Separate Realities IV. Hildegard

Written for the 2017 Norfolk New Music Workshop. Performed by Felice Doynov, Giovanni Bertoni, YoungKyoung Lee, Erika Doha, Laura Park, and Eric Adamshick. Conducted by Julian Pellicano.

Evening, in the Open Air

Recorded by the Lorelei Ensemble, conducted by Beth Willer.

Text:

The sea called—
you were drowned as the tide passed.— 
I am glad of this—
at least you have escaped.

The heavy mist chokes me, 
Chokes me with each breath—

He tore at the bay-roots,
lost hold on the crumbling bank—

I am glad the tide swept you out, 
O beloved,
The tide swept you out.

I wonder if you knew how I watched, 
but the gods wanted you,
the gods wanted you back.

from “Loss” by H.D., from Sea Garden (1916)

The Sea Called

For string orchestra, conducted by Peter Askim, recorded at Reservoir Studios, mixed by George Wellington.

Recording made possible through the generous support of Arts NC State, Rich Holly, Executive Director.

Only Breath

Written for and performed by Hypercube, 2018

While working with the composer Ole Buck in Lolland, Denmark this past summer, the flat landscapes of the surrounding area inspired my use of limited material in Flatlands. The instruments gradually evolve, meditating in their own sound world. A contrasting plateau emerges at two points of the work, offering a new perspective, a new flatland.

Flatlands

Recorded by the JACK Quartet

Lines, Breaks, and White Spaces takes inspiration from those three ideas throughout the composition. Finding different ways to deal with these subjects in the four movements, musical lines explore different contours and patterns. Breaks between lines and the more abstract idea of “white space” find ways to intrude on the lines’ continuity, and fill out the textures. -JB, 2019

Image: Robert Rauschenberg, White Painting [two panel], 1951

Lines, Breaks, and Spaces - IV. Ascent

Lines, Breaks, and Spaces - III. Descent

Lines, Breaks, and Spaces - II. Waves

Lines, Breaks, and Spaces - I. Shadows

Tiled Fields, whose name stems from a misreading of Joan Miró’s painting Tilled Fields, creates successive sections that obsessively build on the same material.

While writing Tiled Fields, I drew inspiration from Miró’s combination of a freely composed background with sharp figures neatly superimposed upon it, seen in such paintings as The Birth of the World, The Hunter, and Bleu ii. My work blends freely composed material that floats in the background, seen primarily in the strings and woodwinds, with more rigorous motives in the piano and double bass, both sharply attacking alongside several other instruments in fluctuating rhythmic patterns.

My musical inspiration stems from the Danish New Simplicity movement of the 1960s and 70s. This movement found renewed inspiration in simple, repetitive musical material, resisting the more modernist trends emerging from Germany during this time. These Danish composers create rhythmic processes that form the basis of their work. In Tiled Fields, I borrowed this method of rhythmic invention for the piano and double bass’s structure, but juxtaposed that against the freer material found in the rest of the orchestra.


Image: detail from Joan Miró's The Birth of the World

Tiled Fields

James Budinich is a Croatian-American composer writing music inspired by minimalism, Croatian folk traditions, and American popular music. An artist who welcomes collaboration in his process, he composes for performances, films, and installations, using both acoustic instruments and electronic sound design. 

Recent collaborations include new works for Kate Dreyfuss (semiconcerto for violin and electronics, 2024; White Stone for violin and electronics, 2019), Pigeonwing Dance (sound design for The Choreography of CRISPR, 2022; 5x8, 2021; Plexus: a work in knots, 2020; and Tensible, 2018), movement artist Waeli Wang (sound design for her spine, the mountains, 2023, and sunder: before sky and earth, 2024), and visual artist Mao Wei (Manual City, an installation for music boxes and projected images, 2020). 

He has worked with ensembles such as Ensemble Illyrica, Yarn/Wire, the Momenta Quartet, Ensemble Mise-En, F-PLUS, and the Raleigh Civic Chamber Orchestra. Recent performances include the Ear Taxi Festival, Pulsar Festival, Festival Mise-En, and others across the United States and Europe. His work has been supported by Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, the American Scandinavian Foundation, the Lois Roth Endowment, and the Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation. 

James received a Ph.D. in Music Composition from Duke University in 2022, and was in residence at Copenhagen’s Royal Danish Academy of Music as a Fulbright Scholar in 2020-21. He currently serves as Lecturer in Composition and Music Creation Technologies at Binghamton University.

James Budinich

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