The Nameless Path is a metaphor for how the piece was composed.  I began with a relatively clear idea of what
I thought I wanted to happen in the piece, but at a certain point, I found myself in a place I wasn't expecting.  It wasn't a bad place, and truth be told I quite liked where I ended up, but I no longer knew what was around the bend in the path.  In a sense, I let the music lead me where it wanted to go.  Sometimes, I could see a little ways in front of me.  Then I would have to pause, ﬁgure out where the music seemed to want to go, and continue on my way.  It was unsettling at times, but exciting, too.

The Nameless Path is an invitation to explore, to try something a little bit new, to look around for a change and really notice things you take for granted.  As such, I've made sure that there are plenty of details to draw the listener in.  Hopefully, if you listen to it several times, you'll notice something new each time.

The Nameless Path (2022), for 13 players

This is an orchestrated version of Ikona, for violin and chamber orchestra, recorded by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Wolfgang David, violin.

Ikon, for violin and chamber orchestra

2015

Composed for the New Juilliard Ensemble

University of Texas at Austin New Music Ensemble
Dan Welcher, conductor
Shih-Yen Chen, clarinet

Kheir - Fantasy for Clarinet and Sinfonietta

2016

Composed at the Tanglewood Music Center

Christina Hughes, flute
Naho Zhu, bassoon
Paul Torrisi, trumpet
Addison Maye-Saxon, trombone
Claire-Chung Lim, piano
Heather Thomas, Amy Semes, violins
Leonardo Vásquez, viola
Lucas Button, violoncello
Charles Paul, contrabass
Max Grafe, conductor

La grue des sables (Tanguy Responses II)

Leaf Metal, Excerpt + Full

Nostalgia Var 9 - 11 + Full

Illinois Modern Ensemble, Stephen Taylor, conductor.  8 February 2017.
Sonic Illinois Festival, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

Cold Horizon, for chamber orchestra, grew out of a piece for vibraphone and piano entitled Cold, which I wrote in Paris in January 2001.  The basic musical ideas and icy, shimmering instrumental colors of Cold have been stretched out into a supple, continuously flowing, and dramatic form, and colored as if seen at twilight under a fading and distant light.  

In a sense, Cold Horizon explores resonance as a model or metaphor for developing musical gestures and forms.  Often resonance is used to create a sense of perspective, reminding us that music takes place not only in time but also in space. Musical lines that are slightly out of alignment shadow each other as they seem to echo in a reverberant space.  Similarly, rhythmic processes and subtle changes of orchestration create the illusion of musical gestures that approach or recede.  The opening of the piece, a quasi-Doppler effect, is one example.  Another typical idea is the filtering of complex harmonies into simple intervals, floating points of stability that form a thread of consonance woven across the span of the piece.  The use of quarter tones blurs the line between harmony and instrumental timbres to create a sense of depth and shadow against the well-tempered, “normal” pitches.

Cold Horizon has passed through a series of incarnations, beginning with an initial sketch premiered in 2002 by the Orchestre Lyrique de Région Avignon-Provence under Sylvio Gualda at the Centre Acanthes contemporary music festival in France.  The complete piece was premiered in 2003 by the University of California, Berkeley Symphony conducted by David Milnes, followed by a revised and expanded version performed by the Minnesota Orchestra at their Composer Institute in 2006 with David Alan Miller.  I revised the piece one last time in early 2017 for this performance, making some minor adjustments to its pacing, clarifying the orchestration and several harmonic details, and pruning back some pretentious complexity in the notation.

Cold Horizon (2017 Version)

Toccata Inquieta (2011) for solo Harpsichord and Ensemble (Excerpt) 
Composer : Texu Kim (b.1980)
Premiere by Ensemble Intercontemporain with Harpsichord Dimitri Vassilakis and conductor Susanna Mälkki
Cité de la Musique, Paris, France, 10 Jan 2012 
Kölner Philharmonie, Köln, Germany, 12 Jan 2012

Texu Kim - Toccata inquieta (Excerpt)

Grossman Ensemble, conducted by Ben Bolter
Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago, December 7, 2018

Simple Fuel (2018) for large ensemble

arr. of traditional song from the south of Serbia, "More izgrejala nane sjajna mesečina," in tremolo (scordatura C#m/harmonic progression by Katarina Vukadinović/middle part is improvised).

More, izgrejala, nane
More, izgrejala, nane,
more, izgrejala
sjajna mesečina, mila nane,
sjajna mesečina.
 
More, toj ne beše, nane,
more, toj ne beše
sjajna mesečina, mila nane,
sjajna mesečina.
 
More, već toj beše, nane,
more, već toj beše
Smiljana devojka, mila nane,
Smiljana devojka.
 
More, odvede gu, nane,
more, odvede gu
Stojan Krivorečan, mila nane,
Stojan Krivorečan.
 
More, odvede gu, nane,
more, odvede gu
tamo da gu ljubi, mila nane,
tamo da gu ljubi.
https://lyricstranslate.com

Recorded on John H. Dick (double forte model, 2013), and D'Addario hard tension strings

The Nameless Path (2022), for 13 players

Aaron Travers

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