a primal tongue (2021) for voice & electronics

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)

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

mAtrix[Blue]ooM

Initially, this piece was an etude study into a new theory I was devising. As I was finishing the work, my anxieties resurfaced during the Black Lives Matter protests following the aftermath of George Floyd's death by Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin. I am not a Black person, but as a person of color with a traumatic history with white supremacy, I am hurting for the black community. 

The title is meant to catalog my confusion in such devastating, semi-Orwellian times. Bloom - a term used to describe diminishing returns on the accuracy of semi-automatic guns. [Blue] - those we've anointed our guardians of justice. 

Performed and Recorded by Jacob Mason 
http://www.jacobmasonpianist.org/

rynejsmusic@gmail.com
www.rynejsmusic.com

Picture: Richmond, VA protests

mAtrIx[Blue]ooM (Two Quarter-Tuned Pianos)

discontinuous mediation i // fixed media

| drɔ-ˈki ˈow-ɾʊ is a composer, educator, and EID advocate. Under their new mononym, ˈtoʊ-drɔ-ˈki’s music has been described as “beautifully haunting” (Robert Avalon Competition), “patiently evocative” (George Lewis), and “unsettling, [yet] interesting” (Joshua Weatherspoon, Cycling ’74). Their recent works engages with experiential intersectionality as an idiosyncratic mechanism for musical creation and sonic processing. Droki's music has been performed by Hypercube, Duo Sequenza, and Musiqa, and has been featured at several festivals including the Aspen Music Festival, SEAMUS, and ICMC, among others. Droki's music has been commercially released with several labels including Navona Records, PARMA Recordings, Petrichor Records, and RMN Music.  

Recently, Droki was a composer in residence at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, working on their intersectional dissertation Project 본인 for soprano, megaphone, and decet. They are also in the process of having several works published with Universal Edition and Elision Publications. In 2022, they were awarded 2nd prize for Loop38’s Rothko Chapel “Will and Soul” Commission and were selected for the inaugural Ensemble Vim Composer Fellowship to compose a thirty-minute work entitled Project 기억 for cello, piano, spoken word, 5.1 electronics, and live artist. Droki's current and upcoming projects include ‘chr_om-I-qƆrt for two sopranos, two pianos, and live electronics and a violin and cello concerto for Sarah Grimes, CJ Point, and the Mississippi Valley Orchestra. 

Droki is an Assistant Professor of Music Technology and a mentor for an orchestral composer fellowship. Droki received their Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition from the University of Miami, Frost School of Music, studying under Lansing McLoskey, Dorothy Hindman, and Juraj Kojs.

mAtrIx[Blue]ooM (Two Quarter-Tuned Pianos)

drɔ-ˈki ˈow-ɾʊ

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