for guitar and percussion
Premiered by Hypercube ensemble, 2021, as a part of Hypercube's CubeLab Composition Lab

This piece is based on my experience of breaking my ankle, which required surgical repair. This was my first major medical procedure, and therefore I experienced many new and challenging emotional spaces. The piece was a way of processing and visualizing this narrative, and the stages are reflected as follows. 

It begins with a crack – the breaking of bone, the catalyst of pain. Anxiety builds as foreign terms are thrown about, ‘posterior malleolus fracture,’ ‘surgical stabilization’ due to ‘exquisite tenderness,’ a ‘concern for syndesmotic instability.’

Everything is happening beyond my control, without full understanding or awareness. I’m caught in a swirling cloud of fear, uncertainty, and panic; changes and choices made for me, as time rushes ahead before I can catch my breath.

Surgery begins. Anaesthesia is induced via intravenous injection, creating numbness, paralysis, unconsciousness, and amnesia  – thus an amorphous, ethereal and strange atmosphere exists in the score. More foreign terms are introduced, but they are obscured, nonlinear, blurred, and confusing. Everything comes in and out of focus, in and out of reality and clarity. A swirling, nonsensical, spacious, dreamlike existence.
 
Awakening from surgery means the realization of limited mobility for the foreseeable future. Clarity returns, but so does pain. Independence and sensation are lost, and I’m hit with waves of claustrophobia, frustration, and a newfound sort of grief. Pain emerges as a recurring flashback, both in memory and in reality.
 
With time and patience, the pain and numbness slowly begin to dissolve into stiffness and weakness, receding with a gradual rebuilding, continuous and difficult, but hopeful.

open reduction internal fixation (2021)

Commissioned by Opera Philadelphia, Carnegie Hall, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago, "Cycles of My Being" (2018) is a song cycle developed in collaboration with tenor Lawrence Brownlee (for whom the song cycle is written) and poet Terrance Hayes, both of whom contributed the texts. There are two versions of the work. The performers in this recording are Brownlee and pianist Myra Huang. The second version of "Cycles" is scored for tenor, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano.

Cycles Of My Being

Cycles Of My Being (piano-vocal edition)

Ando: light against shade

Erika Malpass is an interdisciplinary creator – composer, violinist, vocalist, poet, and visual artist. She writes for percussion and chamber ensembles, symphonic band, and vocal music.
 
Erika is interested in exploring challenging emotional spaces and the physicality of how emotions are embodied. In her work, she centers these concepts in order to process, understand, and more fully experience emotions that are challenging or difficult.

 

Recent works have focused on the relationships between two emotional spaces: anxiety and self-doubt; and calm, contentment, comfort, and grounding. She embraces these spaces as a part of her creative process and works towards transforming them from intangible abstract concepts into tangible musical experiences. 

She strives to move beyond creating an objective representation of emotional spaces, moving into exploring these concepts collaboratively with performers. She is interested in bringing the performers’ personal experiences into the piece directly and creating a space for both composer and performer to process and understand their emotions. Her goal is for the audience to perceive the depth created from this shared vulnerability, and therefore inspire people to connect through a communal musical experience.  

 

Erika’s music features timbral color painting, affective atmospheric textures, and sounds of nature. Text, form, orchestration, and her exploration of tension and release are focal points in her music. She believes that being honest and vulnerable in her process and in her music is a compelling way to make connections with others. She aims to create pieces that are relevant to our time, centering authenticity and accessibility in her writing.

 

Erika has been commissioned by Sprig of That ensemble, Microcosm Ensemble, OopsMN (Opera-Oriented Projects Minnesota), and New Works Project. She has also written for Unheard-of//Ensemble, Meghan Burke of the Rhythm Method String Quartet, Heartland Marimba Quartet, and Hypercube ensemble, and attended Lake George Music Festival and the So Percussion Summer Institute. In 2018, she received a grant from the Collaborative Undergraduate Research and Inquiry program (CURI) at St. Olaf College to create a work for symphonic band. She earned a Bachelor of Music from St. Olaf College in 2019, where she studied with Timothy Mahr and Justin Merritt. She is currently pursuing a Master of Music in Composition at DePaul University, studying with Osnat Netzer and Christopher Wendell Jones.
Malpass works to write music that explores new sounds and techniques, and that engages people with an emotional experience. As a composer, her goal is to convey stories that are often difficult to put into words and to use music to connect people in a way they may not have connected before. She sees music as a language that reaches deeper than our differences and speaks to us on a more intimate level. She aims to create pieces that are relevant to our time, centering honesty, vulnerability, and accessibility.

Malpass explores new combinations of instruments, using the tone and color of the instruments as an expressive technique. Her creative process derives from translating visual and literary motifs into musical ones, drawing from stories and emotions, and creating unique sound-color textures. She often composes from poetry, either setting text in a vocal piece or using text as a rhythmic and color inspiration to translate into an instrumental work. She is inspired by collaborative and interdisciplinary projects, working with poets and choreographers and writing music for film.

open reduction internal fixation (2021)

Erika Malpass

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