Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V0Jk6etzw8

soprano saxophone: Julian Velasco
alto saxophone: Joe Connor
tenor saxophone: Chris Forbes
baritone saxophone: David Schreck

written: 2019-2020
recorded May 20th, 2021 at Evanston SPACE

minus (2020, for saxophone quartet and electronics)

Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AccSYqNk8s0


This piece was written for and in collaboration with double bassist and friend Will Yager over a two year period. The work uses a series of cue like notational ‘guides’ (provided in real time via laptop) to instruct the performer through a series of physical, semi-improvisatory performative instructions. These moments rely heavily on the performer’s ability to listen, watch, and move between each moment with well-timed procession and musicality, while also allowing the performer a good amount of agency to explore sonic/performative possibilities from cell to cell. The electronics, both live and fixed, are all synthesized from sounds of wood (a majority of which came from Will’s own double bass). The title comes from the idea that if a plank of wood is said to be 'bowed’, it is said to have a warp along the length of its face.

a warp along the length of the face (2021 for double bass and electronics)

rapid change, anxiety, and exhaustion. 

ScoreFollower video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMoZCoctIGU

cello - Seth Parker Woods
Recorded at Northwestern University in November of  2021.

STRIX (2021, for cello and electronics)

commissioned and composed for Emma Jean and Nicholas Eastlund's wedding ceremony 2023.

Wedding Music I

Ruckus:  a disturbance or commotion.
"a child is raising a ruckus in class"

OTHER THINGS:
a heated argument
a devastating, sudden, sick feeling in your stomach
being "woken up" with construction equipment as you are trying to fall asleep

Commissioned by and composed for Lati2de (Leo Schlaifer and Matt Dardick).

Performers: Leo Schlaifer and Matt Dardick
Additional mixing and mastering credit: Douglas McCausland

ruckus ruckus (2022, two soprano saxophones and electronics)

NOTE:
This piece represents two things for me: 
1. A metaphorical and literal depiction of friction as both a sonic and mental concept.
2. An aesthetic and technical experiment aiming to seamlessly blend hyper-gestural acoustic sounds with electronic ones using an amplified chamber ensemble and laptop.

The piece gets its title from the idea that despite having a gut feeling or the education to know that something might be right or wrong, internal and external forces might cause one to ruminate tirelessly and doubt their own judgment. A cycle that might result in the warping or erosion of confidence in one’s self.

The piece attempts to depict intense shifts between confusion and confidence, clarity and uncertainty, and chaotic tension and release. In an attempt to convey this both poetically and sonically, much of the individual parts of ensemble’s material comes from a smattering of transcriptions generated from improvising with, and digitally processing a number of differently inflated balloons. An object that can be blown up, stretched, and squeezed, but when too much friction is applied can also burst when its structural integrity reaches a breaking point. The pacing, orchestration, electronic sounds, and sudden bursts of sound throughout are reflections, abstractions, and distortions of these “transcriptions”. 

Finally, the piece also uses a number of digitally manipulated orchestral recordings (most of which bring me a calming sense of nostalgia and comfort in their original forms) to represent the shift between self clarity and uncertainty, give directionality to the work, and to provide the listener with some semblance of “stability”/familiarity between moments of chaos. Although, like the balloons and the rest of the ensemble, they too can be stretched and manipulated past the point of recognizability.

Performed and recorded on 10/20/23 at Galvin Recital Hall at Binen School of Music

Conductor - Jason Gluck 
Cinematography - Dan Nichols and Aphorism Studios 

Ensemble - Northwestern Contemporary Music Ensemble - Fall 2023
Violin - Shijie Li
Cello - Noam Ginsparg
Double Bass - Lance Gaupp
Alto Flute - Mara Goree
Oboe - Ezekiel-Alain Navarro
Bass Clarinet - Elynn Chang
Horn - Isaac Sepulveda
Trombone - Tim George
Percussion - Cameron Marquez and Christian Santos 

Special Thanks to: Ben Bolter, Bill Milgram, Austin Williams, Rachel Frazier, and Henry Stewart 
Mastering and Additional Mixing: Douglas McCausland

I think my legs might be broken (2023, amplified chamber ensemble and electronics)

DOODLENo.1

Zene Gordonkára (2015, Solo Cello + Chamber Orchestra)

Sonatina No. I (2016, Piano)(MIDI)

A compilation of sound and thought collected over lunch on March 15, 2017.

Whiskey over Lunch, Ableton Improv. Sessions No. 1 (2017, Fixed Media)

Ableton Improv. Sessions No. 2 (2017, Fixed Media)

Ineptitude (2017, Fixed Media)

This piece takes inspiration from the fact that we as a species are causing our planet to change, decay, and ultimately die through the modernization of our civilization. We often times talk about how we are intelligent, and evolved, yet we consistently spit at the idea that we might be able to change things for the better, simply because we are habitual in nature and refuse to stray from our traditions as a species. The piece involves the mechanization of nature to the point where nature has died and all that is left is emptiness. But hey, thanks for a lovely time…

Thanks for a Lovely Time... (2017, Fixed Media for 5.1 diffusion)

Sonatina No. II (LIVE)(2016, Piano)

Array of Hand and Number (LIVE)(2014, Piano)

Performers from Ensemble Dal Niente: 

Amanda Deboer Bartlet - Soprano
Mabel Kwan - Piano
Tara Lynn Ramsey - Violin
Matthew Oliphant - Horn

Hammered-dulcimer part performed by: Elliott Lupp

Text by: Russell Edson
Paitning by:  Shelby McQuilkin
Recorded: 3/20/18.

The House Grows Sick... (2018, Soprano, Piano, Violin, Horn, Dulcimer)(reading)

It is the quartet's policy that they not be named in the recordings of readings

Position (2018, for String Quartet) (reading)

Bowed-dulcimer and electronics performed and recorded by: Elliott Lupp

Hinge (2018, for Dulcimer and Live/Fixed Electronics)

Performed By: Found Sound New Music Ensemble:
Flute: Molly Hodson
Found Objects/Percussion: Hollis Wittman
Cello: Samuel Vinton Augustus Kelly

Three Short Pieces to Walk To: mvt. I (LIVE) (2018, Chamber Ensemble With Live Electronics)

The first in a series of experimental pieces for I-pad controlled laptop.

Performed and recoded by: Elliott Lupp

Brux No. 1 (2019, for iPad controlled Laptop)

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPcs0XE5cz8
Composed for and premiered by members of Ensemble Dal Niente at the 2019 SPLICE Institute.

Dal Niente: 
- Harp: Ben Melsky
- E. Guitar: Jesse Langen
- Double Bass: Mark Buchner

Electronics by: Elliott Lupp

Away from Face (LIVE) (2019, for Harp, Electric Guitar, Double Bass, and Live/Fixed Electronics)

video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zeVTkOYe-E&t

a structured improvisation composed for the experimental duo: MOUTHS 
(Elliott Lupp and Kristopher Bendrick)

Commissioned by: ASCAP/SEAMUS

erase-repeat (2020, for E. Guitar, Viola, and Live/Fixed Electronics)

-  Elliott Lupp is a composer, improvisor, visual artist, and sound designer whose work often invokes images of the distorted, chaotic, visceral, and absurd. This aesthetic approach as it relates to both acoustic and electroacoustic composition has led to a body of work that, at the root of its construction, focuses on the manipulation of noise, extreme gesture, shifting timbre, and performer/computer improvisation as core elements. 

- Elliott has received a number of awards and honors for his work, including a 2019 SEAMUS/ASCAP Commission, the 2019 Franklin G. Fisk Composition Award for Chamber Music, and Departmental and All-University awards in Graduate Research and Creative Scholarship. His music has been performed at a variety of electroacoustic festivals including N_SEME, CHIMEfest, Electronic Music Midwest, MOXsonic, Fulcrumpoint New Music Project, SEAMUS, and Electroacoustic Barn Dance, and by such ensembles as the Dutch/American trio Sonic Hedgehog (flute, clarinet, and electric guitar), the Atar Piano Trio, Found Sound New Music Ensemble, various members of MOCREP, The Chicago Composer's Orchestra, Fonema Consort, and Ensemble Dal Niente. 

PhD - Northwestern University (currently pursuing) - Alex Mincek, Jay Alan Yim

MM - Western Michigan University - Christopher Biggs, Lisa R. Coons

BM - Columbia College Chicago - Eliza Brown, Kenn Kumpf

Elliott Lupp

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