The first movement of my Woodwind Quintet, composed between 2004 to 2018. Though the movement follows the architectural methods of the Baroque passacaglia, it is also very abstract in its use of melodic transfiguration and tonal schematics. 

This movement is dedicated to the memory of Chuck Bond, a man I worked with while I was employed as a manager for a newspaper delivery company in the Hudson Valley.

Woodwind Quintet - Passacaglia (In Memoriam Chuck Bond)

Against Representation, Chapter 3

sound of disquiet 2

In both movements of this quartet, each instrument gets assigned a repeating rhythmic pattern—sequences of notes and rests of equal length (say, all eighth notes). 

The first violin plays a pattern of 11 beats (6 notes, 5 rests), the second violin a 7-beat pattern (4 notes, 3 rests), the viola 6 (3+3), and the cello 5 (3+2). These patterns cycle independently.

One full cycle  takes 2310 beats—the least common multiple of 11, 7, 6, and 5.

But—crucially—beat durations vary.

Indeed, the duration of a beat depends on its density—meaning how many instruments are sounding at that moment (0 through 4). Each density appears a fixed number of times within the full cycle, independent of pattern contents assuming the constraints above. 

The twist: beat durations get adjusted so that each density—whether a silence, solo, duo, trio, or a full quartet—occupies exactly one-fifth of the total time of the movement. Rare textures are stretched, common ones compressed.

Thus the interaction of the parts effects an emergent large-scale rhythm.

Out of millions of possible combinations of patterns, one movement employs the set that yields the most unpredictable overall rhythm (in a precisely defined mathematical sense). The other, the most predictable.

As for pitch: each instrument traces a fragment of the cycle of fifths—in near standard tuning. The quartet plays 17TET, so with the octave divided into 17 equal steps, which makes a "perfect" fifth span 10 steps. Each instrument repeatedly travels through this cycle fragment, alternating between octaves. Individually, the lines sound diatonic; together, they form unfamiliar and highly dissonant verticalities—often stranger than even the most dissonant music in 12-tone systems.

Despite this microtonality, no specialized technique is required. If each player tunes their instrument to a slightly different “A,” then standard fingerings suffice—as long as they resist the instinct to tune to one another.

Waves, Winds, Mind - Mvt. I

RABIN  ASSASSINATION - 30  YEARS  OF  POST  TRAUMA

five parts in a 99-98-97-96-95 ratio with tempo changes, and trumpet 1 in 17-19-21-23-25-28-31 partials tuning; trumpet 2 in Pythagorean, Horn in Just 7 limit, Trombone in quarter tones, and Tuba in 19/53tet. This piece has other related versions, but this is the final poly version. For now. Composed 2025. Score in process. 

Brass Quintet 2b, in Polytempic Polymicrotonality

This music has been another journey into the marriage of the human brain and technology, and what one is willing to keep or edit out. There are many passages here that are unplayable; nevertheless, I am keeping it, as I believe there are either electronic trumpets or piccolo trumpets that can or may be able to replicate it. The harmony is all Pantonal, neither atonal nor tonal, and is driven mostly by voice leading and horizontal motion rather than verticalities. Therefore, there are no chord progressions, per se, yet, due to the voice leading, there are small pockets of centricity that approach tonality. This music, uncharacteristically, is not microtonal. The technology I am using allows me to explore ideas that are beyond human performance. Since we are in AI territory, anyway, I am keeping most of the score for a future robot ensemble driven by AI performance algorithms that will be able to negotiate these rhythms. Composed 2025.

Music for Brass, Cello, Contrabass, and Piccolo Trumpet

This Brass Septet features only acoustic, but polymicrotonal, brass instruments. There's a range of different tuning methods employed here, from Wendy Carlos Alpha, Beta, Gamma, to Just 7, to Pythagorean, and even Partch's 43. The trumpets are quick and squiggly rhythmically which pushed the microtonal changes with portamento into a rather insect sounding result, which I decided to keep, as a novel mistake, turned discovery. It will annoy many listeners, but I am beyond caring now. The bottom is nice and round, just like Jennifer Lopez. And if that's sexist, I still don't care. 

Polymicrotonal Brass Septet: Lord of the Flies

Composed in March, 2019

Photograph by Ella Josephine Campbell
https://ellajosephinephoto.com/

Death By Water 2

A Hunger Art

L'Occurrence

Composer, mathematician, visual artist. 
Seeks collaboration with performers and choreographers.

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Waves, Winds, Mind - Mvt. I

David Victor Feldman