Every Recording of Gymnopédie 1

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The performance of Dutty Tough", the second of a six song cycle entitled" Jamaican Plight" Performed by: Mikhail Johnson (piano) and Autum Cochran-Jordan (soprano)at the 2016 SCI Composers Conference at Ball State University's Sursa Hall on November 19, 2016.

Program notes: 
The Jamaican saying, “Rain a fall, but dutty tough,” which means that although the rain is falling, the ground is still dry and parched, is a Jamaican proverb that has a deeper meaning when applied to a person’s finances, as it could refer to the all-too-familiar situation in which income is being earned, but it is just not enough to cope with all the bills. Your money evaporates as soon as you get it, just as a drizzle of rain in the arid desert. The anecdote was popularized by Jamaican poet Louise Bennett Coverly in the 1940s where she expounds on the proverb in live an direct narration of her own experience in the Jamaican patois dialect. The soloist is the voice of the people and the pianist is the metaphoric and dramatic enactment of the situation being explained. The percussive effects of the piano represents hitting the ground (i.e. times of economic hardship and the magnitude therein) and the aftermath is mere dust as a sign of no breakthrough. There are instances of relief (some big, some small) but all is short-lived.

Dutty Tough 2016 SCI Student Concert

for solo voice.

Premiered by Kayleigh Butcher on February 4, 2017 at Spectrum, NYC. 

I am thinking about touch: physically, but also emotionally and intellectually. Touching and being touched. The meaning and the force that touch carries. I am also working with a text. Not a lyric to be sung, but trying different ways of feeling, of touching and being touched by words, by a work of literature. Touch not as an abstraction but rather touch as feeling one’s way through the work of (in this case) making music.

This piece was written for Kayleigh Butcher.

Touch - for solo voice

A falling star has nothing to do with stars. It is caused by tiny bits of dust and rock called meteoroids that swipe across Earth’s atmosphere and burn up. The trail of light thus created is a meteor. Since the ancient times, humans have been fascinated by changes in the unreachable sky. Falling stars, especially, have motivated countless myths, the most common being that one’s wishes can be granted.
 
On the contrary, the “falling” of a star depicts the death of an important person in Chinese Mythology. In Ancient China, each emperor was accompanied with a professional “star interpreter” who served to predict the kingdom’s future by studying the messages from God. It all seems mythical today, where myths and legends are largely despised by modern science. But if the Moon can exert tidal force on the Oceans, whereas Man is composed mostly of water, a meteoroid approaching close to Earth’s surface must affect the living beings in ways we are yet to understand. Perhaps the creation of this composition is infused with hidden meanings from such phenomenon.

Falling Stars

Fluxx (2017) is a trio for fute, bassoon, and horn, commissioned by Susy Smit, Cameron Keenan, and Cassie Eide. The piece focuses on register and texture. By using traditional and extended techniques, the texture evolves and fluctuates as the range and density expand to extreme points, while retaining consistent pitched material. The title gives a nod to the card game of the same name, in which the rules constantly change depending on what cards are on the table.

Fluxx (2017)

The music for THE UNPURGED IMAGES OF THE DAY is constructed in seven sections played without pause.  Each section takes its inspiration from a line or snippet of poetry of William Butler Yeats:
I.	…of hammered gold and gold enameling…  (Sailing to Byzantium)
II.	 …the ecstatic waters laugh…  (News for the Delphic Oracle)
III.	  …caught in the cold snows of a dream…  (The Road at my Door)
IV.	  …caught in that sensual music…  (Sailing to Byzantium)
V.	 …in pity for man’s darkening thought…  (Two Songs from a Play)
VI.	  …the brute blood of the air…  (Leda and the Swan)
VII.  …in glory of changeless metal…  (Byzantium)

These fragments of texts provided both sonic imagery for each section and a shape for the flow of intensity of the piece as a whole.  Also, several of the bits of text seemed to speak of characteristic sounds of the trombone and piano (“hammered gold”, “changeless metal”).  Hence there is no specific story depicted by the music; rather the sound world and the flow of musical events is shaped, in a more general way, by the images and associations that seemed to flow through the words.  The title is also from a Yeats poem (Byzantium).  The electronic sounds are all derived from the trombone (and trumpet in a few places), the piano, the human voice, and the bicycle.  Hence the sound world is largely homogeneous, and the effect might be thought of as a meta-ensemble (or perhaps of a duo of the future with cyber-enhancements).  At times it may be difficult to tell who (or what) is producing the sounds of the moment.

This recording features friends and colleagues JoDee Davis, trombone and Robert Pherigo, piano.

The Unpurged Images Of The Day

Performed with Vincent Sauer, piano - Bowling Green State University Student Composers' Forum, Bryan Recital Hall, February 14, 2017.

"In the United States, an average of 20 people are physically abused by intimate partners every minute. This equates to more than 10 million abuse victims annually. Every 9 seconds in the US a woman is assaulted or beaten. Physical violence is often accompanied by emotionally abusive and controlling behavior as part of a much larger, systematic pattern of dominance and control. The devastating consequences of domestic violence can cross generations and last a lifetime." Despite these horrors, fear, low self esteem, and belief that their abuser will change lead many victims to stay in these relationships. Source: the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence


Altitude

I wonder
how it would be here with you,
where the wind
that has shaken off its dust in low valleys
touches one cleanly,
as with a new-washed hand,
and pain
is as the remote hunger of droning things,
and anger
but a little silence
sinking into the great silence.
               -Lola Ridge, 1873-1941

Altitude

Premiered at SPLICE Electroacoustic Music Festival 2017

For more on this AWESOME composer, visit his soundcloud page! https://soundcloud.com/danielsitler

For more info on the history of Cicero's Lorem Ipsum and its use as randomly generated text: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorem_ipsum

Daniel Sitler: On The Ends Of Good And Evil

Me doing a cover of Smoke Signals by Phoebe Bridgers

Smoke Signals (cover)

Some noodling on a cigar box guitar I built.

New Guitar Demo

Slow Dancing In The Dark (Joji)

Joy Sitler used to compose art music. You can find some of their work here.

Fluxx (2017)

Joy Sitler

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