From November 4-5, I attended this year’s Third Practice, an annual festival of electronic music curated by Benjamin Broening. The program included one of my recent fixed media compositions, attack, on the Saturday afternoon concert.

I had heard about this festival for a number of years, so it was an honor to be included on the program with a great roster of composers, most of whom were in attendance.  One of the highlights for me was finally getting to hear Eighth Blackbird in concert.  The campus is also stunningly beautiful and included the impressive Modlin Center for Arts.  The festival certainly lived up to its reputation.  Ben, thanks for the invite!

• Recording in MP3 – 5 min, 47 sec

One of the many festival posters up around campus.

My iTunes library is a wealth of sound material waiting to be tapped. For attack, I explored the possibilities of using this diverse set of songs as a starting point for a sound composition. Using only a short segment from the very beginning of each song (in other words, the “attack”), I have built a piece that is in no way a derivative and yet is in every way a derivative. This contradiction is at the heart of my concept for this piece.

• Recording in MP3 – 5 min, 47 sec
• Score in PDF – 52 kb

Screenshot from my DAW session for this piece.

From January 20-22, I attended the 2011 Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States national conference with 6 of my Digital Arts students from Stetson. My piece “also apply” was featured in the Genelec Listening Room. I found it to be a nice, relaxed atmosphere for featured composers to gather, hear each others’ work, and chat in between about the music.

I wrote an extended blog post about the trip for the Digital Arts blog which is linked below. It was so great to see my colleagues from around the United States and catch up on some amazing work that people are doing. A great trip!

• MP3 of also apply – 7 min, 40 sec
• A post about the trip on the Digital Arts @ Stetson blog

Banner on campus advertising the SEAMUS 2011 conference.

This piece continues my exploration of the potential for laptops in chamber music settings.  The piano controls the momentum by choosing from among the musical materials on each page of the score, and in doing so slowly unfolds a harmonic sequence over the piece’s duration.  The laptop is used to capture and extend the acoustic output, producing textures that at first only fill in the silences between notes and eventually compete with the piano for attention.  The tension builds until the harmonic sequence is finally stated in its entirety, after which the piece unwinds to the final coda.  The overall mood is one of reflection, with moments of peace and passion.

• live recording in MP3 – 16 min, 55 sec
• score in PDF – 1.2 MB

page 4 of the score

This piece is a first attempt to couple my laptop performance system with another live musician.  The electric guitar improvises using short motives that are captured by the laptop.  This sonic material is processed and looped to form a variety of textures.  Part 1 slowly builds to form a wall of looping figures that evokes a meditative state.  Part 2 uses chords as the basis for an animated rhythmic pattern that features subtle changes in timbre.  Overall, this piece demonstrates the expressive potential of the laptop in small ensemble settings.

• Part 1 in MP3 – 8 min 30 sec
• Part 2 in MP3 – 6 min 41 sec

Go-Go-Go.  Music is usually the place where I take refuge, find calm, enjoy meditation.  Not this time.  My hectic pace spills over into the sound and hurries the notes, infuses energy, excites the ear.  Must slow down.  The harmonic language fights against this thick texture, unflustered by the hurried pace, slowly churning the waters.  Can’t stop now.  Together they negotiate their way forward, providing a window into the pace of life at the moment, providing a personal form of silicon therapy.

• live recording in MP3 – 10 min 31 sec

In the summer of 2007, I traveled to Europe with my family. Late one afternoon while resting in a Swiss hotel, the sounds of an alphorn ensemble in the distance began to echo through the alley into the window. The slow, pleasant droning continued for several hours well into the evening. “desire for” is the continuing echo of these alphorns in my memory.

live recording in MP3 – 10 min, 56 sec

• purchase tracks from iTunes
• order CD/DVD from CD-Baby

Videos on YouTube

MPG4 (4:03) – Megan England and Kevin Ward, producers

Bond in Brooklyn (4:46) – Jhaysonn Pathak and Greg Lenhart, producers

Liberate Your Cool (8:09) – Melanie McConachie and Adam Wright, producers

Since 2004, I have made a series of recordings capturing familiar water sounds and used them as inspiration for my work.  This piece musically recreates gestures that evoke the patter of a moderate rain and waves crashing upon the shore.  These two ideas are set in contrast with one another, yet the resulting blend betrays the classical element that inspired them both: water.

This piece is also featured as part 3 of an audiovisual collaboration between myself and Matt Roberts, collectively known as Events.

• live performance in MP3 – 9 min, 28 sec
• studio version in MP3 – 7 min, 40 sec

In June 2006, I traveled to Ontario to participate in a symposium on the legacy of composer Iannis Xenakis, in addition to doing a little sightseeing with my family. Acoustic materials for this piece are drawn from recordings I made during this visit to Canada.  These are juxtaposed with sonic elements that merge my existing style of gradually changing textures with techniques pioneered by Xenakis.  The end result is a unique document of the trip, fragmented through memory and adapted by the process of composition.

• live recording in MP3 – 10 min, 6 sec