you.
ZEPHYR.
Gentle Breama! by the first
Violet young nature nurst,
I will bathe myself with thee,
So you sometimes follow me
To my home, far, far, in west,
Beyond the nimble-wheeled quest
Of the golden-browed sun:
Come with me, o’er tops of trees,
To my fragrant palaces,
Where they ever floating are
Beneath the cherish of a star
Call’d Vesper, who with silver veil
Ever hides his brilliance pale,
Ever gently-drows’d doth keep
Twilight for the Fayes to sleep.
Fear not that your watery hair
Will thirst in drouthy ringlets there;
Clouds of stored summer rains
Thou shalt taste, before the stains
Of the mountain soil they take,
And too unlucent for thee make.
I love thee, crystal Faery, true!
Sooth I am as sick for you!
SALAMANDER.
Out, ye aguish Faeries, out!
Chilly lovers, what a rout
Keep ye with your frozen breath,
Colder than the mortal death.
Adder-eyed Dusketha, speak,
Shall we leave these, and go seek
In the earth’s wide entrails old
Couches warm as their’s are cold?
O for a fiery gloom and thee,
Dusketha, so enchantingly
Freckle-wing’d and lizard-sided!
DUSKETHA.
By thee, Sprite, will I be guided!
I care not for cold or heat;
Frost and flame, or sparks, or sleet,
To my essence are the same;–
But I honour more the flame.
Sprite of Fire, I follow thee
Wheresoever it may be,
To the torrid spouts and fountains,
Underneath earth-quaked mountains;
Or, at thy supreme desire,
Touch the very pulse of fire
With my bare unlidded eyes.
SALAMANDER.
Sweet Dusketha! paradise!
Off, ye icy Spirits, fly!
Frosty creatures of the sky!
DUSKETHA.
Breathe upon them, fiery sprite!
ZEPHYR AND BREAMA.
Away! away to our delight!
SALAMANDER.
Go, feed on icicles, while we
Bedded in tongue-flames will be.
DUSKETHA.
Lead me to those feverous glooms,
Sprite of Fire!
BREAMA.
Me to the blooms,
Blue-eyed Zephyr, of those flowers
Far in the west where the May-cloud lowers;
And the beams of still Vesper, when winds are all wist,
Are shed thro’ the rain and the milder mist,
And twilight your floating bowers.
Shadowed Moon
Posted on 1 January 2007 | Comments Off
2006
- Premiere: SCI Student Chapter concert, Atlanta, GA, 12.8.2006 – Kopleff Recital Hall
Shadowed Moon, for 2-channel electronic playback – draws both structural and programmatic inspiration from Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. In a loose sense Shadowed Moon is a condensed commentary on Dark Side…, there is a section inspired by each track of the album, and as an arbitrary structural scheme every section of Shadowed Moon is proportional to it associate track on Pink Floyd’s album. Shadowed Moon is meant to convey a ominous mood toward the non-musical themes of money, greed, time, etc.
This work was used as a laboratory for exploration of time scale expansion, spectral enveloping, and frequency modulation. Shadowed Moon was produced with the Csound software synthesis system with the aid of CMask.
String Quartet No. 1
Posted on 1 January 2007 | Comments Off
2006
String Quartet No. 1 is the result of a fascination with two differing sources: the compositional process of Iannis Xenakis and Morton Feldman’s characteristic slow evolution of material. As such, String Quartet No. 1 is an exploration of the use of stochastics in the compositional process and slowly evolving materials. Aside from these aspects and an attempt to stretch the possibilities of the program MusicGen (a compositional aid), a strict algorithmic process was followed. This process centered around a trajectory that mapped overall density, intervallic content, and note duration.
Trope
Posted on 1 January 2007 | Comments Off
2006
- Premiere: SCI Student Chapter concert, Atlanta, GA, 12.8.2006 – Kopleff Recital Hall
Trope, for 2-channel electronic playback – was an exercise in the manipulation of speech and nonsense syllables. Trope was approach like a work for choir while focusing on the use of canon, cascading entrances, small bursts of sound, and equal division of the octave into ten.
A trope is a word or phrase interpolated as an embellishment in the sung parts of certain medieval liturgies.
Trope was created using the Csound software synthesis system with emphasis on the pvoc family of opcodes.