Jonathan was inspired to compose this piece after visiting the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver during the summer of 2013. His goal was to essentially translate Still's work into a sonic language. To do this, he chose three contrasting works by Still – PH-118 (1947), PH-97 (1960) and PH-21 (1962) – and created a basic system that aligned intervallic structures with colors in the paintings. He then arranged this material into rising and falling figures as he thought best represented his own perception of movement on the canvasses. The result is a piece that invites listeners to aurally experience the genius of Clyfford Still and to further explore this great artist's life and work.

Three Paintings By Clyfford Still

The long, sustained lines and ever-shifting harmonies of
Fluid draw the listener into a completely foreign sound world. Here, even time and pitch seem to melt into a continually flowing river of sound. The middle section presents an enchanting Debussyan gesture in the flute, but this moment of stability is short-lived as it dissolves into a sonic vapor.

Fluid

On Plants and Consciousness is both a concert work and a sound installation created for the Galveston Artist Residency's Spring 2015 show Plant People. It was inspired by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird's 1973 bestseller The Secret Life of Plants. The solo cello in this piece is used to create a musical description of plant-human interactions. The work imaginatively recounts several experiments conducted by humans in the effort to understand plant consciousness, including subjecting plants to light, physical touch, fire and even an investigation by the English naturalist Charles Darwin in which he played his bassoon for a sensitive mimosa plant. Both performer and listener enter into the "mind" of a plant as they experience its truly otherworldly reactions.

On Plants and Consciousness: Four Experiments for Solo Violoncello

Commissioned by the AURA Contemporary Ensemble, Sonic City presents three cityscapes that come together to form two contrasting explorations: the first of urban life, and the second of death in—and potentially of—the city.

The street crawls undulant, inspired by Lola Ridge's 1918 poem "The Ghetto," evokes the vibrancy of cities. It focuses on the idea of the city as a single uniform entity, but that is made up of millions of creatures, each with their own individuality. I represent this concept musically through the use of Klangfarbenmelodie, a kind of musical pointillism. The second movement, New York Nocturne emerges quietly out of the first and presents a hazy, dreamlike view over the rooftops of early 20th-century Brooklyn.

The third cityscape, if not for this burning down..., addresses death and injustice in the city. It was inspired by a photo that I encountered while viewing coverage of the 2015 Baltimore Riots. The image shows a boarded-up window that had been marked by graffiti that reads, "If not for this burning down, what would've happened?" Like the graffiti artist, I too raise more questions than I am able to answer as I contemplate the role of death within developing urban societies.

Sonic City

For millennia, dreaming has occupied a prominent station within the human experience. For many people, this activity is thought of as a gateway to realms that are otherwise inaccessible, connecting us to hidden thoughts and desires, to deceased loved ones, or even to god. In this view, dreams reveal a more complete image of our true selves. Others conversely believe that dreams are simply random hallucinations caused by the brain's activity during sleep, particularly the phase of sleep known as rapid eye movement.

In any case, dreaming is not something that I regularly do, or at least recall doing. The experiences associated with dreaming, that have throughout history had such significant impact on the human race, are not available to me. I am therefore particularly curious about the dreams of others, and it is in this spirit that I have composed "De somniis." This work was inspired by a variety of sources, among which are the overture to Marcel Proust's "Swann's Way," Salvador Dali's painting "Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening," and Oliver Sacks' short story "The Dog Beneath the Skin." 

Recorded live on March 9, 2017 in White Hall, Kansas City. En-Ting Hsu (viola) and Charles Tsui (piano).

De somniis

Divergent Trajectories presents a struggle between two opposing manifestations of individualism. The first section of the work takes the form of a process fugue—a kind of operation-based musical texture in which each voice works independently to execute a prescribed series of tasks that, in the case of this work, ultimately transform the means by which pitch material is generated. In this system, individualism is based on the autonomy with which each member goes about discharging their assigned duties. It gradually becomes apparent, however, that this form of individualism is based on a fundamental flaw, as the freedom with which each member can express their individuality is eclipsed by the rigidity that the texture demands.

The latter section of the work presents an alternative approach, one that is marked by struggle, but ultimately arrives at collective triumph. Here, each instrument’s individual freedom is intrinsically connected to the expressive freedom of the ensemble as a whole. As the collective creative power of the ensemble grows, so too does the freedom of each instrument to express their individuality by staking their own unique path through the music. The result is a transcendent collectivism that, instead of suppressing individual freedom, sublates it.

Recorded at the 73rd Composers Conference at Wellesley College in July, 2017 by the Conference Ensemble (James Baker, director). Performers are Barry Crawford (flute), Benjamin Fingland (clarinets), Gabriela Diaz (violin), Joshua Gordon (cello), Steven Beck (piano), and James Baker (conductor).

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