music for strings

I am currently working on an evening-length set of pieces for string instruments using just intonation. As pieces start to come together, I'll share them here. Check back frequently for updates.

three basses (for Andrew Lafkas)

for three contrabasses

excerpt from score
score (PDF, 92 KB)

A piece for three basses, in proportional notation.

Duration is free, from approximately five minutes to one hour. This recording is of the first performance, on March 6, 2009, in the basement of the Greenpoint Messiah Church. The bassists are Michael T. Bullock, Andrew Lafkas, and Jonathan Zorn.

Download recording (MP3, 30 MB, 22:00)

the language of

for solo cello

excerpt from score

A piece which is made up entirely of natural harmonics.

the language of was recorded by Dave Eggar, and is featured on the eponymous CD, out on Quiet Design records. This CD was funded exclusively by the composers involved, so you are encouraged to purchase the recording on the iTunes store.

Download recording (MP3, 3.8 MB, 2:47)

lullaby for bodhi

for solo violin

excerpt from score
score (PDF, 220 KB)

A piece for just-tuned double-stops. Intonation is indicated by ratio above a notated "ghost fundamental".

Lullaby is dedicated to Bodhi Ellison Williams, born on 7/6/5.

Duration is free, from approximately five minutes to five hours. This recording was made in the wonderful, recently demolished, Dublin School squash court.

Download recording (MP3, 10.2 MB, 7:24)

ACA drones

for 12 violins

Composed and recorded at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, during my residency there with Kyle Gann. Although this is a multitracked recording, I see no reason why it wouldn't be wonderful to hear with twelve players live.

There are two main things I was after in creating this piece: I wanted to hear the grit and tuning imperfections that can make acoustic music so pretty, and I wanted to find dissonances that are derived from consonances played on top of one another.

Download recording (MP3, 13.9 MB, 10:07)

solo computer improvisations

The following improvisations were performed with tweegophonic, a live-sampling software instrument designed in Max/MSP. When improvising with tweegophonic, there is no way to "preview" any sounds. In addition, I begin every performance with no sounds in the program's memory. Sound is introduced into the system through either a microphone or the (unmonitored) playback of a recording.

May 14th, 2002, Oberlin, Ohio
The middle of the night, a microphone pointing out of the window, the computer in front of me, headphones on my head.

Download recording (MP3, 24.3 MB, 26:38)
tweeg:phonic
An improvisation with an early version of tweegophonic, released on CDR.

drowning yellow swans

electronic improvisation

cover of album with d yellow swans

A 28-minute long CD-R of improvisations with the west coast noise band, D Yellow Swans. I play computer, Gabe and Pete play a whole tableful of guitars, microphones, and electronics.

Available from Carbon Records.

seismicity

for four trombones

excerpt from score
score (PDF, 3.5 MB)

This piece is based on seismographic readings from six minutes of the Kobe earthquake of January 17, 1995. Each trombonist has data from one of four recording stations in California. The performers are located in the concert hall at locations proportional to their station’s geographic location, and are facing west, in the direction of the earthquake’s epicenter.

Duration is exactly six minutes.

Download recording (MP3, 5.6 MB, 6:05)

thirty-two feet per second per second

for vocalizing pianist

excerpt from score

This piece, recorded for the Oberlin Conservatory's Aural Capacity, is about an ever-accelerating confrontation with reality.

Download recording (MP3, 7.7 MB, 5:34)

of all things most yielding

for SATB voices

excerpt from score
score (PDF, 188 KB)

A short piece for SATB voices, in which the text by Lao Tzu is passed syllabically and blurred among the singers.