Lava

Scratch (excerpt)

for solo B-flat Clarinet
mvt 1: Every Sixty Hours
mvt 2: Trauma
mvt 3: How Many More?
mvt 4: "The New Normal"
mvt 5: Breakdown
mvt 6: Not Enough
mvt 7: Take Action

Vicious Cycle

For Maria

July (excerpt) by Michael Torke

Sk(etch) is an acousmatic work that explores sounds, gestures, textures, and timbres associated with the creative process of sketching, drawing, writing, and composing. 
The work was composed with two projects in mind: working with EMPAC’s wave field synthesis array and for Núcleo Música Nova’s «microFOLIA» project.

The work won First Prize in the Tesselat Electronic Music Competition and an Honorary Mention in the WOCMAT NCTU International Phil Winsor Computer Music Competition.

Sk(etch) is featured on RMN Classical's Electroacoustic & Beyond vol. 4, MUSLAB’s Planeta Complejo, SEAMUS’ CD vol. 29, and Núcleo Música Nova’s microFOLIA CDs.

The work was featured in NPR’s morning edition https://www.npr.org/2022/01/04/1060773409/composer-creates-a-musical-piece-with-the-sounds-of-drawing-and-writing

Sk(etch)

Moments is a solo work in two movements for 5-octave marimba by composer Robert McClure. Movement 1 (for john) is an homage to John Cage and is written to coax a full, rich sound from the instrument, often at extremely soft dynamic levels in order to create a mood that is sensitive, hypnotic, and introspective.

Movement 2 (for morton) was written to honor the influence Morton Feldman has had on the composer for liberating sound from the construction of a composition. Somewhat free-form in nature, the notation is set out in a visual clock-like diagram that leaves certain elements such as the starting point in the cycle and note duration up to the discretion of the performer.

Score available from http://www.tapspace.com

Moments II. for Morton (Robert McClure)

Each year, approximately five-hundred billion plastic cups are used, of which roughly six billion end up in landfills. ...grind... attempts to symbolize the faulty business and political ideologies that ultimate contribute to a lack of environmental sustainability through the destructive morphology of a single sound source: a plastic Keurig coffee pod hitting the floor. 

...grind... was inspired by Donkey Coffee's Fair Trade Coffee initiative and their continued commitment to Zero Waste.

...grind... (8.1 channel fixed media)

Completed November 6, 2019

Special Distinction for the 2022 ASCAP Rudolf Nissim Prize

Flute: Stephanie Ray
Oboe: Sam York
Clarinets: Lara Mitofsky Neuss
Bassoon: Joy Guidry
French Horn: Alexander Ian Oon
Trumpet: Jia Yi Lee
Trombone: Joey Becker
Drum set: Colin Crandal
Vibraphone: Sejeong Pyo
Piano: Jonathan Shin
Violin I: Claire Hebeisen
Violin II: Audrey Maxner
Viola: Amy Tan
Violoncello: Irene Han
Double Bass: Patrick Raynard
Mix/master: Bobby Ge

Metastable states, in physics, are only locally stable - that is to say that a slight disturbance to a metastable system would leave it largely unscathed, but that a sufficiently large disturbance would send the system hurtling toward its stablest state. 

Consider a ball sitting in a ditch on a large hill. A soft kick might jostle the ball without dislodging it, but a hard enough kick would take it out of the ditch and all the way down the hill. Such a ball in a ditch, then, is in a metastable state. 

These ideas of jostling, kicks, and ostensible stability dominate Metastable State. Driven by an unsure drum set freewheeling through double- and triple-time rhythms, the piece contains a number of small, cellular ideas - a three-note motif introduced by the trumpet, a running sixteenth-note ostinato in the strings, a Dorian-inflected chord progression (i-IV), a gliss-filled bass line searching for resolution. Marked by constant time signature changes and competing rhythmic figures, the piece searches constantly for metrical stability, occasionally landing in crevices of regularity, only to be kicked out again and again. 

Metastable State was initially inspired by the astonishingly virtuosic and spunky sounds of Snarky Puppy and Hiromi, who both filled my listening playlists back in my physics lab days.

Random Stuff

Metastable State, for sinfonietta

discontinuous mediation i // fixed media

| Droki Ouro (b. 1996) is a Tennessee-based composer, researcher, and educator. Described as “patiently evocative” (George Lewis) and “unsettling, [yet] interesting” (Cycling ’74), Ouro’s music longs for the experiential allure of balance and introspection. Much of their music blends pictorial properties with organizing principles of philosophical and sociological intent. Their recent works engage disability masking and temporality as an apparatus for acoustic and electronic media.

Droki’s research interests are primarily driven by composer advocacy and DEIA. Their presentation entitled Recent Trends in Composition Calls and Competitions addresses the inequities of the call for scores, competition, and residency ecosystem through a statistical analysis of over five-hundred surveyed composition opportunities. Droki has presented Recent Trends at numerous conferences including the Northwestern University New Music Conference (NUNC!), PASIC, and New Music Gathering. They have also presented several forums on the topic at Duke University, Montana State University, and the University of Miami. They are currently developing literature with the American Composers Forum that expands on Recent Trends by distilling several short- and long-term solutions. Droki currently serves as the Director of Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity for the Millennium Composers Initiative, a non-profit dedicated to supporting developing composers through commissioning and performance opportunities. 
Droki’s music has been featured at festivals worldwide including the Aspen Music Festival, NYCEMF, and Cube Fest. Their music has been performed by Hypercube, Duo Sequenza, and ensemble vim, among others. They have held residencies with Arts Letters & Numbers and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Their music is featured on several record labels including Navona Records, Petrichor Records, and RMN Music. Droki’s music has been selected for over one-hundred calls for scores and competitions, including prizes from the Ensemble Ibis, MAP, and Robert Avalon competitions and a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Current and upcoming projects include collaborations with the Brightfire Collective, JoULE, Ithaca College Orchestra, and jackrabbit, a digital opera fusing the model collapse of AI and corporate math with screamo and breakcore. 

Originally from the Washington D.C. area, Droki holds a BM in Music from Virginia Commonwealth University, an MM in Composition from Ohio University, and a DMA from the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music. Droki currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Music Technology where they teach courses in computer music programming, sound design, synthesis, instrument modeling, studio recording, digital art, and composition. Droki has studied composition with Lansing McLoskey, Dorothy Hindman, Juraj Kojs, Tania Leon, George Lewis, Robert McClure, and Maria Schneider.

...grind... (8.1 channel fixed media)

drɔ-ˈki ˈow-ɾʊ