Spectral Evidence, for percussion and piano, focuses on the stages of sleep and dream memory. “Spectral evidence was a form of evidence, based upon dreams and visions, accepted in court during the Salem Witch Trials. Spectral evidence was typically testimony given that an accused person’s spirit or spectral shape appeared to the witness in a dream while the accused person’s physical body was at another location” (wikipedia). This work is driven by the statistical occurrence of “non-steady-state” brain activity during the different stages of sleep. Brain activity such as Sleep Spindles and K-Complex are mapped to activity through the work. In addition, the “steady-state” brain waves during the different stages of sleep were considered when determining the overall evolution of density in the work.

Spectral Evidence was composed with the aid of GRACE, an algorithmic composition environment, by Taube. Spectral Evidence is an experiment in spectral composition, and is part of the continued experimentation by the composer in mapping the statistical occurrence of gestures over the course of a work. Spectral Evidence was commissioned by percussionist Caleb Herron.

2007

Pendent Trajectories  is one path that was taken. When started all aspects of the journey were undetermined or thought to be something that proved wrong. We allow intuition to guide us when plans fail or seem unimportant, and sometimes we find that which we did not seek.

2007

Reflection,  for solo piano was commissioned by Adam Scott Neal. This work is primarily concerned with the interaction of light and reflective surfaces. Reflection is characterized by the opening phrase of the work where a single pitch is played twice, a different pitch is played, and then the first is played again. Also, the notion of reflecting is observed in neighboring rolled figures where the first roll will go in one direction and the following will go in the opposite direction.

Reflection was composed with the aid of GRACE, an algorithmic composition environment, by Taube. Reflection is an experiment in mapping the statistical occurrence of gestures over the course of a work, and is part of the continued experimentation by the composer using weighted interval sets as a means of organizing pitch.

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.