Composed in July 2024.

Originally 8-channel. This is the stereo reduction.

The Children of Chaos (stereo reduction)

Composed in August 2024.

Originally 8-channel. This is the stereo reduction.

Devour (stereo reduction)

3/3/2025
Mason Symphony Orchestra
Dr. Soo Han, conductor
Center for the Arts at George Mason University

Water Sings Fire for Orchestra (2018) was commissioned by the League of American Orchestras and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra with the generous support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commissions Program. Carlos Miguel Prieto conducted the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra for the premiere performances at the Orpheum Theatre in New Orleans, Louisiana in January 2019.

The piece draws inspiration from Leigh Bardugo’s short story, When Water Sang Fire – a feminist origin myth to the Hans Christian Andersen classic, The Little Mermaid – in which themes of ambition and betrayal are explored allegorically through Ulla’s transformation from obscure mermaid to tempestuous sea witch. 

With nimble precision, Ulla manipulates the mer-music’s magical properties - a show of power irresistible to an ambitious prince whose lack of natural talent drives his relentless pursuit of the throne. In the end, Ulla’s ability to transform wishes into reality rewards the treachery of the young prince, and it costs her everything. 

The loss of her voice, friend, and form illustrate the degradation of her true source of personal power. Desperate to survive, Ulla uses a magical mirror to amplify her weakened voice with the support of “all these broken, betrayed girls” reflected in the mirror. Together, they build a song of storm magic to pull apart the prince’s ill-begotten prize. 

Bardugo writes that following Ulla’s descent, she clutches her memories, and “…held each sorrow like a chafing grain of sand, and grew her grudges like pearls.” 

While this piece does not strictly adhere to the narrative arc of the story, its episodic form strings together grievances, while Ulla, who frets in the deep, waits for the “lonely, the ambitious, the clever, the frail, for all those willing to strike a bargain. She never waits long.” 

Like the story, the sparse textures of the opening moments conjure the barren lands stripped of life by Ulla’s storm, and slowly builds with the sorrow of each painful memory re-lived. The themes resonate with societal changes that challenge our nation ­– as we strive to give voice to the wronged and the disenfranchised. The work is dedicated, with hope and with gratitude, to “women who sing truth though the world rains fire upon them.” Duration ca. 12:00

— Notes by Andrea Reinkemeyer and Kate Verotsky

Andrea Reinkemeyer: Water Sings Fire for Orchestra (2018) - LIVE

Direct Audio from onstage mixer. Additional equalization and compressed added for higher fidelity. 

Video Link: https://youtu.be/mOR7nGWK5A0

Equipment used:
Soma Lyra-8: https://somasynths.com/lyra-organismic-synthesizer/ 
Crows OVUM: https://crowselectromusic.com/products/ovum/ 
Moog Mother-32: https://www.moogmusic.com/synthesizers/mother-32/ 
Moog DFAM: https://www.moogmusic.com/synthesizers/dfam-drummer-another-mother/ 
Erica Synths mki x es.EDU DIY Eurorack: https://www.ericasynths.lv/shop/diy-kits-1/mki-x-esedu-diy-system/ 
TidbitAudio – EMF Stereo Pickup: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1328041324/stereo-electromagnetic-microphone-stereo?ref=items-pagination-1&frs=1&crt=1&logging_key=02e610d33b1e8f3c4f7627b53d73ee67d7c48844%3A1328041324
Telephone Pickup Coil (attached to mixer for drone): https://www.elliottelectronicsupply.com/cameras-security-equipment/telephone-pickup-coil-suction-cup.html
Boss Hybrid Drive OD-200: https://www.boss.info/us/products/od-200/ 
Eventide Space Reverb: https://www.eventideaudio.com/pedals/space/ 
Mackie 1202-VLZ Pro Mixer: https://mackie.com/en/products/mixers/vlz4-series/1202VLZ4.html?srsltid=AfmBOoppC_TlmKq_dvY__sKXZhcOPy6uSZlGNk65KMVm1Iu4IRlw32yo

Live Improvisation: Oakland University - Varner Hall (11/17/2024)

Between waking and sleeping, between the real and the unreal, exists the uncanny valley where the constructed starts to resemble the natural in a middle state of being. 

Created using physical modeling synthesis (Max4Live, and the ContinuuMini’s DSP accelerated EaganMatrix) and spatialization in third order Ambisonics, this is a depiction of the transitory state just at the point of un/consciousness. What is real and what is still a dream in this state of in-betweenness? 

Languid and Liminal (Binaural)

something deeply hidden (2020) for orchestra

Recording: Oberlin Conservatory Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Raphael Jimenez

something deeply hidden was commissioned by and written for Thomas Heuser and the San Juan Symphony with the support of The Durango Herald Newspaper to honor Ludwig van Beethoven’s 250th Birthday. The title comes from a quote in Albert Einstein’s Autobiographical Notes: “…Something deeply hidden had to be behind things.” Music is a brief glimpse into our shared humanity, with all of its breathless beauty, all of its intense joy and deep sorrow, and all of its ugliness and violence too. In Beethoven’s work we get a glimpse of someone who felt especially deeply—a glimpse into a person whose passion and urgency and hope for what was possible in the world seemed to pour out of him like an endless fountain. One of my own first formative experiences with Classical music began with Beethoven, stumbling on to a dusty recording of his Fifth Symphony pulled from the discount bin of an electronics superstore that opened up a world of musical possibilities for me. In Beethoven’s Third Symphony, Eroica, the heroic opening often gives way to music of heartrending melancholy, most notably in the funeral march of the second movement, revealing a darker meaning beneath the bright surface. I see Albert Einstein’s pursuits in physics as related to Beethoven’s—a continual searching for something deeply hidden. For me, this piece is a parallel universe to Eroica—a musing that starts with some of the same musical material but takes it in a very different direction. The darker material of the funeral march opens the piece and is stretched and pulled, gradually revealing an even darker core that eventually churns and spins into light.

More information: https://davidbiedenbender.com/work/something-deeply-hidden/

something deeply hidden

Note: Audio is in a binaural stereo format, which simulates "surround sound" when experienced through headphones. For the best experience, use headphones or earbuds.

Performance by Hope Cowan at Moores Opera House, Houston, TX
February 17, 2025

For more information, visit http://www.timothyroymusic.com/valentina-v.html

Valentina V. for solo harp, immersive electronics, and lighting (2024)

Live recording during Minneapolis songSLAM, January 2025 — Icehouse Minneapolis

Words by Phil Takemura Sears
Laura LeVoir, soprano
Timothy Roy, piano

Strange Night (2025)

Stereo mix of eight-channel, electroacoustic music

Breath and the Machine

Miasmatic Patterns was written at the request of Jon Fielder for his modular synthesizer remix project. Fortunately, this corresponded perfectly with my university’s break, giving me a chance to actually compose a piece mid-semester; a very rare occurrence, and one that I was determined to jump at given that the last 12 months have been extremely unproductive. The combination of teaching entirely online, a complete cancellation of all performances and conferences, and the lack of in person interactions due to COVID has been extremely draining and hindering to my ability to compose. 

So, armed with time off, a self-imposed deadline of “get it done by the end of the week,” a copy of the Oblique Strategies, and enough coffee to induce tachycardia in a pachyderm, I sat down in front of the modular synth. 

One of the more interesting and intimidating things about the modular synth is that it can’t save presets. Anything you do has to be recorded and committed to because you can’t go back and make changes. With that in mind, I grabbed a suggestion from the Oblique Strategies (“Remember those quiet evenings”) and started mapping out a piece. I started patching to create some interesting drones controlled by LFOs clocked to different speeds and recorded them as a background idea. The choice to pitch them as an F#°7 chord with different phases for every note seemed to fit both the Strategies suggestion, and the general feeling of being fatigued by the COVID pandemic. From there, I added chaotic sources (a WoggleBug using the ring modulator output, and a René sequencer with two unrelated clocks and a lot of jitter) to create some randomized pulses and pitches. Finally, after another repatch, I committed to constructing treble and bass parts played on a Linnstrument connected to the synth. 

The resulting piece is an extended meditation on the continuing COVID pandemic and the extreme mental fatigue that it has created. I’m not offering any solutions or hopes, this is simply an exploration of my own perspective in the moment. 

Link to my synth on Modular Grid for the curious - https://www.modulargrid.net/e/racks/view/620498

Miasmatic Patterns

Ben Fuhrman, is a composer, musician, programmer, and coffee aficionado. As a result, he writes music with a focus on technology, including acousmatic, interactive, and improvisatory works. His degrees are from Michigan State University (D.M.A and M.M in composition), and Hope College (B.Mus in violin performance). His teachers include Ricardo Lorenz, Mark Sullivan, Steve Talaga, Rob Lunn, and Mihai Craioveanu. He currently is an associate professor of music technology at Montana State University.

He has had works commissioned from a number of performers, including Keith Kirchoff, Drake Dantzler, Violet, Jeffrey Loeffert, Nathan Boggert, the H2 Quartet, the East Lansing High School Orchestra, REACH Studio Art, and the MSU National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory and Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, and has been performed throughout the world. He was also the recipient of a billboard dedicated to his music from the Arts Council of Greater Lansing – possibly the first composer in the US to receive one. His solo albums Concrete Oasis and Synthesizer and Computer Works are available online, among others on the Albany Records, Argali Records, Blue Griffin, Elmstreet, and SEAMUS labels.

He maintains an active role as a performer and as assistant professor of music technology at Montana State University, and has previously taught at Oakland University and Mott Community College. For more information, check out www.benfuhrman.com

Miasmatic Patterns

bfuhrman