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161 Glass: Site Specific Music in an Artistic Context
The composition 161 Glass is a 17-minute musical work with percussion, wind and brass instruments in which the intersection of mid-century architecture, and the art and culture of a dynamic city are inextricably linked. Through this paper, I explore the process of composing a musical work in relationship to the significance of site specific context. The paper begins by defining the concept of site specific art works; then reviews the discourse of the intersection of art, music and architecture. I then delve into the cultural and geographic context surrounding this project from the modern era through the present, and how those perspectives apply to the building and my piece. I reveal how the composition relates the musical ideas to the site. Finally, I describe the collaborative process between myself, the musicians and the Dallas Contemporary staff.
Canonic Variations for Percussion and Orchestra
This work in three movements is written for piccolo, flute, alto flute in G, oboe, English horn in F, clarinet in Bb, bass clarinet in Bb, contrabass clarinet in Bb, bassoon, soprano saxophone in Bb, alto saxophine in Bb, horn in F, trumpet in Bb, six percussion, violins, violas, and violoncellos. The approximate duration is thirteen minutes. The rhythm of the piece is notated metrically and spatially. Movements I and III employ both types of notation, while movement II is strictly metric. Most of the percussion instruments used in the first movement are capable of sustaining very lengthy notes. Upon the release of these notes they have equally long, if not longer, decay times. As the aural residue of the envelopes dissipates, the strings and winds are used to extend the decay times. At the same time, the varying timbres provide subtle shifts in color, so that the overall effect is one of a very large instrument able to undergo a kin of internal, timbral metamorphosis. In diametrical contrast, the envelopes of movements II and III are compressed to the point of short, individual attacks.
The Fallow Ground: A Composition for Pierrot Ensemble with Percussion and Male Voice
The inspiration for The Fallow Ground is the time period of the Second Great Awakening (1790-1840s) and, in particular, the life and impact of one of the period's central figures: Charles Grandison Finney. Finney was a lawyer-turned-evangelist whose preaching style led to explosive and emotional conversions and helped spread the fire of revival throughout the state of New York and eventually throughout the country. In The Fallow Ground I have taken different events from Finney's life and the revivalist culture to create musical analogs that examine and critique the events within a twenty-first century musical aesthetic. Quotation and allusion of revival period hymns play a significant part in The Fallow Ground. Inspired by the works of Ives, Crumb, Ligeti, and Schnittke, quotation is used in this piece to develop or subvert the material, thus creating different contextual meanings from familiar material. In this way, the quotation not only alludes to an idea outside of the piece, but also casts a critical view of that idea by its placement in the context of the piece. Concerning the instrumentation, The Fallow Ground is written for what is commonly called the Pierrot ensemble (flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussion) with male soloist. In my piece, the soprano has been replaced by a baritone soloist. The piece, approximately thirty minutes in length, has a chiastic five-movement structure with each of the movements depicting certain events or concepts that were prevalent during the time of Charles Finney and the Second Great Awakening.
Fractures for Clarinet and Computer
Fractures for Clarinet and Computer is a piece for live interactive performance using custom software designed in Max/MSP. the work explores musical borrowing and transformation of music from works such as Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, and several fragments from synthesizer recordings of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. the dissertation focuses on both the musical aesthetics that informed the creation of the work and the software programming that enables live sampling and harmonization systems as well as flexible control of global parameters.
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