|
Thanks for visiting my website. I've changed the layout of the site a couple times recently, I haven't been really satisfied with any configuration, but I think this one will stick around awhile. I'd like to think I have better things to do.
Well, by this point in the summer I had hoped to have done some serious composing, but I suppose I had forgotten what it is like to have a newborn in the house. Maybe it is for the best; I managed to get alot written earlier this year, and summer is usually a time when I can get a bit of perspective on what I'm doing. I suppose all artists go through "plateau" phases and "advancement" phases. Mine seem to end up being pretty clear cut, without even the benefit of hindsight. Hopefully "plateau" doesn't mean stagnation, sometimes the malaise of the summer (and the damn 100+ degree weather) just isn't conducive to honing one's mental chops, nor does the constant demans of a newborn support a introspective type of thinking that one needs. I find myself doing menial tasks...like updating this website.
I've been really missing the cultural richness and sheer variety of events that I had access to in Boston. I find myself missing Boston more and more. I've never been a real wow-lets-hit-every-concert-this-weekend kind of guy, but there is a community of musicians, students, and institutions of new music in the northeast that I haven't found here in Louisiana. I've managed to light a spark, I think, mostly thanks to my faculty music recital this past February, There were ALOT of students and faculty there--even faculty from other departments. There is some interest there, but it is a shame that it is not being really being tapped. There is certianly no framwork in place for support of the arts here--hell, the Louisiana governor is against funding the arts. I'll never understand the mentality that places arts on the chopping block. It is just sad that a politician could get away with suggesting this--what does that say about the people that are voting for him?
Last Friday night I found myself really wishing that there was a New Music concert going on. I've been going through a kind of withdrawal over the past two years. To be absolutely fair, there are a couple concerts over at LSU (the only public univ in LA that gets any meaningful funding) that are interesting. Players interested in new music are few and far between, making normal networking nearly impossible. If you're a player reading this, please introduce yourself! Let's do something interesting! It is a bit scary to be so culturally isolated, as I think that at this point in my career I'd like to be doing alot more networking.
Ok, enough complaining, here's what is being done: I'm setting up a 501c3 non-profit new music ensemble that will consist of a variety of players. I've recently set up a board of directors with two other composers, and we're kicking around a couple ideas for how we want the ensemble to materialize. There is talk of the ensemble going on tour in the spring. I'm offering an uncompensated class on electronic music in the fall at SELU, and at the end of the semester there will be another electronic music concert presented that will hopefully be as well attended as the previous one. I'm writing an article on my approach to spectral music, which I'll probably post here first. Which reminds me, check out the new Max/MSP page with a couple interesting patches I came up with.
Ok I'm done rant/raving. For now. |
A small collection of my music (Sagala: ...through autumn into winter) is now available through 
...through autumn into winter (for C flute and piano, with electronics) was written for DuoSolo, Mike and Mary Kirkendoll. This work has much in common in terms of technique with my other recent compositions, yet has a particular character that was composed to be evocative of a series of autumn and winter scenes. In the northern United States, dark winters make up a significant part of the year. This work takes small slices of time during the waning year at twilight, and uses those slowly changing images as stylized musical objects: the cold stillness of the air, the freezing rain, the snow flurry, the emptiness of the night. Imaginary purples and rich greys are the backdrop, where flurries of rain and hail-like notes gently move across the soundscape. The work is sectional and highly phrased; processes of transformation are initiated, halted, and then vaguely referenced later in the work. Spectral stretching often by compression creates these shifts, particularly at the end of the work. Each stable section is built upon a single fundamental pitch drawn from the names of DuoSolo: Mary becomes Me (Eb) and Ri (D#), and Michael becomes Mi (E) H (B) el (Le—Ab). The usage and length of these sections vary, as some are relatively extended and serve as point of stasis, while others are only briefly heard before a transformation begins. Electronic effects serve to expand and spatialize the instruments, supporting the distant and 'unpresent' character of the work. These effects also are integral to the poetic depiction of rain and snow, as each processed note is multiplied via delay feedback into several. The texture, the shape of the nostalgic gesture is what is important here.