Observer for large ensemble. Written for the 2020 National Orchestral Institute + Festival. Conducted by Yu Wang. June 2021.

Observer

DM R, composer
Performed Alarm Will Sound

Live at the 2021 Mizzou International Composers Festival, July 29, 2021

My piece is driven by one sound on what Totó la Momposina describes as the music of the old days. The unintended sliding sound in “La Candela Viva” is the relentless perpetual center. This “mistake” sounds like an airy marimba, which interplays and moves around between the tape and instrumental funk sharp attacks while the synth serves as an evolving mysterious drone.
— DM R

I watched them burying me

for oboe and guitar
Composed by Andrew Rodriguez
World premiere at Voertman Hall at the University of North Texas, November 11, 2017

Inspired by the poem of the same name by Octavio Paz

Nov 11, 2017 Jonathan Thompson, oboe

Elegía Interrumpida, Andrew Rodriguez

Performed by Shannon Leigh, Kevin Price, Michael Hardin, Rob Francis, Henry Buck, Sofija Sibinovic, Peter Landry, Hannah Siegel, Natalie Calma, Clifton Ingram, Darren Sacks, Brendan Higgins
Conducted by David Vess
Electronics by Diana M. Rodriguez
Synth Patch by Peter Landry
IT and support by Hallie Smith
Recorded by Diana M. Rodriguez
Mixed and mastered by Murat Çolak

Recorded 11/30/2017 

Sendero de Rosas | 0:00 - 2:55
(feelings change) | 2:55 - 4:39
Micaela | 4:39 - 12:43

conticinio.
Del lat. conticinium.
1. m. p. us. Hora de la noche, en que todo está en silencio.
(http://dle.rae.es/srv/search?m=30&w=conticinio)
Pedazo Diez-Dos: Nadie podrá llevar por encima de su corazón a nadie ni hacerle mal a su persona aunque piense y diga diferente.

Cover Art: Jacquie Ordòñez, https://jacquieordonez.com/pedazo-diez-dos/

#umamibitch #macaroonpoopingbunny #🍥💩🐰

Conticinio

A Feeling

for solo percussion and electronics. Written for Ryan Pearson, September 2017

Slip

Lost Without You
Whitney George | The Curiosity Cabinet
commissioned by Fresh Squeezed Opera

Mara Mayer, clarinet
Dan McCarthy, viola
Maureen Kelly, 'cello
Fred Trumpy, percussion
Sugar Vendi, piano
Carli Miller, voice
Vitor Hirtsch, engineer/mixing/mastering

Scholes Street Studio, Brooklyn NY | April 2018

Lost [Without You], a work for chamber ensemble, voice, and electronics (both live processed and fixed), is a meditation on the idea of fragmented thought and how we express it as a "unified being". The lyrics, which initially appear unaltered at the beginning of the work, are simple and repetitive. They grow organically, like a small seedling without much to root to. With the use of a loop pedal, the vocalist creates counterpoint with herself, much like the negotiations of internal dialogue as we try to express a unified front. Fragments of lyrics begin being rearranged to take on new meaning. If words are an expression of what we experience, the small fragments of texts, of melodies, motifs, and ideas begin to express themselves in different ways when they are re-contextualized. What was once in harmony is now discordant. What was once static begins to gain motivation and move, creating a secret current where there wasn't one before. Lost [Without You] doesn't tell a story, but is a cross-section of our internal workings: how our individual voices are so richly fragmented and multifaceted, yet create a contradictory and constantly-evolving image of who we are and how we wish to present ourselves in the public eye.

www.whitneygeorge.com

Lost Without You

Remix by Daniel Neumann, Sound Engineer of Alarm Will Sound, of Matt Marks performing "Spagliato" by Oren Ambarchi (arranged by Marcos Balter). Matt's performance is from May 9, 2018. This would be Matt's final concert, he passed away May 11. 

From Daniel:
"I spend the day yesterday listening to the horn track from our Wednesday concert and I was struck by Spagliato (Ital.: wrong, error, mistaken..). I couldn't stop listening to it and ended up making a remix, an attempt to extend his notes, sustaining them. I named it:: Spagliato, for Matt Marks (gated solo horn with artificial reverberation DNremix). No pressure to listen though, if it seems too early or wrong. Just wanted to share, in case someone finds it helpful as an anchor for their grief, which it provided for me."

Spagliato For Matt Marks (gated Solo Horn With Artificial Reverberation DNremix)

"The Farthest" - Words and Music written by Shelley Washington

Commissioned by Dianne Berkun Menaker for the Brooklyn Youth Chorus "Silent Voices: If You Listen", April 2018. Performed by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus accompanied by members of the ICE Ensemble.

. . . . .

I wanted to write a piece that would comment on the desires that many young people currently share; wants that span the personal “when I grow up...” to the public “in the future, we...” I also wanted my piece to ring true for any person during the era that they were young - their dreams for the future, taking risks in hopes of stepping closer to their goals, and forming alliances against adversaries. We as people have always wanted to be some form of good, and for our futures to be brighter than our present. Individuals’ belief of what constitutes goodness has the power to write laws, create religions, and drive culture. This desire to be personally better, to intentionally grow into our collective best, has steered the rise and fall of every empire. The Farthest is intended to be sung by the voices of now as a call both forward and backwards in time; a shout of gratitude back to those who challenged the wrongs of their time, and a call forward to all listeners to never give up hope, and to strive for being their best.

. . . .

The Series
Silent Voices is a multimedia, multi-composer, and multi-year series of concert works with spoken word conceived, produced and performed by Brooklyn Youth Chorus. Silent Voices amplifies the voices of those silenced or marginalized in our communities and harnesses the power of young people to be instruments of change. The Chorus has commissioned a dynamic group of innovative artists to interpret rich personal stories and historical narratives exploring contemporary themes of identity, orientation, status, boundaries, and belonging.

This Show
If You Listen, the second installment in the Silent Voices series, builds on the success of its 2017 premiere at BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House, co-commissioned with Brooklyn Academy of Music, and WQXR, New York. In Silent Voices: If You Listen, eight composers, all women, collaborate with the choristers in confronting the challenges of division and categorization, racism, sexism, social and economic disparity, immigration, our environment, and threats to our understanding of truth, as we prepare to move towards a more inclusive and compassionate vision of the future. Featured composers include Julia Adolphe, Olga Bell, Anna Clyne, Paola Prestini, Toshi Reagon, Shaina Taub, Shelley Washington, Bora Yoon.

The Farthest  - for SSSAAA Choir

for the Copland House
performed by the University of Chicago New Music Ensemble; Barbara Schubert, conductor

Program Note:

Dream Logic emerged from a directed improvisation composed of images derived from the brain’s response to electric stimulus. As a transcription and development of an improvisation, it follows the kind of formal structures that arises when a group of musicians begin to play together - where motives return unannounced, or an unpredictable march emerges from a single repeated note. This kind of logic resembles that of the dream, in which the quotidian materials of daily life are recombined into a series of surreal vignettes that, though seemingly unconnected, find common ground in the subconscious mind of the dreamer.

Dream Logic (2017) // clarinet, violin, cello and piano

"Still Life" was commissioned by the Music in Bloom festival and was written in collaboration with multidisciplinary artist Annie Saunders (libretto/visual storytelling).

Performed by
Amy Petrongelli, soprano
Nick Zoulek, saxophone
Jani Parsons, keyboard
Clare Longendyke, piano
Chris Sies, percussion

Mixed by Alex Dowling
Audio Engineer and Mastering: Eric Dluzniewski

Learn more about the Music in Bloom festival here:
http://www.musicinbloomfest.com

Still Life

Composer.
Guitarist.
Songwriter.
Producer.

Observer

Andrew M Rodriguez