This is an excerpt from Eric Barber & friends: Hush at the Chapel Performance Space in Seattle.  This improvised duet features Eric Barber on saxophone and Ammon Swinbank on flute.

Excerpt from Eric Barber & friends: Hush

43 Commas was composed for flutist Donnie Ashworth and pianist Adam Bowles. The work is based on just-tuned chord progressions that – with each iteration – drift in pitch by the interval of a Syntonic Comma. The resulting tonic chord at the end of the piece is a major sixth lower than the (functionally) same chord at the beginning. The instrumental parts remain in 12 tone equal temperament, and are constrained to pitches that are proximate to partials related to the just-tuned chords (4:5:6, 10:12:15, and 6:7:9). A computer program determined paths of common-tone harmonic progressions in order to maximize the number of available equal-tempered pitches. The timbres of the soundfile were chosen to reference blown-pipe and struck-string families of instruments. 

43 Commas

https://youtu.be/7-zbteBz7-I

0:00 DJ YUNG VAMP - STUNTIN  (Ǝ V I L Æ S T H Ǝ T I C テレビ visuals)
2:49 SwuM. - Mmmm (Ǝ V I L Æ S T H Ǝ T I C テレビ visuals)
4:15 Internetboi - Aquatic Interlude
7:13 REDHANDS x Young Dolph - See You Later
8:37 idle ≟ - スタック
11:22 HOME - Come Back Down
16:07 driver - its got 2 b magic
17:21 HOME - RESONANCE
20:43  driver - wtfrn
22:50 driver - shadow
24:40 driver - love me
26:31 driver - stream talk
28:21 driver - commas
29:45 driver - flameinur heart

ＨＩＧＨ ＡＴ ＷＯＲＫ 3 (VIDEO IN DESC.)

A recording of the premiere of Rootbang for saxophone ensemble. Thanks for listening, enjoy!

~Jake
P.S. Score and parts are available upon request!

The wonderful performers:
Kelsey Beyer - soprano
Sara Mercurio - soprano
Scott Byers - alto
Alec Targett - alto
Emma Grey - tenor
Dunham Hall - tenor
Bryan Filetto - bari
Jared Banker - bari

Rootbang (2018)

Society

SETI

Business

Redshift

Kristina Wolfe, composer
Performed by Alarm Will Sound

Live at the Mizzou International Composers Festival, July 27, 2019

Notes by the composer:
"A Curation of Finds" is a work for Alarm Will Sound about the acoustics of the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum–a prehistoric subterranean 'labyrinth' in Malta in use between 4000 BCE and 2500 BCE. The Hypogeum has unique and interesting acoustics, and the aim of this piece is to present the resonances and pyschoacoustics of the site as musical material. The musical material is the immersive resonance produced by the site as heard in different chambers of the Hypogeum from alternating listener perspectives. Ambisonic5 "VR" impulse response measurements were taken during the field work and the variations in the sound field informed orchestration and structural decisions in the piece.

I chose to orchestrate impulse responses because impulse responses do not technically "sound," but these measurements–when treated as sounds–represent the shadows of past and future sounds. In this work they represent the sonic architecture and the acoustic qualities of the Hypogeum in a way that does not make assumptions regarding the types of sounds that may have occurred in there. I imagine the result to be a way of inviting the listener into space and to encourage the enjoyment of listening to aural architecture.

Alarm Will Sound:
Alan Pierson, conductor and Artistic Director
Erin Lesser, flute
Christa Robinson, oboe
Bill Kalinkos, clarinet
Elisabeth Stimpert, clarinet
Michael Harley, bassoon
Laura Weiner, horn
Tim Leopold, flugelhorn
Michael Clayville, trombone 
Matt Smallcomb, percussion 
Chris Thompson, percussion 
John Orfe, piano 
Alan Pierson, piano
Courtney Orlando, violin 
Stefan Freund, cello
Miles Brown, bass
Daniel Neumann, audio engineering

Executive Director, Gavin Chuck
General Manager, Annie Toth
Production Manager, Jason Varvaro
Assistant Director of Artistic Planning, Peter Ferry
Librarian, Chihiro Shibayama

Special thanks to Patti Kilroy (violin), Beth Myers (viola), Yuri Yamashita (percussion), and Nathan Koci (horn).

A Curation Of Finds

Peter Shin, composer
Performed by Alarm Will Sound

Live at the Mizzou International Composers Festival, July 27, 2019

Notes by the composer:
This is a score to "militiachildren," a film in the works by Scott Lyman based on the 2017 white nationalist uprising in his hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia. I was particularly moved by video footage of interfaith leaders linked arm to arm singing "This Little Light o' Mine" which–for a brief moment of peaceful counter-protest–drowned out the hateful speech of the alt-right.

Recording: Lomax, John A, Ruby T Lomax, and Doris McMurray. "This Little Light o' Mine;" near Huntsville, TX. 1939. Audio. Retrieved from the Library of Congress.

Alarm Will Sound:
Alan Pierson, conductor and Artistic Director
Erin Lesser, flute
Christa Robinson, oboe
Bill Kalinkos, clarinet
Elisabeth Stimpert, clarinet
Michael Harley, bassoon
Laura Weiner, horn
Tim Leopold, flugelhorn
Michael Clayville, trombone 
Matt Smallcomb, percussion 
Chris Thompson, percussion 
John Orfe, piano 
Alan Pierson, piano
Courtney Orlando, violin 
Stefan Freund, cello
Miles Brown, bass
Daniel Neumann, audio engineering

Executive Director, Gavin Chuck
General Manager, Annie Toth
Production Manager, Jason Varvaro
Assistant Director of Artistic Planning, Peter Ferry
Librarian, Chihiro Shibayama

Special thanks to Patti Kilroy (violin), Beth Myers (viola), Yuri Yamashita (percussion), and Nathan Koci (horn).

Eight World Premieres

Dogwhistling

Chelsea Komschlies, composer
Performed by Alarm Will Sound

Live at the Mizzou International Composers Festival, July 27, 2019

Notes by the composer:
Hexactinellida: a class of ancient, unusual sea sponges whose skeletons are composed of a complex lattice of six-pointed spicules made of silica, earning them the name "glass sponges." Lacking an epidermis like other sponges, hexactinellids are wrapped in a covering of multinucleate cytoplasm which can send electrical impulses through their glass skeletons better than any fiber optics humans have created. In contrast to this lightning-fast reaction time in their extreme longevity; one currently living specimen is estimated to be 15,000 years old.

The music evokes glass sponges' structure: hard, densely-packed, buzzing lattices lit up by pulses of electricity; their texture, crunchy and spiky rather than smooth and crystalline; and their bodily shapes, which simultaneously resemble ultra-futuristic algorithmic architecture and Dr. Seussian plants.

Alarm Will Sound:
Alan Pierson, conductor and Artistic Director
Erin Lesser, flute
Christa Robinson, oboe
Bill Kalinkos, clarinet
Elisabeth Stimpert, clarinet
Michael Harley, bassoon
Laura Weiner, horn
Tim Leopold, flugelhorn
Michael Clayville, trombone 
Matt Smallcomb, percussion 
Chris Thompson, percussion 
John Orfe, piano 
Alan Pierson, piano
Courtney Orlando, violin 
Stefan Freund, cello
Miles Brown, bass
Daniel Neumann, audio engineering

Executive Director, Gavin Chuck
General Manager, Annie Toth
Production Manager, Jason Varvaro
Assistant Director of Artistic Planning, Peter Ferry
Librarian, Chihiro Shibayama

Special thanks to Patti Kilroy (violin), Beth Myers (viola), Yuri Yamashita (percussion), and Nathan Koci (horn).

Excerpt from Eric Barber & friends: Hush

ammonswinbank

Related tracks