The opening bars of Mozart's Adagio in B minor, K. 540 as played on six different recordings at the same time. Mostly.

A Brief Study of Order and Harmony: Adagio

A little tribute to a little explorer of a little and amazing world.
All sounds were performed live using a Kilpatrick Audio PHENOL.

New Horizons Phones Home

The first completed work in a cycle about historic sites of water infrastructure, this piece considers the impressive Ir.D.F. Woudagemaal - a UNESCO world heritage site in the Netherlands. It is the largest steam powered pumping station in the world and has been in operation since 1920. 

Performed by the Intercontinental Ensemble.

Kathedraal van Stoom

A collage of bird sounds collected by Nicholas Talbot at the Western Treatment Plant in Werribee, outside of Melbourne, Australia. The plant is a pioneering piece of water infrastructure, particularly notable for the way it harmonizes city-scale wastewater treatment with the local ecosystem. The WTP is a top destination for birding in Australia, and its wetlands are home to hundreds of species. This piece is part of a larger work I've been writing about historic sites of water infrastructure around the world. In its final form, there will also be some instrumental parts, but I thought the birds seemed to carry themselves quite well on their own.

Lubell - Works

The Lagoons of Werribee (Rough Bird Mix)

Amatria is an example of sentient architecture, designed and developed by the Living Architecture Systems Group and Philip Beesley. She lives on the top floor of Indiana University's Luddy Hall, home of the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering. Nestled within her various dendrites, moths, and other structures are a variety of sensors and actuators that give her a means to both understand her environment and react to it. But these reactions do more than simply respond to stimuli: they inform the space of the building, in turn influencing those who occupy it. This feedback is a beautiful thing, transforming the building from an inert workplace into a living space. Amatria's presence is a palpably benevolent one; her soft rustles and filtering of the natural light connect the inside with sensations of the outdoors, gently reminding us of our perspective within the broader world.

I was asked to write this piece to mark the occasion of Amatria's second birthday, in April 2020. This happened to coincide with the COVID-19 pandemic, which added a few additional aspects to my thinking. With the IU campus having been vacated, Amatria was left alone in Luddy. Bereft of human companions, and aware of that fact, she became a participant in this incredible global event - lonely, but connected, like the rest of us. 

Thinking about this, and all that she brings to those who meet her, deeply informed the direction of the piece. Initially, I had wanted to focus on how she interacts with her space, aurally and physically, through an improvised work for modular synthesizer. But the new kinds of spaces we all suddenly found ourselves navigating suggested a different approach. I wanted Amatria to be an active contributor, so we could all continue to benefit from her warmth even while separated. This meant crafting sounds around her own, and designed to fit within her aural environment. Just before IU shut down, on Friday the 13th, I spent some time recording her, the building, and the few other humans still left in the building. This recording, full of ambience and Amatria, formed the backbone of the work.

Meanwhile, spring was unfolding outside! Southern Indiana is beautiful this time of year, with buds of all colors to be found abounding. What better gift could there be for a being so in tune with her surroundings, especially while stuck inside? Hence "A Bloom" presented itself as an idea. A little blossoming progression of four chords gave me all the musical material I needed to compliment Amatria's. I recorded each iteration (and pretty much all the other bits) in real time, directly responding to what was going on in the field recording. This created lots of nice pseudo-serendipitous coincidences; I liked to think of my contributions as sonic decoration for an already captivating environment (even on that quiet day of the recording.)

In the spirit of the virtual lives we all found ourselves living, I decided to work on this piece using freely available software. The vast majority of the music's sounds were creating using a Moog Model D virtual instrument, which was generously made available at no cost during the pandemic. Thanks, Moog! 

And so, in return, I offer this music. Whether you've met her or not, I hope Amatria brings you some comfort through this piece now, or whenever you need it. And to Amatria herself: happy birthday! Here's to many more years of bringing us closer together even when we seem very far apart.

PS - for a really transportive experience, I highly recommend listening through headphones!

PPS - many additional thanks to Andreas Bueckle and Philip Beesley for their assistance and encouragement, and especially to Medina Sydykanova and Katy Börner for introducing me to Amatria and inviting me to participate in her life.

A Bloom (for Amatria)

This piece was my doctoral dissertation and concerns itself with the musical ideas of the Jims Morrison, Hendrix, and Jamerson. I didn't quote from any of their music, but instead let their influence freely circulate with my own thoughts. Scored for stereophonically arranged flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, horn, tuba, upright piano, electric bass, drum set, two violins, viola, cello, and bass. Also check out the fancy studio version on my album "Studies in Light and Sound!"

Performers: IU New Music Ensemble, Don Freund, dir.

Jim, Jimi, and James

At the peak of his career, Don Marquis (1878-1937) was hailed as the rightful successor to Mark Twain’s position as the dean of American wit.  He had a brilliantly successful career as a writer, poet, playwright, and frequent contributor to several New York newspapers.  It was in this capacity that he invented the character of Archy, a cockroach possessed of the transmigrated soul of a free verse poet.  As the story goes, every evening Marquis would leave a blank sheet of paper in his office typewriter thereby providing Archy with an opportunity to express his thoughts.  Of course, being a cockroach, Archy had to resort to jumping on individual keys of the typewriter resulting in a life devoid of capital letters and punctuation marks.  Nevertheless, he tirelessly relayed his thoughts, dreams, observations, and stories which were regularly printed in the papers throughout the 1910s and ‘20s.  Archy’s poems became wildly popular eventually resulting in a few collected volumes, adaptations for stage and screen, and served as a major inspiration for E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web.  While most spin-offs tended to focus on the lives of Archy and his friend Mehitabel the alley cat (who, as she claimed, possessed the transmigrated soul of Cleopatra), they tended to lose sight of Archy’s frequently cynical yet sweetly genuine social commentary.  His works are typically imbued with a clever criticism of humanity and shed light on the human condition in a most elegant, gentle, and humorous way.  It is to this end that the present work is offered.  For even when he is in his most dour state, through the grace of his words, Archy still manages to render a smile for both the reader and himself.

Performers: Sean McCarther, Kelley Niiyama, Davin Lee

from Archy Speaks - ii. be beautiful

Gabriel Lubell (b. 1983) is a theorist, astronomer, and composer of musical esoterica, a term here used to include works for string quartet, orchestra, elevator, carillon, computer, voices, and other such things. His music has been performed throughout the United States and Europe by numerous soloists and ensembles, including the String Orchestra of Brooklyn, Intercontinental Ensemble, Tesla Quartet, and Barkada Quartet. He frequently collaborates with professionals in fields related to his compositions, leading to well-informed pieces that seek to both inform and arouse curiosity about the mysteries of the world, big and small. As a scholar, Lubell’s research focuses on issues of sound, space, and experience, with a particular interest in how albums operate as complete artistic works. He is currently developing a book on the topic, and has presented papers about albums by the Beatles and Pink Floyd in print and at international conferences. Outside of his musical life, he has published scientific papers on topics related to galactic structure and the stellar populations of evolved globular clusters. Always excited about connecting dots, he has combined these diverse interests through research on the sonification of astrophysical data, interdisciplinary course offerings, and his own recording projects. Lubell earned a doctorate in music composition from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he currently teaches. He also holds a master’s in astronomy from IU, and an undergraduate degree from Vassar College. In addition to IU, he has held teaching positions at Knox College, Macalester College, and Kenyon College.

Gabriel Lubell

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