Composed in March, 2015 using SuperCollider and Logic.

See the accompanying video projection at https://youtu.be/0UC58TFsW_g

Winter Meditation

Emily Duncan, flute

Performed on 4/17/15 at the University of Iowa

Repercussions No. 2

Miniature created for a call for "sonic haikus." Created using SuperCollider and Logic from 3 sound sources: radio static/chatter, saxophone multiphonics, and 19th century Edison dolls.
The formal structure uses time ratios that match the syllable numbers of a haiku. The time ratio of each section is 5:7:5, respectively.

utter - clarity - vocal

Performed by Altius Quartet on 9/30/15.

This piece opens with a jarring fugue that spins out, leading to a long and slow aleatoric section with a lyrical viola solo feature. The final major section is a manic, dance-like reimagining of the original fugal themes. The piece ends on a coda hymn featuring the viola tune from the middle section.

The title of the piece is taken from a poem called "Metastasis" by David Baker.

"Then the breakers turning back to brightness, if the light’s
opaque ocean-blue sameness in the sky can be said to break,
the way the waves themselves, blue in back of blue
like a color in the eye, fall back to the wall — sea wrack,
driftwood, or the inner optic shelf behind the lens.
Then the gulls and simple cirrus strands turn back to light.
Then to inland sparrows, drifting under blue Ohio’s sky — 
it’s a work day and the heat is the heat of the color
of your clothes, wash day, and hands hurt from the swinging of a scythe.
Then it’s day into night at the heart of the seeds
that fell from your hands breaking open, strewn in rows
like water along the ancient seabed floor of the farm.
Someone is standing at the door. Someone is waving from the car.
This day and that one sinking to brightness and the blue
evening wall before that, and a seed that fell from a star
becoming, as you will say, one day, all we will become."

A Seed That Fell From A Star, Becoming All We Will Become

Composed October, 2015 using SuperCollider and Logic.

root_glitch

Jacob Eichhorn, clarinet; Alaina DeBellevue, piano

This sonata for clarinet and piano is named after the final line from the Keats poem, "On Seeing the Elgin Marbles." The Elgin Marbles are sculptures taken from the Greek Parthenon in the 19th century. Upon viewing them, he calls them "A sun- a shadow of a magnitude."

The piece is in three movements, with the traditional sonata fast-slow-fast structure.

Shadow of a Magnitude

Performed 2-24-16 at the University of Colorado-Boulder. Christina Adams, mezzo-soprano; Alaina DeBellevue, piano. Distortions/digital anomalies are the result of the live recording process.

This piece was written for singer Christina Adams (who also wrote the poem
"Firebelly." We wanted to do a song cycle of American poets, including some
she personally knew. In the end, I chose a poem by her ("Firebelly"), her former
mentor Seido Ray Ronci (an excerpt from his collection "Skeleton of the Crow"),
my current partner Madison Mosely ("At Versailles"), and two classics: Walt
Whitman ("The Sobbing of the Bells") and Carl Sandburg (an excerpt from
"Prairie").
The electronics are various processed samples from sources of nature, bells,
Christina's voice, and some synthesized material. A surround video has been made
to accompany the piece as well.

I. The Sobbing of the Bells (Whitman)
II. Prairie (Sandburg)
III. At Versailles (Mosely)
IV. Firebelly (Adams)
V. Skeleton of the Crow (Ronci)

Brian D Kelly

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