Not One Would Care (2009)
Fixed Electronic Media
Duration: 5:47
Premiere: May 7, 2009
Program Notes
Not One Would Care represents a response to Sara Teasdale’s poem “There Will Come Soft Rain”, which depicts an eerily tranquil vision of a post-apocalyptic world where nature regains control. The work uses a combination of synthesized sounds (created in Tassman) and stock sound effects to depict a cataclysmic climax followed by a long winding down. Sounds associated with human society dominate the opening sections, yet are gradually replaced by abstract and non-human sounds. Even the choice of medium for the work – electronics with no live performers – is directly related to the content of the poem.
Halos No. 1 (2009)
Fixed Electronic Media for an Interactive Website
New Media New Music New England What If 60x60x60
Duration: 0:53
The Somnambulist (2007)
Score to a Film by Jeffrey Paternostro
Duration: 20:00
Venus of the Louvre (2006)
Fixed Electronic Media
Duration: 6:00
Premiere: Dec. 11, 2007
Program Notes
Venus of the Louvre was created in Metasynth using samples of a woman’s voice and a cello. The title is taken from a poem by Emma Lazarus, a nineteenth century American writer. The poem begins with the idea that the artistic rendition of Venus is frozen in time and space, yet is still a living and breathing embodiment of beauty. There are no programmatic references to the poem in the music, but the sentiment expressed in the poem’s opening complemented my main goal in composing this piece: to create an ethereal sort of song where the focus was on abstracted sounds of speech, rather than on any particular text. Upon my first reading of the poem, I was struck by the way electronic music can embody the ideal of beauty that possesses a strong vitality despite being preserved in a permanently fixed form. Creating this song using sampled recordings allowed me to compose a work that can remain essentially unchanged (unlike works for live performers, which always include an element of personal interpretation). It also allowed me to explore fragmented vocal sounds, which are normally absorbed into the larger concepts of language and meaning, and display their innate beauty.