sketch for Horn, Cello and Piano (midi)

Mirrored Images Of Starlings In Flight

M =12th letter of the hellenic greek alphabet.
M=C5 in hellenic greek vocal notation (also C 1/4#, C# and D depending on the tuning)
µ (lowercase m (mu))= F5 in hellenic greek vocal notation (also F 1/4#, F# and G depending on the tuning)
µ = 40 in hellenic greek
µ' = 400 in hellenic greek
mu = base for various words related to sounds made with the mouth: mute, mutter, mumble, murmur.
mu also means "word" (as in mot (fr., as in 'motet')
mute = mutus in latin = 'to shut ones mouth' (i.e. to stop sound)
ablative of mutus = muta.
muta = "to change" or "to filter" (i.e. changing a sound), therefore:
muta = mutare (latin) or mutate "to change," or transmute, "to change from one thing into another" (to filter...).

the list goes on and on...here is a slightly more poetic way of describing the proto-indo-european root:

"The root of the Greek word for myth, muthos, is mu, which means to close or keep secret. Muo means to close one’s eyes or mouth, to mute the voice or to remain mute. Myth remembers discretely and selectively. Myth closes its eyes to certain events and closes its mouth. The agencies for the muting and transmuting of the remembered past are the Muses, and the term muse is derived from the same root as the word myth. In Greek mythology the Muses are the daughters of Memory (Mnemosyne). The Muses make it possible to remember the past fondly or heroically, but they do so with fog filters. (The Latin verb mutare means to change.) The Muses bring into being music and museums, but not, in the first instance, for purely aesthetic or merely archival purposes. The cultural archive and anthems that the Muses preserve represent the mythological remembrance of things past". 

Mµ - section I (mockup - ver. 1)

Mµ - mock up, version 2 has a better piano sound, but is missing the ebow. There are also (for some reason) weird digital artifacts in the quiet opening sections. I think this is finale and/or my computer having a TIA, i.e. a small stroke.....

Mµ - section I (version. 2)

This was originally a quadrophonic work. It was part of artist Ben Jones' "Technicolor Happening" installation at the Ace Gallery in Beverly Hills. Douglas Chrismas, the founder and director of the Ace suggested creating the whole piece out of ping pong ball sounds…so I did:).

Piece description as it appeared at the ACE Gallery:

"Apollonian Gasket by LA based composer David Utzinger was commission by Ace Gallery Director Douglas Chrismas. An Apollonian Gasket is a type of recursive "ring" or circle, made up of smaller circles, i.e. circles within circles. Utzinger states, "I think that patterns and loops are important to this exhibition, and recursion and loops are pretty closely related. Also, I like the word "Apollonian," which invokes thoughts of discipline and beauty, next to the word "gasket," which makes me think of cars and oil pans, and dirt."

Apollonian Gasket

Fantasie For String Quartet: bestea Neptuni Quinotauri similis

Glass Chickens

300,000 Starlings Swarm Over Denmark (murmurations I - V)

My debut as conductor: great players, terrible conductor.

Stasis for Two Amplified Flutes and Percussion

My Jüngelinge. My Artikulation. I also really wanted to use the name Degenerate Star.

Degenerate Star

Young Sexy Assassins was a band I played keyboards in during the early aughts. Hot pants and Austria was the name of the game.

David.Gerhard.Utzinger

Pinned to spotlight