What is beauty for you? I know what it is for me…sometimes (2024), prepared bass, 8 min
Silver Willow (2023), 8ch
BLACK the 10 (2022), 10 min, Wavefield Synthesis/8 channel reduction
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
Aeolian Duo (2022), 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.
Tableau Vivant (2022), for bray harp, electronics, and transduced pedal harp* commissioned by Gaudeamus for Michela Amici
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
home movie 01421126 (2021)
Soundtrack to home movie 0141126 from the Prelinger Archive. For stereo and film.
Land of Fertile Fields (2021)
A collaborative soundtrack to "Land of Fertile Fields" from the Preliger Archive for New Music Gathering. Soundtrack: Leslee Smucker, violin Ting Lou, piano Paul Safar, piano, melodica, percussion