Work (year), instrumentation

Silver Willow (2023) for 8ch

  • DescriptionBLACK the 10 is a theatre work for Wavefield Synthesis based on the collaboration of Argentinean painter Luis Tomasello (1915-2014) and poet Julio Cortázar (1914-1984). Negro el 10 is a booklet of ten serigraphs by Tomasello with ten stanzas by Cortázar for each serigraph. The prints are photos of Tomasello’s works from his Lumière Noire, acrylic on wood. Tomasello’s work relies on relief abstract qualities—forms are made from planes and squares. Many works comprise a single plane with slots cut to create a feeling of depth. From a few techniques, a vast array of effects are found in his work: edges of volumes and planes form features, the thickness varies—causing the surface to undulate, shadows are cast and move in accordance with the illumination of the shapes. Cortázar’s evocative poem brings many of these effects to life, dancing between physical qualities of the paintings and abstract conceptualism that the works exude. Cortázar’s prose is often situated in non-linear time, this cyclical nature is reflected in both the paintings and poetry. My theatrical portrait adds my own imaginary sonic tapestry to Tomasello and Cortázar’s work. text goes here

  • Description text goes here

    My time moves on in a spiral.

    The spiral limits my landscape,

    leaves what is past in the shadows

    and makes me advance

    full of doubts.

    The work is based on the passage of mutable sound: fragile fluctuations in layers of sound are sent along paths that develop and change over time. This 20 minute continuous work develops the flux and flow of time, how we experience imperceptible changes, and how sound can travel through a labyrinth passage to come out changed on the other side. The audience is a static observer, while the sound moves and changes--sometimes by close frequency shifts, other times by the interaction of loudspeakers and instruments. It is meant to place the viewer in a perceptive and observational state of mind as the sound advances, full of doubts.

  • for two sustaining instruments (amplification optional) and whirly tube players (audience on stage)

    Aeolian Duo is a work designed to create a large wind-harp. inspired by a fascination I have with naturally occurring wind-harps, when I hear one, I usually record and document the event.

    The score is both strict and free. It is wriDen for two sustaining instruments. The instruments must be able to create sustained tones that shiE in pitch and amplitude (so, naturally, no piano). The wind tube players are amplitude followers. half follow Instrument 1 and half others follow Instrument 2 (see tech rider). The wind tube players are purely reacting to the amplitude changes of their respective Instrument leader, so they are an extension of what their instrument leader is doing. Their reaction time will be slightly delayed, and this is how the piece is written and should be.

    score excerpt

for instrument duo

  • for bray harp, electronics, and transduced pedal harp* commissioned by Gaudeamus for Michela Amici

    In 2018 I had the privilege of organizing a performance of Debussy’s rare “Chansons de Bilitis” for two harps, two flutes, celeste, and speaker (I was the speaker).1 After the performance I was interested in “tableau vivant,” French for “living picture.” By way of the French interest in ancient Greece during the early 1900s, plus a resurgence of interest in Harry Partch’s work, I too became enamored with ideas surrounding Sappho and ancient Greece. This resulting work is saturated with theatricality; made to conjure the blend of poetry, theatre, and music. It also centers on fragmentation, silences, etc.

    This work creates a speaking instrument(s) out of by-standing harps. With the help of transducers, one (or two) harps are transformed into their own aeolian objects—making music on their own. The small bray harp is amplified through a harp that resides on stage either to the right and/or left side of the performer.*

    *If there is no access to another harp(s) a version of this work can be performed with two loudspeakers, although the theatricality and concept of the work will be greatly diminished.

    I use Anne Carson’s translation of Sappho, If not, winter. Carson writes:

    Sappho was a musician. Her poetry is lyric, that is, composed to be sung to the lyre. She addresses her lyre in one of her poems (fr.118) and frequently mentions music, songs, and singing. Ancient vase painters depict her with her instrument. later writers ascribe to her three musical inventions: that of the plectron, an instrument for picking the lyre (Suda); that of the pektis, a particular kind of lyre;...and the mixolydian mode, an emotional mode also used by the tragic poets, who learned it from Sappho. All Sappho’s music is lost.

    The movements follow three fragments of Sappho’s poetry:

    i. fr. 118 yes! radiant lyre speak to me // become a voice

    ii. fr. 51 I don’t know what to do // two states of mind in me

    iii. fr. 147 someone will remember us // I say // even in another time

bray harp, electronics, and transduced pedal harp

  • Description text goes here

  • Mixed messages is an interactive sound experiment based on the tension between technology, communication, and human interaction. This semi-improvisatory, modular, sound collage has two parts. Part I runs through eight messages and builds layers by recording recorded and live sounds; streaming undercurrents from past massages as well as new techniques. As the messages progress, the recordings become more distorted; recording on top of recording, resulting in feedback, disintegration, and degradation of the message. The installation consists of cassette recordings placed throughout the audience. The audience can control which players are sounding at any given time by an on/off foot switch.

    During the first part, I ask my audience to record messages on a portable tape recording during the performance. Part II is a live manipulation of the first half messages. In each half, eventually the tape loops, answering machines, violin, and voice change, degrade, dissolve, and modify.

    The performance allows for audience members to consider their role in the performance; allowing for a rumination on non-verbal communication, and the degradation of message through technology.