Name: Tension - III by Aaron Kline
Duration: 4 min 48 s
Description: Julian Tello, Viola and Robert Switala, Violin performed Tension on my Senior Recital.

Julian Tello, Viola and Robert Switala, Violin performed Tension on my Senior Recital.

Tension - III

A dark abstract adagio that exploits the sonorities of the woodwind and brass choirs by separating them on stage. Further spatial sound is achieved through an off-stage right flugelhorn and off-stage left percussion. A dramatic quiet ending fuses together blocks of woodwind and brass chords. Uses asynchronous events and layers of sound to create an Ivesian numinous sound world. Completed in 1994 and commissioned by the Air Force Band of Flight, Dayton, Ohio. Also available for orchestra. Visit www.jamessyler.com for more information.

Fields

GOING WITH THE FIRE, composed for flutist Mary Posses, is the third in a series of works that utilize only the solo instrument as the source for the taped sounds.  The piece embodies the flash of creative fire that inevitably takes over as the work begins to gel.  After the equally inevitable frustration period, with idea after idea, suddenly the grid unlocks, the boundaries slip away, and I find myself giving up the formal structures and preconceived notions, and simply going with the fire.

Going with the Fire for Flute and Fixed Media

for flute and fixed media (stereo)
for Kayla Hanvey, flute

The word “viscid” refers to the tight, squeezed feeling of hearing two pitches very close to each other played at the same time. Even two pitches side-by-side on the piano (a half-step, D and D# for instance) have a certain tension when played together. This piece explores and relishes in this tension, creating moments of even stronger compression via microtones; these intervals closer than a half-step create a sticky texture one might describe as viscous, or viscid. The flute player interacts with this tension, taking part in it at the beginning and end, but staying above it for most of the piece. The accompanying material is all derived from recordings of the flute.

Tension - III

Aaron Kline

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