2014
The current structure of my recital is planned to be as follows:
Horse (~15m) for clarinet, alto and tenor saxes, trumpet, vocalists, two electric guitars, percussionists/drumkit, bass guitar, synthesizers/organ/piano, electronics Score Section 1: a polyrythmic wall of percussion samples and live pitchless vocals. These two elements sync up at key words. Section 2: atonal, through-composed metal with blaring w/winds and trumpet. Dense orchestration. Featuring motifs from “Somnus” and other later pieces. Transitions between several styles. Refrain of section 1 with added chanting, chords Section 3: quiet guitar scraping, bursts of white noise, field recordings, chanting in Greek orthodox style. Ends with a maelstrom of rattling percussion and chromatic distorted guitar. Section 4: alto sax solo. An exercise in woodwind extended techniques and accompaniment writing, with the ensemble and the electronics equally accompanying the sax. Transition: woodwinds become pointillistic and condense into chords in the next section Section 5: stark ensemble block chords. Focus on subtle interactions of harmony and texture. Icy guitar solo and harsh bursts of electronic sounds towards the end. Section 6a: create a sense of constant climbing with sequences that climb and then fade out as they are replaced by their counterpart in a lower octave. Frequent time signature changes. Section 6b: simultaneous poem. Quiet, whimsical accompaniment; organ and woodwinds with emphasis on key taps. Electronics seem to transition with huge crescendo but it suddenly falls to silence. Briefly, guitars are bowed. My primary aim with this piece is to write a specific, through-composed and non-repetitive long piece (almost all long pieces I have made in the past have been either repetitive, improvised or both). It will use an event based score (most likely made in Adobe Illustrator) with some method of visually cueing events synced up with electronic parts. While at this stage the electronics part is a non-interactive “tape” part, I do not discount the possibility that there will be more electro-acoustically interactive elements, particularly in section 4, as the piece develops further. Somnus (~3m40s) same ensemble Score No Time (working title) (~5m) two electric guitars This piece will showcase the guitar techniques I've picked up playing with Mr. Government and in my solo works. The structure is currently as follows: phasing chromatic runs – chromatic runs with N.H. Arpeggi – tremolo chords and staccato picked chords – droning distortion and pick scraping – chromatic runs transitioning to pointillist structures – neck rumbling – chromatic runs with droning distortion – pointillist structure – dead notes and pick scraping into dead notes into snap plucking into pick scraping into “shred” - staccato chords – bended notes – stuttered staccato chords – neck rumble with droning distortion – jack manipulation and clean chords – playing recordings into pickups and pointillist structures – hammer-on/pull-off with melodies – sudden dead notes – melodies with pick scrape – melodies – tremolo chords with chromatic runs – arpeggi into tremolo chords into staccato chords into clean chords into staccato chords with pick scraping – pointillist structure with clean chords, snap plucking, bent notes and dead notes – staccato, stuttered dead notes Unnamed solo electronics piece (~6m) Mostly quiet and spare with moments of extreme loudness and magnitude. Will use stochastic materials in areas of pitch, timbre and structure. He Killed Her With My Own Hands (~8m) ensemble This piece will be an understated song and end the recital, going out with a whimper rather than a bang. It will prominently feature texts in live and recorded vocal parts which interact and has a theme of nightmarish autonomy. The current structure is as follows: scordatura guitar is struck on body – quiet melody on bass w/cymbal wash – coloured silence (e.g. breath noises, electronic white noise) into ensemble humming over a field recording – vocalisations against electronic accompaniment of noise, samples and recorded vocalist. All samples speed up and slow down. Section ends with sample speeding up and trailing off. - guitar chords, sprechstimme, electronic bell-esque high pitches – atonal guitar phrase w/drumkit – long, textural clarinet phrase – multiphonic woodwinds clusterchord with intermittent silences – brief recording of speaking voice orchestrated by ensemble – whammy bars under guitar strings droning while w/winds and trumpet sing into instruments – long recording of speaking voice orchestrated by ensemble. |
Misc.
"Baggage" for Mariah O'Dea Recording Improvisations with Mr. Government Real To Reel "Yhi's Mirror" installation with Josten Myburgh and Jos Chapman Write-up courtesy of Josten Myburgh |