I. Flickering Sea
Performed by the Juilliard DMA Ensemble (Marisa Karchin, voice; Yoonah Kim, clarinet; Gracie Francis, piano; Baron Fenwick, piano; Raphael Vogl, organ)
II. Telephone Canon
Interpretation 1
Performed by the Student Symphony Orchestra of USC Zoom Ensemble: Aidan Gold, Linda Diaz, Niven Jayanthi, Mathias Pachalian; with dancer and coreographer Wilfred Souly
Interpretation 2
Performed by the Student Symphony Orchestra of USC Zoom Ensemble: Aidan Gold, Linda Diaz, Niven Jayanthi, Mathias Pachalian, Alana MacMahon, Adam Karelin, Elaine Huang
III. Conversation (Unperformed)
IV. Board Game
Performed by the Juilliard DMA Ensemble (Marisa Karchin, voice; Yoonah Kim, clarinet; Gracie Francis, piano; Baron Fenwick, piano; Raphael Vogl, organ)
V. Elegy
Interpretation 1
Performed by the Juilliard DMA Ensemble (Marisa Karchin, voice; Yoonah Kim, clarinet; Gracie Francis, piano; Baron Fenwick, piano; Raphael Vogl, organ)
Interpretation 2
Performed by the Student Symphony Orchestra of USC Zoom Ensemble: Aidan Gold, Adam Karelin, Linda Diaz, Niven Jayanthi, Mathias Pachalian, Alana MacMahon, Elaine Huang
Interpretation 3
Performed by the UCSB Ensemble for Contemporary Music, directed by Sarah Gibson: Jordana Schaeffer, flute; Jeremy Holst, baritone saxophone & percussion; Graham Keeton & Kailee Lencioni, electric guitar; Stewart Engart, accordion; Maria Calderon & XuDong Yuan, keyboards; Jaze Matteo Wharton, synthesizer & electric guitar; Rafael Vazquez Guevara, violin.
This piece is a conglomeration of many different approaches to composing- it is at times a ‘traditional’ score, sometimes a graphic score, sometimes an event-based score, and sometimes a text-based framework. Several of the movements in this piece are very open-ended and can serve as a base for many kinds of improvisatory exercises and pieces. They also can be performed asynchronously, for remote collaborations. The ensemble is encouraged to put its own ideas on top of the ideas presented here and modify some of the rules to transform this piece into something unique and personalized to the ensemble.
The first movement, Flickering Sea, separates all the musical parameters of pitch, rhythm, dynamics, articulation, and timbre and assigns each to a system that the performers follow. For pitch, the performers can read a sequence of notes going in different directions, and for rhythm, they follow a path through various rhythms and can even dictate their own to the other musicians.
The second movement, Telephone Canon, is a simple canon where each group comes up with a melody that each other group has to copy as best they can, and as a result it will be naturally modified throughout the course of the movement as each group tries to imitate each other.
The third movement, Conversation, explores the idea of instruments imitating speech, and how much we can convey through the gesture, tone, and emotion of our conversation without comprehending the words.
The fourth movement, Board Game, is a musical board game where players move around a board by playing various small musical cells, and must collect Key Notes to open a door at the end of the game to win.
The final movement, Elegy, is a slightly more traditionally notated piece, where each group of musicians plays repeated patterns or figures at their own tempo to create a gradually changing series of textures and harmonies.
For additional information, questions, or parts requests, contact Aidan.