Junctions and Parallels for piano solo, performed by Seung-Hye Kim, Oct 18, 2013.

Junctions And Parallels

This is a preview: not finished, not properly mixed, just an improv on some material I am working on  !

Slumber

Dans la grotte

JACK Quartet.

Few sounds I have found to be as fascinating as those of the bearded seals from the Chukchi sea in the Arctic Ocean. My first encounter with them happened a few years back, when my friend and collaborator Aaron Oppenheim shared an audio file included in the Summer issue of the 1969 Zoologica journal of the New York Zoological Society, which featured bearded seal recordings by Ray, Watkins and Burns. When I began thinking of material to write a piece for the JACK Quartet, I thought that the sounds of the bearded seals would be ideal material for strings –the constant glissandi and the high resolution microtonal nuances characteristic of seal songs can be performed by no other acoustic instruments as idiomatically. All the music performed by the string quartet derives from transcriptions of several bearded seal songs, which were generously provided to me by Joshua Jones, researcher at the Scripps Whale Acoustic Lab, University of California, San Diego. Variations of the transcriptions (mainly in pitch and duration) were based on statistics of the bearded seal repertoire from 2008-2009, included in the Jones et al. article: Ringed, Bearded, and Ribbon Seal Vocalizations North of Barrow, Alaska: Seasonal Presence and Relationship with Sea Ice. The electronics for this piece consist of a hydrophone recording of sea ice from the Chukchi sea, also a contribution of the Scripps Whale Acoustic Lab.  


Under The Sea Ice (fragments)

alberene (2017) for two vibraphones and two pianos is a study in stasis - metamorphosis under a current of minute changes.

alberene (2017) for yarn|wire

Lirlgul

Performers: Kelly Sulick, flute; Christopher Luna-Mega: Electronics

"En la escalera de la Torre de la Victoria, habita desde el principio del tiempo el A Bao A Qu, sensible a los valores de las almas humanas. Vive en estado letárgico, en el primer escalón, y sólo goza de vida consciente cuando alguien sube la escalera. La vibración de la persona que se acerca le infunde vida, y una luz interior se insinúa en él. Al mismo tiempo, su cuerpo y su piel casi traslúcida empiezan a moverse. Cuando alguien asciende la escalera, el A Bao A Qu se coloca en los talones del visitante y sube prendiéndose del borde de los escalones curvos y gastados por los pies de generaciones de peregrinos. En cada escalón se intensifica su color, su forma se perfecciona y la luz que irradia es cada vez más brillante. Testimonio de su sensibilidad es el hecho de que sólo logra su forma perfecta en el último escalón, cuando el que sube es un ser evolucionado espiritualmente".

“On the stairway of the Tower of Victory there has lived since the beginning of time a being sensitive to the many shades of the human soul and known as the A Bao A Qu. It lies dormant, for the most part on the first step, until at the approach of a person some secret life is touched off in it, and deep within the creature an inner light begins to glow. (…) At each level the creature’s color becomes more intense, its shape approaches perfection, and the bluish form it gives off is more brilliant. But it achieves its ultimate form only at the topmost step, when the climber is a person who has attained Nirvana and whose acts cast no shadows”.   

Fragment of A Bao A Qu, by Jorge Luis Borges.

La torre de Chitor is inspired by the short story A Bao A Qu by Jorge Luis Borges, included in The Book of Imaginary Beings (1968). The piece represents the performer’s ascension to the top of the Tower of Victory and the gradual coming into being of the A Bao A Qu. The electronics embody the being’s response to the performer. The music flows from the flute’s bottom register progressively to the upper register, from a single band width to multiple band widths, from the unison to the micro-tonal cluster. As these elements gradually build, there is an activation of a transcendental glow analogous to the process of the performer.

La Torre De Chitor

The main idea of this piece is the projection, amplification and development of the resonance of a stop sign. The starting point of this project was the selection of significant events picked up by a contact microphone placed on the stop sign that is located in Richards Road and Kapiolani roads, at the entrance of Mills College. These events are characterized by the emergence of certain frequencies that are produced when the vibrations of the passing vehicles reach the stop sign. In the original field recording, these frequencies have a quite subtle quality, as they barely sound louder than the harmonic spectrum of the stop sign in very brief and sporadic fragments within the recording. In order to reinforce the perception of the frequencies of the stop sign and their relations, I studied its harmonic spectrum and created filters with the purpose of emphasizing its frequencies, which allowed me to manipulate them in order to develop harmonic relations, dynamic contours and changes in texture. The most audible notes of this spectrum are: B flat, F, A flat, C, D, and E flat, all approximately a quarter tone higher. For timbral variations I duplicated this harmonic spectrum of the stop sign creating sine waves with frequency modulation that would be paired in stereo with their relative filtered frequency. Due to the magnified listening experience made possible by a contact microphone, I understand this piece as an immersion into a sheet of metal.

The field recording of the stop sign was made by Edward Stumpp. 


Stopsign study

National School of Music (Mexico) Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Rocha and directed by Sergio Cárdenas. Premiere: September 30th, 2009. Nezahualcóyotl Concert Hall, UNAM, Mexico City, Mexico.

The title of this piece, Topographies, refers not only to mountains but to the mind. Just as topography shows variations in altitude, the mind also fluctuates through different stages of activity in peaks and valleys. The sections of this piece are based on several harmonic spectra that are used as foundations for harmony and rhythm. The creative process consists on a thorough listening of a single sound, i.e., the sound of the open fourth string of the double bass, its underlying harmonies (overtones), and their evolution in time. This piece is dedicated to my Composition and Orchestration teacher, Ulises Ramírez.





Topografías

(cl, 2 ten sax, horn in f, 3 perc, 4 elec. guit., 2 pianos, vl, vc, db, electronics)
Premiere: November 26, 2012. Littlefield Concert Hall, Mills College. 
Joint ensemble with Berkeley JIM directed by Myra Melford and Mills College MIE directed by Fred Frith. Christopher Luna, cond. 

This piece is part of a larger scale project that focuses on the perception of sounds in any environment as germinal musical ideas, as well as the translation of such sounds into musical material for acoustic and electronic instruments. In this piece, the main elements at play are: 1. the rhythms, envelopes and density of the passing vehicles in a freeway; 2. the harmony derived from a receding group of motorcycles; 3. the melodic contour that results from accelerating and decelerating the motor of a vehicle; and 4. the harmonic spectrum of a stop sign. All these materials were previously recorded and my intentions were to use their aural content literally –not metaphorically- as a departing point for motivic and orchestrational development. This piece incorporates conducted improvisation strategies practiced with the Mills College MIE II ensemble during the fall of 2012. All my gratitude to the musicians who made this performance possible as well as to Fred Frith for his invaluable advice. I also thank  Edward Stumpp for providing some of the recordings used in the piece. This piece is dedicated to my cousin Omar, to his unique and bright vision of the world.  

Freeway Stopsign (for Omar)

(for chamber orchestra) 

Performers 

Rachel Condry, clarinet
Joshua Marshall, tenor saxophone
Peter Sloan, trombone
Aprille Tang, electronics
Stephan Haluska, harp
Brian Baumbusch, acoustic guitar
Jacob Peck, electric guitar
Julie Moon, piano
Tim Black, percussion
Scott Siler, percussion
Tim Kim, violin 1
Dylan Neely, violin 2
Crystal Pascucci, cello 1
Kimberly Sutton, cello 2
Christopher Luna, conductor 

About the piece

The music included in this cycle originated from a collection of sounds that I have listened to and recorded in different locations (the city, a studio, the woods, etc.) and that became the prime materials of my work during my stay in Mills College. As I listened to these sounds, I became interested in the way in which their harmony, rhythm, density, dynamics and timbre relate to each other and how they evolve in time. In the process of translation from field recording to instrumental music there is a transformation that occurs due to notation, acoustics, and esthetics. My objective is to bring these sounds to music (are they music already?) as faithfully as possible, establishing a direct connection to their original form, imagining their transformation as transmigration (in sanscrit, Jatyantara-parinamah): the characteristic traits of a sound are detached from their source and born into a new form (the composition, the musician and the instrument), adding to it a new layer of existence and at the same time keeping the essence of its previous source.


Under The Sea Ice (fragments)

Christopher Luna-Mega

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