crux
Fixed multimedia 75’
Program Note
after Barnett Newman, The Stations of the Cross: Lema Sabachtani
In this series of pieces, I created a multi-layered sound world whose musical gestures unfold as a series of musical canvases. I focused on shaping electronic sounds to embody a synergy between artwork and music.Similar to Newman's intention when creating his Stations of the Cross canvases, I, too, wanted my sonic stations "to stand witness to the story of each man's agony: the agony that is single, constant, unrelenting, willed - a world without end." In composing the series, I sought to compile sound samples and filters that resonate with Newman's artwork and shape the form and structure, as well as the grouping of individual movements.
mercy (remix)
Fixed media 5’
Program Note
Based on mercy (2021) for unacompanied mixed choir.
Toccare Virtualmente
Disklavier (2019) 3’
cantusesquisse
Fixed media 8’
Program Note
cantusesquisse features a series of processed and synthesized sound samples that originated in a short melodic chant-like audio sample. The result is a multilayered ambient stream of sound that while at times meditative, it invites the listener to enter into the sound itself by experiencing the unfolding of different sonic paths.
Dialogues with Silence
Flute, baritone, percussion and multimedia 60’
Program Note
As a recipient of the Duquesne University's 2017 Paluse Faculty Research Grant, I composed a new musical composition based on prayers and drawings from Dialogues with Silence (2001), a book by a Catholic priest and Trappist monk, Thomas Merton (1915—1968).
To explore the role of the sacred in the search for the common good, in composing my new musical composition I considered Merton's concept of silence as a contemplative agent for social change in our world. This necessity for inner reflection would be a guiding principle in the selection of texts and drawings to be featured in the composition, thus supporting the university’s concern for moral and spiritual values, as well as its attentiveness to social and global concerns.
TThe poems and prayers associated with the drawings played an essential role in the musical design of the work. In the treatment of the text, I used the words to determine the shape of selected movements in structural details, large and small, by translating the text into numerical sequences and transforming them into musical materials. I further sought to compile sound samples and filters that resonate with Merton's artwork and poetry, shape the form and structure, and the grouping of individual movements. Finally, I enhanced the vocal and instrumental writing by electronically manipulating sounds that act as a sonic backdrop to the selected drawings displayed during the performance. The new composition premiered in Spring of 2019 at the Genesius Theatre at Duquesne University.
Concealments
Fixed multimedia 11’
Program Note
Based on the encaustic handmade paper laminate artwork Concealment Series by Haley Nagy. Similar to “the fusion of encaustic and hand papermaking used to explore the idea of the ‘hidden,'” Concealments is a sound art piece explores the fusion of cultural forms emanating from the reciprocity of visual and sound arts. In this interdisciplinary collaborative project, I wanted to learn from the artist’s creative practice about how to approach texture of sound, and relate information about visual appearance in a musical work.
I. Unveil very fast, becoming translucent
II. Reveal calm, moving, pliable
III. Conceal very slow, evaporating
IV. Apparent exuberant and free, gradually receding
V. Veil very fast, becoming opaque
Inner Self II
Three clarinets and electronics 9’
Program Note
In Inner Self II, Nagy injects a new level of discipline into his quest for color. The interweaving patterns of strict contrapuntal imitation in this spiral canon unfold in diatonic purity throughout, creating an untroubled flow that invites us to pay fresh attention to each new juxtaposition of tones. Through the almost scientific process of canon, Nagy rediscovers and reassesses the intervals in the diatonic collection for their coloristic potential. (Benjamin Binder).
At times the electronic sounds extend the clarinet resonance; at other times the electronic part creates contrapuntal textures that complement the unfolding of the three-part canon in the clarinet part. This work is a sequel to Canon-Inner Self (2007) for piano solo.
Performances
- April 2015 - Emily Cook, Caitlyn Stratman, Christina Blahnik, clarinets. Musicianship Creates. Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA
Kaleidoscope
Piano, accordion, live electronics 9’
Also version for two pianos
Program Note
Scored as a triptych, Kaleidoscope depicts self-sustaining musical transformations that coalesce into fluid, constantly evolving, mirage-like structures. Recursive patterns of harmonies and emerging melodies, along with the interactive contrapuntal symmetries between the instruments, suggest the refractory patterns of light formed by mirrors containing pieces of colored glass, such as those found in a kaleidoscope. This can be heard where patterns of musical shapes emerge that invite the listener to enter an Escher-like musical space.
Kaleidoscope was commissioned by Elisa Elisa Järvi and Andrea Kiefer.
Performances
- October 2015 - Sung-Eun Park and Shu Ting Chang, pianos. National Association of Composers USA/American Musicological Society Conference. Texas State University, San Marcos, TX
- August 2014 - Elisa Järvi, piano; Andrea Kiefer, accordion; James Andrean, electronics. Changing Perspectives. Helsinki Music Centre, Helsinki, Finland
and so she said II
Fixed media 8’ (2013, rev. 2022)
Program Note
In this sound installation, I recorded a female voice whose vocal attributes were analyzed and transformed into a gradually evolving sonic canvas. Considering her short speech utterance as the main sound object or leitmotif, I created a series of musical transformations of the original sound; this resulted in sound textures' melodic and harmonic evolution, where the transformation processes influenced a more polyphonic material treatment. The resulting design of the work may reassemble a spiral in which each consecutive transformation resounds the vocal qualities of the voice, becoming multi-layered and intricate with each turn. and so she said... II is a sequel to a short piano piece I initially composed after the spectral analysis of the vocal sound material. Spectral analysis is a method used to identify the frequency components of a sound signal.
Performances
- March 2013 - California State University at Fullerton New Music Festival: Voice in the 21st-century. World Electroacoustic Listening Room Project, CFU, Fullerton, CA
Vox Reginæ Organalis
Organ and music box 7’
2011 Iron Composer Competition Winner
Program Note
As one of five composers who were invited to compete in person, I was assigned in the morning of the event an instrumentation and a “secret ingredient” for a to-be-composed musical work: a pipe organ as a designed instrumentation and music box as a secret ingredient. I had only five hours to write a new piece, which was then performed and judged by a panel of professional musicians and critics in a public concert that same evening.
My work for organ and music box entitled _Vox Reginæ Organalis_ was premiered by the Baldwin-Wallace organist Jonathan William Moyer and broadcasted live on WCLV 104.9 FM. Below you can listen the interview and the performance of _Vox Reginæ Organalis_ for pipe organ and music box.
Performances
- September 2011 - Jonathan William Moyer, organ. Iron Composer Competition Concert. Baldwin Wallace University, Berea, OH