Biblaridion - for trombone octet

Spirare II (2023) for vibraphone, marimba, and two pianos

Commissioned by Justus and Elizabeth Schlichting for the 2023 Bang on a Can Summer Festival

Completed May 27, 2023
Premiered July 29, 2023 as part of Bang on a Can's Loud Weekend 2023 by Todd Reynolds (cond.), Claire Litwinowicz (vln.), Santiago Velo Quintairos (vla.), Elizabeth Kate (vc.), JP Bernabe (cb.), Abrielle Scott (fl.), Anne Pinkerton (ob.), Lucas Gianini (cl.), Will Pyle (sax), Maya Stone (bsn.), Betty Chen (pno.), and Ethan Strickland (perc.)

I love watching ensembles play. There’s always so much happening at any given moment: all this cuing and tuning and listening and watching. The complicated group dynamics going on can be dizzying to keep track of, and within larger chamber ensembles, there can be such an intricate web of communication that it feels like a miracle that pieces hold together at all. 

This kind of intimate group communication happens all the time in nature, and one of the most familiar is the flock. Flocks of birds have often been written about in a near-mythological manner - the massive patterns they form and their hypnotic motion have inspired studies and superstitions alike. They can grow to be tens of thousands strong, but despite all their apparent organization, flocks do not have a solitary leader. Instead, individuals hone in on the signals of their seven closest neighbors, and they move about together. Since each neighbor will have its own seven neighbors and so on, a signal from one end of the flock eventually ripples all the way to the other. 

Of a Feather is inspired by the whirling coordination of flocks. Gestures are imitated and scattered throughout the group a la flock communication, and much of the vocabulary of the piece is filled with rushing motion. The piece is mercurial and vibrant, moving rapidly through key areas while freely expanding and contracting its motifs. Ultimately, Of a Feather is a study in ensemble communication, treating its members equally as individuals and parts of a whole.

Many thanks to Justus and Elizabeth Schlichting for commissioning the piece, and much gratitude to the fellows of the 2023 Bang on a Can Summer Festival for realizing it.

Of a Feather, for chamber ensemble

longing is an aviary (2023) for orchestra
 
This work draws its title from Ross Gay’s poem “Because,” which depicts longing with an evocative catalogue of images which are quivering, luminous, and full of motion. I explore this same trembling effect in a series of tightly controlled, virtuosic dances for orchestra which spiral outwards from a single pitch. This music is driven by a kaleidoscopic sense of color, a process of refracting and unwinding, and a momentum which eventually builds into a frenzied, shimmering aviary of birds. longing is an aviary was written for the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, conducted by Tim Weiss in Spring 2023.

Performed April 2023 by the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and conductor Tim Weiss, Symphony Center, Chicago, IL. Mixed and mastered by Marc Alletag.

Special thanks to Jonathan McCormick and Anna Thompson

Image: 'Aviary' by Annie Davidson

longing is an aviary (2023) for orchestra

Taken from the album 'Woodwind Multiples' due for release via Modern Love on July 7th. 2023.

8B4 (1985/2022) is played by Manuel Zurria and is for four bass flutes. It is a revision of 8x4, which was written in 1985 for the DownTown Ensemble and was only performed once, due to its unusual instrumentation: alto flute, English horn (originally bass oboe), clarinet, and voice.

Woodwind Multiples

Mary Jane Leach - 8B4

Tom Morrison Messages In The Ground

ALLEGORY for bassoon, live electronics & lights

FOR_VOICE_VERSION_II_2023 for alto voice and live electronics

Premiered by Gallicantus on February 29th, 2024 in Princeton, NJ. Photo by Bolton Howes.


TEXT

Ad mortem sic vita fluit, velut ad mare flumen.
Vivere nam res est dulcis, amara mori. 

— John Owen (1564–1622)


Translation: 

So life flows to death, as a river to the sea.
For to live is a sweet thing, to die is bitter

PROGRAM NOTE

The text of this piece, a latin epigram by the Welsh poet John Owen, touches on the inherent melancholy bound up in the human experience. My setting is an attempt to evoke certain facets of this melancholy, such as the unsettling feeling of time slipping away.

Sic vita fluit (2024) for five voices [ATTBB]

perforat[interfer]e explores acoustic phenomena as music material generator. 

Recorded by Cadeaux Quartet at the Ryan Opera Theatre, Northwestern University.

Soprano: Philip Kleutgens
Alto: Yun Qu Tan
Tenor: Brian Kachur
Baritone: Natalia Warthen

perforat[interfer]e (saxophone quartet)

Of other spaces
for five spatialized musicians
Commissioned by Ensemble Fractales

Ensemble Fractales

Spirare II (2023) for vibraphone, marimba, and two pianos

Carlos Bandera

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