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.
A recent 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.
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.
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.
An improvisation with an early version of tweegophonic, released on CDR.
drowning yellow swans
electronic improvisation
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.
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.
