for two pianos and two percussion
live recording of dress rehearsal from BPP concert, at Konzerthaus in Berlin, on Jan 19 2022

Hinterland

In memoriam Magdalen Christian

Poem of the same name by Dan Chiasson from Natural History (2005)

Deborah Selig - soprano
David Collins - piano
Jeffrey Means - Recording Engineer

Inscribed on a Lintel

The primary inspiration for this work is the ancient Japanese art of dry landscape gardens, or karesansui. I find that the static energy implied by the relationship of stones to one another in these Zen gardens can be related to disparate musical objects. As the stones each possess a beauty of edges and lines, they in turn have evoked various rhythms, harmonies, and timbres in this piece for double woodwind quintet. I was particularly intrigued by the numerical rhythm of the garden of Ryoanji Temple in Kyoto. Based on the series 7-5-3, the garden’s composition reflects the propitious nature of uneven numbers in Eastern numerology. Due to its being situated in the middle of the first nine numbers, the number 5 is accorded special significance as a symbol of the center. With the piece’s proportions and rhythms derived from the uneven number series, the layout of the fifteen rocks of the Ryoanji garden permeates its formal structure on several levels. Rock Garden draws on other influences, including the play The Rock Garden by Sam Shepard and the music of the Smashing Pumpkins. It was commissioned by the Tanglewood Music Center and premiered on July 9, 2022, in Studio E of the Linde Center for Music and Learning. It was made possible in part with the support of The Hermitage Artist Retreat. Rock Garden is dedicated with gratitude to Stephen Jaffe.

Performance by Tanglewood Music Center 2022 Fellows:
Flute 1 - Seungmin Oh
Flute 2/Piccolo - Dominique Kim
Oboe I - Andrew Port
Oboe 2/English Horn - Elias Medina
Clarinet 1 - Hyunwoo Chun
Clarinet 2/Bass Clarinet - Phoebe Kuan
Bassoon 1 - A.J. Neubert
Bassoon 2/Contrabassoon - Thalia Navas
Horn 1 - Nathan Cloeter
Horn 2 - John Michael Flavetta
Conducted by Rita Castro Blanco

Rock Garden

Echo Flute was written for the Empyrean Ensemble with Tod Brody on flute. This recording is from the premiere at UC Davis on February 12, 2023.

Echo Flute is an instruction: echo the flute! That simple directive encapsulates the ensemble’s role, realized in various styles, textures, and moods. There is no meter, no beat, and no conductor. Each musician plays in free rhythm, subtly adjusting their timing to stay just behind, and sometimes ahead of, the solo flute. The idea of staying loosely tethered to a leader was influenced by the unmetered textures of pathetan in traditional Javanese gamelan. The beautiful resonance of the UC Davis Pitzer Center concert hall was the inspiration for the initial concept of quiet echoes.

Echo Flute is composed for solo flute with open instrumentation. Musicians make decisions regarding register, timbre, and timing. Echo Flute was composed on request from the Empyrean Ensemble. Thanks to Sam Nichols and the musicians for making this project possible.

Echo Flute

I. Ludic Limp
II. Sonorant Cerement
III. Goat Gut Gospel

We the Way Outward springs from my continued interest in the work of experimentalist poet Nathaniel Mackey, whose poetry and literary criticism engage African American history and culture in a way that emphasizes a cross-cultural approach to art and life. The release of his newest collection of poetry, a three-volume set entitled Double Trio, led me to explore several musical ideas, which have worked themselves into this piece for chamber ensemble.

Its title derives from the protagonists of Mackey’s intertwined poems Song of the Andoumboulou and Mu. They feature a “band of nervous travelers,” who go by many names, and whose peripatetic nature brings them in contact with cultures from around the globe. Norman Finkelstein describes the poet’s penchant for using the nominative, first-person pronoun as his “wandering we.” We, the reader, are participating in the mythos that Mackey unfolds in his poems along with his “philosophic posse”; we’re part of the band searching for gnosis, a point of knowing that comes from without. “We the stubborn consort.” “We the band we were, we the band we’d be.” “We the would-be chorus.” We the Way Outward.

In response to Mackey’s call for “centrifugal work” in his manifesto “Destination Out,” We the Way Outward plays with adding musical influences to his contexts. He suggests that we begin from “whatever [it is that the] medium we find ourselves working in will not do.” This music cannot convey to the audience in a one-to-one relationship the composer’s thoughts and associations, for after all music is an abstract language. We can all, however, bring our own meaning to it; and those ideas could be just as meaningful.

We the Way Outward was commissioned by Boston Musica Viva, Richard Pittman Music Director, as part of the Write It Now Commissioning Initiative. It received its premiere performance on March 13, 2023, in New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall by the Callithumpian Consort under the musical direction of Stephen Drury.

flute - Zach Sheets
bass clarinet - Aleksis Martin
violin - Lilit Hartunian
violoncello - Stephen Marotto
drum set - Mike Williams
piano - Yukiko Takagi

We the Way Outward

We The Way Outward

When I was little, around five or six years old, I had a habit where I would immediately—half consciously—repeat whatever it was I had just said, but I’d repeat it in a kind of strangled half-whisper. I have clear memories of doing this, and I don’t remember why, exactly, I did it, but I think it was to try to hear what I was saying. I think that I wanted a chance to check over what I had said, to see if it felt right, if I actually believed it, and if it had been worth saying. This habit of mine, my constant mumbling and muttering, my messed-up echoes, drove my older siblings crazy. "Mumble Chords" uses a few ordinary, everyday musical materials to try to evoke a similar effect. As the piece continues, the broken-down echoes start to drift apart from the “regular” music. 

This piece is dedicated, with mad respect, to Davy Rakowski. He’s been unfailingly patient with me and his other students, past and present, no matter how much trouble we have spitting it out. 

This is a live recording, featuring Jan Müller-Szeraws, performing at the October 1 2023 concert at Brandeis University, in honor of David Rakowski's 65th birthday.

Mumble Chords for solo cello

"distance, reminiscence, flow...thousands of crickets
or frogs
or one"

–dedicated to Lee

Recorded in performance, 5/17/15, Northwestern University
Ryan Dohoney, voice; Deidre Huckabay, bass flute; Erin Cameron, bass clarinet; Nick Meryhew, trombone

Night Chorus

elliotcless

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