Two scenes from "annunciation" (2021) 

Story and Libretto by Olivia Ephraim Pepper

Lily has been wronged, sought justice, and been denied. At the end of her rope, she turns to a book of spells. At first she believes she has been unsuccessful, until a Stranger appears claiming to be able to offer her vengeance...

SoJung Lim - Lily, a young woman who has known trauma
Joshua Scheid - The Stranger, a mysterious figure, summoned by Lily
Mira Huang, Anna Carolina Peleas, and Maddi Ohrbach
    - Vox Angeli, lesser angels, empathetic, and growing alarmed

Kirkland Moranos, flute
Mika Judge, horn in F
Guhan Peng, piano
Mae Bariff, violin
Brian Anderson, viola
Eion Lyons, contrabass

David C. Adams, electric guitars and electronics (added in post)

Conducted by Sam Hollister
Mixed by David C. Adams and J. Lyndon Hughes
Mastered by David Sexton

Musical Work and Recording ©2021 David Carlton Adams, All Rights Res.

annunciation (2 opera scenes) (2021)

This piece for trumpet, fixed media, and dancers was conceived to accompany choreography by Audrey Halm. Along with the inimitable Jared Broussard, Audrey and I worked together to develop the story and the soundworld of a girl, broken and alone, and some nice people who try to help her.  After making some headway, she regresses, and the well-meaning move on without her. But: their teachings were not in vain, and the piece ends with a sliver of hope.

Wail

Wail (2013) for trumpet, fixed media, and dancers (live)

a visit from the warmth (2020)
for string quartet and fixed media

Christabel Lin, violins
Karoline “Karli” Leal, viola
Shawn Sanders, cello

mixed by Lyndon Hughes
video editing by Tom Echols

composed by David Carlton Adams
©2021 David Carlton Adams, All Rights Res.

a visit from the warmth (2020) for string quartet and fixed media

Story and Libretto by Olivia Ephraim Pepper

CW: sexual assault

Lily has been wronged, sought justice, and been denied. At the end of her rope, she turns to a book of spells. At first she believes she has been unsuccessful, until a Stranger appears claiming to be able to offer her vengeance...

SoJung Lim - Lily, a young woman who has known trauma
Joshua Scheid - The Stranger, a mysterious figure, summoned by Lily
Mira Huang, Anna Carolina Peleas, and Maddi Ohrbach
    - Vox Angeli, lesser angels, empathetic, and growing alarmed

Kirkland Moranos, flute
Mika Judge, horn in F
Guhan Peng, piano
Mae Bariff, violin
Brian Anderson, viola
Eion Lyons, contrabass

David C. Adams, electric guitars and electronics (added in post)

Conducted by Sam Hollister
Mixed by David C. Adams
Mastered by David Sexton

Musical Work and Recording ©2021 David Carlton Adams, All Rights Res.

annunciation - Act I Scene 2

libretto by Olivia Pepper
music by David Carlton Adams

Lily has been wronged, sought justice, and been denied. At the end of her rope, she turns to a book of spells. At first she believes she has been unsuccessful, until a Stranger appears claiming to be able to offer her vengeance...

SoJung Lim - Lily, a young woman who has known trauma
Joshua Scheid - The Stranger, a mysterious figure, summoned by Lily
Mira Huang, Anna Carolina Peleas, and Maddi Ohrbach
    - Vox Angeli, lesser angels, empathetic, and growing alarmed

Kirkland Moranos, flute
Mika Judge, horn in F
Guhan Peng, piano
Mae Bariff, violin
Brian Anderson, viola
Eion Lyons, contrabass

David C. Adams, electric guitars and electronics (added in post)

Conducted by Sam Hollister
Mixed by David C. Adams
Mastered by David Sexton

Musical Work and Recording ©2021 David Carlton Adams, All Rights Res.

annunciation - Act II Scene 10

"On the Thin Ice of Modern Life" (2021) - David Carlton Adams

This piece explores the fragile nature of continuous consciousness in today’s noisy, distracting world. As in our lives, intricate underlying structures are obfuscated by cacophonous interruptions that challenge us even to finish a thought.

Performed by the Talea Ensemble, conducted by Jim Baker. Recorded live at its premier in Griswold Hall at the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, MD, Saturday, October 30, 2021.

Barry Crawford - flute, bass flute, and alto flute
Rane Moore - clarinet, bass clarinet
Chris Gross - cello

Conducted by Jim Baker

This concert was part of the celebration of 150 years of composition at Peabody.

The Talea Ensemble’s fall 2021 residency at the Peabody Institute
received support from a 2020 Johns Hopkins Catalyst Award, awarded to Felipe Lara.

Cover art by the composer

On the Thin Ice of Modern Life (2021) (Talea live premier)

This track was a present to myself, recorded in one day on my birthday in 2020. 

I jotted down a 24-EDO chord progression, practiced a little playing two keyboards (offset by a quarter tone), detuned one guitar and an electric bass string, played a beat on a midi drum pad, and hit record. 

A little more detail:
-tuned two electric guitars a quarter step off from each other, 
-tuned one electric bass string off a quarter tone 
-had two "pianos" offset by 50 cents, piped in from a Max patch I whipped up (routed through Soundflower into Cubase), controlled live by two midi keyboards, alternating chords between them. 

I'm interested in groove; what kinds of deviations form the "right" kinds of "wrong."

Guitars had to be tracked separately. Tossed some granular mt piano on top in the DAW, and ran it all through a lot of EQing, etc, and a healthy dose of iZotope Vinyl.

Fardels Bear (2020)

Anxiety & Discovery for electric guitars (2021)

"Anxiety & Discovery" is my loose attempt to tell the story of emergent awareness of inner conflict.

Live premier, 12/3/2021
David C. Adams, electric guitar
Mike Begay, electric guitar
Sam Kohler, electric bass

© 2021 David C. Adams, All Rights Res.

Anxiety & Discovery for electric guitars (2021) (live premier)

music by David C. Adams
text by Olivia Pepper
choir directed by Beth Willer
mixed by Lara Villanueva
created through Peabody's virtual residency program
Fall 2020

©David C. Adams, All Rights Res

just as i have done for months

738 - an operatic fragment
Text and story by Olivia Pepper

A glance into a potential opera based on the life of Julia "Butterfly" Hill, who spent 738 days in a redwood to protect it from a logging company. 

Performers:
Tzu-Jung "Jennifer" Wang, Soprano
Hui-Chuan Chen, piano

Music by David Carlton Adams
Recorded live at the premier
Mastered by David Carlton Adams

738 - an operatic fragment

"three or four (of many)" by David Carlton Adams
Premiered June 8, 2022, at New Music On the Point by
JACK quartet

This piece explores the intersection of texture, just intonation, and renaissance polyphony. Ideas emerge, find expression, are subsumed, and disappear. Oh, and there’s math.

three or four (of many)- JACK quartet (live)

Play Nice

obligatory first movement of 5 mystic songs

5 mystic songs - o. (tuning)

o. (tuning)

Premier performance of "5 mystic songs" for voice and string quartet, on a text by Olivia Pepper, performed by Angela Irving (soprano), Kelsey Craggett Kennedy, Andrew Green, Brett Detweller, and Philip Whitney (string quartet) as a part of One Ounce Opera's 2016 "Fresh Squeezed Ounce of Art Song" in downtown Austin, TX.

5 mystic songs

iv. learning to breathe

Premier performance of "5 mystic songs" for voice and string quartet, on a text by Olivia Pepper, performed by Angela Irving (soprano), Kelsey Craggett Kennedy, Andrew Green, Brett Detweller, and Philip Whitney (string quartet) as a part of One Ounce Opera's 2016 "Fresh Squeezed Ounce of Art Song" in downtown Austin, TX. Conducted by the composer.

iii. as you wait

ii. patience

First song in "5 mystic songs" for string quartet and voice. Premier performance of "5 mystic songs" for voice and string quartet, on a text by Olivia Pepper, performed by Angela Irving (soprano), Kelsey Craggett Kennedy, Andrew Green, Brett Detweller, and Philip Whitney (string quartet) as a part of One Ounce Opera's 2016 "Fresh Squeezed Ounce of Art Song" in downtown Austin, TX.

i. twisting your fingers

First movement of the Suite of Dances for String Quartet (2011)

In an unusual sound world for string quartet, this piece goes a full minute before any pitches other than G are heard.  Initially serving primarily as a Prelude might in the Baroque Suite, the movement transitions into more of an overture, presaging textures and themes, motives and melodies that will be explored more fully in later movements.

(Fun fact: I recorded and performed all the parts for this movement.)

Suite of Dances for String Quartet

I. Prelouverture

Second movement of Suite of Dances for String Quartet (2011)

This movement is modeled on the French courante of the 17th and 18th centuries, featuring characteristic syncopation and contrapuntal textures.  The tonality shifts constantly in the first section, giving the dance an evasive quality.  When the cello takes the melody, (s)he seems to attempt to take it toward traditional tonality, only to have the piece fall apart.  The first material returns in high gear, anxious, even angry.

This and subsequent movements were played by a quartet featuring Austin's Jamie Desautels, Leigh Mahoney, Will Taylor and Hector Moreno.

II. Courante

The third movement of the Suite of Dances for String Quartet (2011)

This movement starts with a slow pavane, featuring a collapsing theme introduced in the first movement.  Then something new happens; trills appear, and a germinal motive begins to spin outward and upward, sprouting and growing until we emerge in a lush tonal section, a sarabande.  However, despite the best efforts of the first violinist (ahem!), we must leave the comforts of this island of tonality, and venture back out into the harsh sonorities of the opening to make it to the close.

David Carlton Adams

Pinned to spotlight

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