Preludio (2001)
Solo violin
Duration: c. 6 mins.
Taking the six partitas and sonatas of Bach as a point of departure, Preludio continuously develops a small group of motivic cells, processed in various rhythmic and melodic guises, creating the overall shape of the single-movement work. While certainly playable on the modern violin, the work was written with the Baroque violin in mind, maintaining the rather narrow range typical of the solo violin music of that period. The considerable number of double stops are principally concerned with presenting multiple lines in a contrapuntal texture, while the less frequent quadruple stops carry a decidedly harmonic implication. The drone-like motive employing an open string combined with a second voice that moves above and below the drone, manifests another aspect of the simultaneous use of multiple strings.Tie Dye Revisited (2000)
Electronic Media
Duration: c. 5 mins.
This electronic work derives its title and original source material from a cut on Robert Plant’s 1990 solo album, MANIC NIRVANA, titled Tie Dye on the Highway, which itself opens with a quote from 60s hippie icon, Wavy Gravy. A beat poet and court jester of the counter-culture generation, Wavy Gravy is best known as the Master-of-Ceremonies at the Woodstock festival in 1969, (and to a younger demographic, as a flavor of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.) Plant quotes the famous announcement: “Good morning—what we had in mind was breakfast in bed for 400,000!” Subjected to a phase vocoder procedure in the software package CSound, this quote-within-a-quote results in an “analysis” file that allows for further manipulation—simultaneously and independently—of both frequency and duration. (Before software like CSound, increasing the speed of a sound clip necessarily increased its frequency as well. Think Alvin and the Chipmunks.) The independent manipulation of both of these parameters yields an enormous quantity of disparate sounds from which this piece develops. Peace, love, dove, baby!
The Exquisite Corpse (1999)
Collaborative work with members of the Chicago Composers’ Consortium
Alto flute, English horn, bass clarinet, horn, two percussion and cello
Duration: c. 7 mins.
The Exquisite Corpse musically adapts the surrealist/aleatoric game of cadavre exquis, where a phrase of text, or more likely, a partial segment of a drawing, is passed between participants, with only a small fragment of their contribution showing. Each subsequent player continues the drawing (or text) before passing their partially exposed segment on to the next player, who in turn continues the process until all the participants have contributed to the work.
For this piece of music, each member of the consortium, in sequence, wrote a minute of music, continuing what was written by the previous composer. Only the last two or three measures of each section was revealed to each subsequent composer. In addition, any technical information necessary for those measures was included—such as whether the cello was to be played pizzicato, whether the alto flute was in need of a break, or whether one of the percussionists had their hands full. After each composer finished their section, the piece made a return trip in reverse order, this time consisting of half-minute sections. Finally, the individual segments of the manuscript were assembled to form the whole.Demon Dreams of Electric Fairies (1997)
Guitar, bass, piano, vocals, drums
Text: John H. Wallace
Duration: c. 8 mins.
Written for a Chicago Composers’ Consortium concert with guest ensemble Nozzle, Demon Dreams of Electric Fairies imbraces the sound-world of Frank Zappa, with all of its diverse influences. Juxtaposed against a driving, distortion-ridden heavy-metal backdrop, the work incorporates stylized, asymmetrical rhythmic riffs with a dark text reminiscent of the sound of Ozzy Osbourne and the seminal heavy-metal band, Black Sabbath.