Biodiversity was created with the generous support of the “A & D Issa Music and Dance Faculty Award.” The work abstractly reflects on biodiversity and human interactions with the environment that support or threaten biodiversity. The focus of the work progresses non-linearly; however, as the work evolves it tends to move from representing negative human behaviors and a lack of diversity to depicting positive human behaviors and a wealth of diversity. The work is organized in three movements, each of which culminates in a section that represents one type of biodiversity. The digital audio consists of both live processing of the instrumental sounds and sound file triggering. The digital audio represents the environment in which the human instrumentalists exist, and it either depicts environmental reactions (consequences) of human action or provides a layer of sound that reinforces the extra-musical content of the section. The digital video operates similarly; it both reinforces extra-musical content and interacts with the performers. As the work progresses the video work is increasingly created by other artists or in collaboration with other artists, in order to reflect increased diversity. view video: http://christopherbiggsmusic.com/cb/works/multimedia/biodiversity.html

Biodiversity: 8. (re)action - (re)action

Biodiversity: 10-11. Ecological Diversity and entropy

Greed was commissioned by and is dedicated to Abderrahman Anzaldua as part of the La Rueda de los Pecados (The Wheel of Sins) project.  This project consists of seven pieces for violin and multimedia, each of which reflects upon a specific sin.   

While I was composing Greed I thought about different phenomena that one can be greedy about.  I represent three of these in the work: collecting trinkets, amassing monetary wealth, and acquiring beautiful segments of land.  Each of these facets of greedy behavior is associated with specific musical material and visual media.  These materials abstractly represent both the beauty and/or neutral-ness of the object of desire, and juxtapose the objects themselves with the ugliness and results of selfish, thoughtless acquisition.  The visual media represents this via algorithms that tend to progressively fill the screen with different objects or represent acquisition and loss by having some objects grow while others diminish in size.  The specific objects are points (trinkets), rectangles (money), and circles (land).  


Greed (performed by Abderrahman Anzaldua)

The Ends of Histories for piano and computer (digital video and audio) was commissioned by and is dedicated to pianist Kari Johnson.   The work presents sonic and visual materials meant to represent various historical and contemporary ideas regarding how history ends.  There are four types of materials that develop non-linearly in the work and are treated as incommensurable.  The materials represent the following conceptions of the end of history: a polarized religious ending to history whereby everyone either ascends into a pleasant world or descends into fire; a prophetic, spiritual, transcendent end that has appeared in many forms throughout history and is currently represented by the idea that there will be some kind of transition or cataclysm at the “end” of the Mayan calendar in 2012; a socio-political end in which capitalist-democracy supplants all other ideologies and all nation-states transition to this system; and two scientific ends, either mass extinctions as the earth approaches a giant ball of radiation or when an asteroid hits the earth.  view video here: http://www.christopherbiggsmusic.com/cb/works/multimedia/ends_histories.html

The Ends of Histories (performed by Kari Johnson)

Externalities for amplified cello, digital audio, and digital video was completed in 2011.  The piece reflects on economic externalities—costs of economic and consumer actions that are not reflected in the pricing of consumer goods.  The piece focuses primarily on negative environmental externalities.  The cellist represents a consumer who is trying to figure out how she wants to relate to this system.  In the first section she experiments with different actions and experiences the results, which are represented in the digital audio and video.  In the second section the cellist takes a broader look at the global economy and the climate.  In the final section the cellist imagines alternatives to the present system. view video: http://www.christopherbiggsmusic.com/cb/works/multimedia/externalities.html

Externalities (performed by Zachary Boyt)

Amass for clarinet and computer was completed in 2012 for clarinetist Mauricio Salguero.  The work combines live instrumental performance, real-time digital signal processing, and triggered audio and video files.  There are seven types of paired audio and visual materials that are presented in the work.  Each pair of audio and video material develops nonlinearly and abstractly represents a social force, group, and/or organization.    As the work progresses the divisions between the different types of materials progressively dissolves.  The work symbolizes a society that desires change more than the stability of group identity or pursuing individual desires via currently available mechanisms.  This work was inspired by the “Arab Spring” movements in the Middle East and the occupy Wall Street movements in the United States.  The statement below summarizes the semiotic structure of the work:

When groups of individuals with diverse social and political identities recognize their common interests in dismantling unjust, unnecessary, and/or coercive institutions they amass and foment the conditions for profound change.  


Amass (performed by Mauricio Salguero)

  I wrote 10-33 in 2008 for clarinetist Mauricio Salguero in response to a commission from the Missouri Music Teacher’s Association and the Music Teacher’s National Association.  The composer and Mauricio Salguero premiered the piece at Washington University at the Missouri Music Teacher’s Association Annual Conference in November 2008.
            The piece abstractly incorporates notions of symmetry outlined by Neon M. Lederman and Christopher T. Hill in their book “Symmetry and the beautiful universe.”  I am more concerned with the perception of symmetrical relationships than the precise application of mathematical symmetry.  Symmetrical relationships are loosely applied to register, proportion, dynamics, the balance of contrasting materials, panning, and the relationships between the instrument and the electronics.    Despite these considerations, the composition of the piece was quite free in terms of materials and overall form.  In 2010 I added a video at Mauricio's request. The video explores similar concepts of symmetry and consists of pictures of plants that I grew and trimmed. view video here: http://christopherbiggsmusic.com/cb/works/multimedia/10_33.html

Ten to the Power of Negative 33 (performed by Mauricio Salguero)

S**p Crackle  *O*

Object Metamorphosis II is a composition for wind ensemble and digital audio commissioned by the Macro Analysis Creative Research Organization (MACRO) and Truman State University.  The work was inspired by humankind’s investigations into the nature of light.  The materials of the work are initially very unfocused, then they become clearer and clearer; however, the underlying processes involved that create the foreground materials are always obscured.   
The basic harmonic structure of the work is based on circle-of-fifth’s motion and the large-scale resolution of altered dominant triads.  The foreground melodies, rhythms, and textures do not initially present themselves in their simplest form and then develop.   Rather, these materials develop non-linearly, often being introduced as fragments that form cohesive sections later in the work.        

Object Metamorphosis II (conducted by Robert Spradling)

Object Metamorphosis is a composition for wind symphony and digital audio based on a work of art by Jorge Garcia Almodovar entitled Black Modules (pictured below on the right wall).  Alomodovar’s work consists of ten identically sized and shaped, black, rectangular modules.  The sides of each three-dimensional module are either entirely or partially hidden, depending on the perspective of the viewer, and each side is a colored, reflective surface.    

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