"Depth" for String Quartet, composed in the Fall of 2021, explores a constantly evolving sound world in which out of nothing everything is allowed to grow and expand. 

Read on Oct. 28th, 2021 by the New Composers String Quartet featuring Gabby Diaz and Lilit Hartunian on Violin, Sam Kelder on Viola, and Josh Gordon on Cello.

Depth (October 2021)

"Absent Texture" for solo clarinet, written in the Spring of 2021, explores the concept of an object that sits in the middle of both immaterial and material states of mater. It exist, yet simultaneously it doesn't. It is as if it was never there, but the memory and tangibility of it still lingers.

Premiered by Kliment Krylolvskiy on April 30th, 2021 in collaboration with the Society of Composers at the Berklee College of Music.

Absent Texture (March 2021)

Read by Sound Icon on April 6th, 2022 at the Berklee College of Music featuring Jessi Rosinski on Alto Flute, Ashley Addington on Bass Clarinet, Lilit Hartunian on Violin, Steve Marotto on Cello, and Jeffrey Means as conductor.

"Light Interacting with Water," completed in March 2022,  explores the sonic embodiment of the refraction, reflection, and absorption of light when coming into contact with water. This work is inspired by my observations of the interaction of water and light on the Charles River during twilight, just before the sun’s light finally dissipates. During these observations, I noticed the intrinsic patterns of reflection and refraction that form and produce a profoundly beautiful texture of metallic, glistening light. It is this transformation of light and water into metal that proves to be so profound. 

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Below I have also included a short poem I wrote representing the emotional setting of "Light Interacting with Water" :

An orange streak lines the horizon 
As if the water, 
Filled with static, 
Radiates,
Pulsates, 
Light and sound.  

Light abstracts the horizon
As color melts into the water. 
Everything dies 
And fades 
Into darkness.
This is the call.

Light Interacting With Water (March 2022)

"it will end." explores the simple idea of the constant ascent of pitch and register from one extreme to another and uses dense polyphony to create a constantly morphing sound world rich in resonance and texture. The piece draws its name from the inherent emotive feeling of emerging from a muddy abyss to an awakening of light cascading down upon organic life. Similar to noticing the end of a tunnel and the sharp juxtaposition of the center of the tunnel and the opening welcoming you into an airy crystalline environment.

Written for the PHACE ensemble, conducted by Sebastian Almanzar, and premiered on July 4, 2022 in Vienna, Austria. 

For clarinet, viola, cello, piano, and percussion.

it will end. (June 2022)

"i think i can move on now." is an introspective work written in the summer of 2022 drawing on a personal experience of identity, expression, and self-acceptance. Much of this work reflects on my experience as a gay, nonbinary person and the overall sentiment of the queer community. The piece began as an exploration of timbre and quickly became symbolic for navigation of self and the journey to inner contentment.

"i think i can move on now." is an intimately exploratory piece reflecting overcoming self-hatred and self- detriment. Often when we talk about these issues it is deemed as “taboo” or to be dealt with yourself and not shared. However, I offer this piece as a means to converse about this innately sensitive and human emotion. To be so deep into self-hate is to be buried alive, and I seek to expose this in i think i can move on now. to serve as a reminder not only to myself but to my audience that moving forward is inevitable and the culmination of the grieving process. Of course, in this instance, I am reflecting on the grief I’ve experienced from realizing the gravitas of the self-detriment I was inflicting upon myself throughout, essentially, my whole life. This is not an easy process and is not easily learned. I hope that by sharing this, we can begin the conversation on this innately human emotion.

In addition to exploring and expressing this uniquely human feeling, I seek to also employ experimental techniques to best convey this maximally strong emotion. The culmination of this is the use of breath. All performers, at some point, are instructed on specific breathing and sounds to produce via the breath. In addition to this, I have incorporated a short poem in this piece, originally written to describe a previous work, Light Interacting with Water (Spring 2022), which I wish to use to express a strong pull to nature as a means to process this complex feeling.

An orange streak lines the horizon As if the water,
Filled with static,
Radiates,
Pulsates,
Light and sound.
Light abstracts the horizon
As the color melts into the water. Everything fades
And dies
Into darkness.
This is the Call.

I offer this poem as a grounding source in it all. A means of introspection and insight that allows us to move forward.
i think i can move on now. begins with largely unpitched material in a dense, a-rhythmic texture. This texture is riddled with vocalizations in the breath. This movement lands at periods of introspection with the reading of the poem coupled with glass-like bowed percussion instruments. It all culminates in an ascent into crystalline structures symbolizing light gleaning onto rich earth.

Written for the 2022 Walden School Composers Forum to be performed by Isabel Lepanto Gleicher of the International Contemporary Ensemble and Kyle Flens of Ensemble Dal Niente.

i think i can move on now. (May 2022)

A 10 min demo track of an ongoing improvisation project focused on the auditory documentation various Massachusetts waterways. Features myself on trumpet and field recordings from the Charles River including the vibrations of Longfellow Bridge captured via homemade contact microphones. 

Electronics created by me via Max/MSP.

Improv 11/11/22 - Boston Waterway Documentation DEMO

Improvisation captured on 11/11/22 of Rat Chasm featuring Marie Carrol on koto and myself on trumpet. 

Electronics created via Max/MSP and pedalboard by each performer.

Improvisation - Rat Chasm - 11.22 - Track 1

Improvisation captured on 11/11/22 of Rat Chasm featuring Marie Carrol on koto and myself on trumpet.

Electronics created via Max/MSP and pedalboard by each performer.

Improvisation - Rat Chasm-  11.22 - Track 2

Improvisation - Rat Chasm - 11.22 - Track 3

Written for the JACK Quartet at New Music on the Point (NMOP) in June 2023

Sound engineer: Brian Riordan

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“i know the story of a rose.” is part of a series of works inspired by Clarice Lispector’s novella Agua Viva. This work in particular draws its musical nature from the intimate and delicate relationship found in the excerpt below:

“I know the story of a rose. Does it seem strange to you to speak of a rose when I am talking about animals? But it acted in a way that recalls the animal mysteries. Every two days I would buy a rose and place it in water in a vase made specially narrow to hold the long stem of a single flower. Every two days the rose would wilt and I would exchange it for another. Until one certain rose. It was rose-colored without coloring or grafting just naturally of the most vivid rose color. Its beauty expanded the heart by great breadths. It seemed so proud of the turgescence of its wide open corolla and of its own petals that its haughtiness held it almost erect. Because it was not completely erect: with graciousness it bent over its stem which was fine and fragile. An intimate relationship intensely developed between me and the flower: I admired her and she seemed to feel admired. And she became so glorious in her apparition and was observed with such love that days went by and she did not wilt: her corolla remained wide open and swollen, fresh as a newborn flower. She lasted in beauty and life an entire week. Only then did she start to show signs of some fatigue. Then she died. It was with reluctance that I replaced her. And I never forgot her. The strange thing is that my maid asked me once out of the blue: “and that rose?” I didn’t ask which one. I knew. That rose that lived from love given at length was remembered because the woman had seen how I looked at the flower and transmitted to her the waves of my energy. She had blindly intuited that something had gone on between me and the rose. That rose-made me want to call it ‘Jewel of my life;’ because I often give things names-had so much instinct by nature that I and she had been able to live each other profoundly, as only can happen between beast and man.”

"i know the story of a rose." for JACK Quartet (June 2023)

Caleb Walker (they/them) is an experimental composer, conductor, performer, and improviser. Focused on the cross-roads of music composition and improvisation with environmental advocacy, ecological processes, and queer studies, Caleb strives for intrinsic organismic in their work. Currently based in Boston, Massachusetts, and having recently graduated from Berklee College of Music.

Caleb Walker

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