Keepsake for Rishi, performed by Meerenai Shim (Contrabass flute) and Kris King (Contraforte) at Santa Clara University on February 20, 2019. This piece was written for this incarnation of the ensemble Keyed Kontraptions and is dedicated to Rishi Dhanivan Sweeney.

https://keyedkontraptions.com/

http://brettaustineastman.com/

Keepsake for Rishi

Jessie Nucho performing the world premiere of Passover, by Brett Austin Eastman, at Center for New Music in San Francisco on July 10, 2021. Notes from the composer about the piece:

Passover is a part of a series of three works for flute exploring the concept of feedback.This work overall is about processing anxiety. It is a musical interpretation of a poem by Jessie Nucho written as a way of managing anxiety.The piece itself is the result of a feedback process: the words of a personal struggle, when transformed through another’s lens, can evolve from their original meaning and become something new. The text of the original poem is reprocessed as music, then fed-back to its author, who performs the world premiere, reinterpreting the original work in an entirely new medium, and thus, in a different mindset.The audience reaction during performance represents the last form of feedback experienced in the process, allowing the performer to see a new self-reflection.

To achieve the text-to-music transcription, I started by using a cryptogram developed for the piece. In this cryptogrammic technique designed to transcribe text into melodic phrases, each letter in the alphabet corresponds to a specific musical pitch and duration. I also use a technique called aspirated articulation for recreating certain speech sounds, such as unvoiced fricatives “s,” “t,” etc. and eliding them with the next pitch, thus creating an artificial attack to the principle note, notated as a grace note right before the main note.

-Brett Austin Eastman


For full video, please click the following link:
https://youtu.be/lYFwsHTVeH8

For more information:
http://brettaustineastman.com/

Passover (2020) - performed by Jessie Nucho

San Francisco new music trio, Slow Wave, performing Paraphrase at Old First in San Francisco on January 8, 2022. Naomi Stine on piano, Kyle Beard on bass clarinet, and Justine Preston on viola.

To see video of the full performance:
https://youtu.be/W2xY5Cfl5xY?t=2709

Paraphrase was written for Slow Wave for their inaugural performance in 2019. It consists of three movements, each of which is approximately 5 minutes in length. The first movement, Consolation, presents themes by each instrument, solo at first, but gradually becoming intertwined in an ecstatic build-up. The second movement, Revenent, contains music that was channeled from the death of a loved one. The third and final movement, Chi Io, explores the childhood influences of the composer, including a paraphrased theme from a Bay Area crust-punk/sludgecore band called Noothgrush. The title is both a reference to the bands drummer, Chiyo Nukaga, as well as to the composer. The Italian words "chi" and "io" literally translate to the English words "who" and "I."

For more information
http://brettaustineastman.com/

Paraphrase I. Consolation

Paraphrase II. Revenent

Paraphrase III. Chi Io

Movement IV from MISMA, a classical quartet piece composed about female punk musicians by Brett Austin Eastman in 2018. The violin solo at the beginning is partly a musical representation (using a cryptogrammic technique which turns letters into notes and durations) of the following Kathleen Hanna quote:

"I wanted to make something I wanted to hear that I wasn't hearing."

Mia Bella D'Augelli - violin, Misha Khalikulov - cello, Naomi Stine - piano, Kyle Beard - clarinet.

Recorded by Lucas Boilon.

Mixed by Brett Austin Eastman.

For video of the premiere performance of the full piece, click the following link:
https://youtu.be/qX9J_GU7hwI

For more information:
http://brettaustineastman.com

MISMA IV - Kathleen Hanna, for violin, cello, clarinet, and piano

Siroko Duo performing La Musique by Brett Austin Eastman on February 2, 2018 at Center For New Music, presented by Hot Air Music Festival.

Jessie Nucho - alto flute
Victoria Hauk - flute

https://sirokoduo.com/

LA MUSIQUE is a work written for flute and alto flute. The title is taken directly from the poem of the same name by Charles Baudelaire. The piece was composed using three compositional ideas. The primary
compositional idea is a musical transcription of the poem using a comprehensive cryptogram developed for the piece. In this cryptogrammic technique designed to transcribe French text into melodic phrases, each letter in the alphabet corresponds to a specific musical pitch and duration, and quite often is accompanied by a fricative textural sound to mimic the pronunciation of the letter - aspirated articulation. The second compositional technique used in the piece involves a melodic rendition of recordings of myself reading the text out loud. Lastly, a lyrical theme serves as a link between the first and second ideas.

The compositional techniques complement each other like a mosaic pattern, modeled after the parallelism of the poem’s verses. The form of the poem influences the form of the piece. Textures and timbres in the flute writing are informed by the music of the spoken language.

LA MUSIQUE was written for Siroko Duo. 

LA MUSIQUE
La musique souvent me prend comme une mer!
Vers ma pâle étoile,
Sous un plafond de brume ou dans un vaste éther,
Je mets à la voile;
La poitrine en avant et les poumons gonfés
Comme de la toile
J'escalade le dos des fots amoncelés
Que la nuit me voile;
Je sens vibrer en moi toutes les passions
D'un vaisseau qui souffre;
Le bon vent, la tempête et ses convulsions
Sur l'immense gouffre
Me bercent. D'autres fois, calme plat, grand miroir
 De mon désespoir!

 MUSIC
Music often moves me like vast waters!
 Toward my obscure star,
Under a fog’s roof or in a boundless ether,
 Sail set for the afar ;
Chest out and lungs full of air
 Spread out like a tarp,
I skate the backs of mounding waves
 That the night warps;
I feel vibrating in me all of the passions
 Of a writhing ship;
The strong wind, the storm and its tractions
 On this immensely wide split
I lull. Other times, still as glass, great mirror
 Of my hopelessness! 

Translation: Brett Austin Eastman

La Musique - for flute and alto flute *live at Center for New Music Feb 2, 2018

Movements 4 -7 of MAINFRAME, a string quartet composed by Brett Austin Eastman in 2016.

Presented as a part of the Walden School Composers Forum 2020, performed by Del Sol String Quartet on 02-22-20. 

MAINFRAME was pre-conceived as large arch-form example of distorted symmetry, or not-quite-symmetrical symmetry. What you are hearing is the 2nd half of the piece.

Recorded by Brett Austin Eastman.

MAINFRAME - Movements IV-VII for string quartet

Jessie Nucho performing the world premiere of In Response, by Brett Austin Eastman, at Center for New Music in San Francisco on Jan 18, 2020. Notes from the composer about the piece:

"The first part of a three-work suite for flute, In Response is written for flute and tape. It is about the pain of being concerned about the direction of society and feeling like you are following an endless stream of society’s self-fulfilling media stories with no way to tell your story back to it. The tape part is a pre-recorded feedback performance using an electric guitar and ring modulator, representing the daily streams of information we receive from higher up sources that can’t hear our voice. The flute represents the individual voice in response."

-Brett Austin Eastman

For full video, please click the following link:
https://youtu.be/8dhSCpnnpjI

For more information:
http://brettaustineastman.com/

In Response (2019)- performed by Jessie Nucho

San Francisco new music trio, Slow Wave, giving the world premiere of Paraphrase by Brett Austin Eastman at Center For New Music on October 5th, 2019. This piece was written for Slow Wave - Naomi Stine on piano, Kyle Beard on bass clarinet, and Justine Preston on viola.

To see video of the full performance:
https://youtu.be/n56HlbL9BGM

For more information
http://brettaustineastman.com/

The Emerald City is a collage piece composed in 2016, using a field recording of the 4th of July fireworks show in Redding, CA as it's base. It travels through personal themes of Americana and religion before making its departure toward The Emerald City.

Brett Austin Eastman

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