Spotlight

Gathering Terror is a meditation on the opaque and oppressive force that is the uncertain future. A four-chord motto punctuates a texture that grows denser and denser as the piece progresses, eventually becoming a chromatically-saturated glacier of arrhythmic chords. Chords played with uncomfortable handshapes pervade this piece, contributing to the oppressive and pained atmosphere.

Performed by Yintong Liu, piano at the UMKC Composers' Guild concert on 25 October 2021.

Gathering Terror

We are alienated from our work, from nature, and from those around us and the result is often a sense of isolation. Isolation explores emotions that comprise this isolation: starting with a lonely saxophone solo in the saxophone which is punctuated with echoes in the piano, then moving into a duet pervaded with an uneasy feeling of longing. This is followed by a brief surge of resentment that just barely fails to boil over into anger. The mood suddenly returns to longing before the piece ends with the opening phrase of the initial lonely solo, this time the piano fails to echo the gesture, which is instead repeated by the saxophone.

Don-Paul Kahl, baritone saxophone, Xiangyu Zhao, piano

Isolation for E flat Saxophone and Piano

Undercurrent begins with a six-note motive that is established as an ostinato that runs throughout the piece. Other brief motives play over the ostinato, pulling it in many directions, with the quiet, plodding motion occasionally punctuated with sudden outbursts. The ostinato changes over time, further pulling apart from the textures above it, but as the notes that make up the ostinato change, so to do the notes making up the other material: no matter what direction these currents are going, they are all made up of the same stuff. When the currents finally align, a calm emerges from the busy texture. Motives that arose from the ostinato are stated without it before the ostinato gradually returns. The initial ostinato returns, but this time the currents converge and the piece ends.

Ensemble Concept/21, Jorge Muñiz, Artistic Director
Carmen-Helena Tellez, Conductor
Sherry Kujala, Flute
Chris French, Bass Clarinet
Ben Runkel, Percussion
Jennifer Muñiz, Piano
Brendan Shea, Violin
David Machavariani, Violoncello

Performed 5 April 2019 at IU South Bend's Louise E. Addicott and Yatish J. Joshi Performance Hall

Undercurrent (IU South Bend performance)

During the first years of the AIDS pandemic, the US government did virtually nothing to assuage the suffering of thousands of LGBT people, especially those of color, who were dying. Many politicians appeared to find joy in the suffering of people who they clearly considered undesirable. These politicians have since received grand state funerals attended by mourners from around the world. The bodies of many victims of AIDS were never claimed. Elegy 81/05 (2019)is for them. 
This nocturne is based on melancholy and tonally-ambiguous thirteenth chords that mask the simple underlying harmonies. There is a darker contrasting section, but the texture is otherwise full of lush, rolled chords. Near the end, the tonality shifts towards the minor, ending bleakly.

Performed on 5 April 2019 by Jorge Muñiz at IU South Bend.

Elegy 81/05

I’ve always found something compelling in the work of Morton Feldman, especially the early indeterminate works and his later works of extreme length. These works invite the performer to create soundscapes both alien and familiar and challenge the listener to process these musical universes. Six Atmospheric Pieces (2017) is my first attempt at such a composition. 

Performed by Josiah Sprankle at the White Recital Hall at the University of Missouri Kansas City on 8 November 2019.

Isolation for E flat Saxophone and Piano

Alec J. Radecki