performed by Jack Yarbrough, pianist

premiered at Composers Conference 2021

July 27, 2021
Seully Hall, Boston Conservatory, Boston, MA

The Departure of Time [Jack Yarbrough]

the being/the world (2024)
for Juliet Fraser and Ensemble Musikfabrik

extract recording: scene 5: duo (love)

Juliet Fraser, voice
Sara Cubarsi, viola d'amore
Benjamin Kobler, synth organ
+ MusikFabrik

premiere recording extract from WDR, Köln on 3 March 2024

total piece duration: 1 hour

in loving memory of Amelia Cuni

commissioned by Ensemble Musikfabrik and Kunststiftung NRW
photograph: Janet Sinica

the being/the world (2024) scene 5 (extract)

Live electronics with vibrating shells looking at the vitality of eco-anxieties and corporatized blackness fueled by:

"brushes of swiftness of adrenalines,
swirling anxieties,
late night snacks,
burst of laughters/cries,
sweeps of turntables states,
eradication and amplification of blackness,
vibrating collected trophies,
absences of resilience,
sweetness of life,
bent physicalities,
sore braiding fingers."

Porcelains/eco/#stillmagical

Please, use headphones or good loudspeakers.

The purple fuchsia bled upon the ground. (2023–24)
Commission: Westdeutschen Rundfunk & Wien Modern

Live Recording: Pierre-Laurent Aimard & WDR Orchestra (cond. Elena Schwarz), 12 May 2024, Cologne

Photo: WDR/Holger Talinski

The purple fuchsia bled upon the ground. (2023–24), for piano and orchestra

Youtube video of the performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUf5Ca6_wk0

commissioned by Ensemble Proton Bern as a part of Protonwerk No. 13

live recording of premiere 23. April 2024 - Dampfzentrale Bern

Ensemble Proton Bern 

Conductor- Gregory Charette
Alto flute, piccolo - Bettina Berger 
Oboe - Martin Bliggenstorfer 
Basset horn, contrabass clarinet - Richard Elliot Haynes
Bassoon, Contrabassoon - Elise Jacoberger 
Harp - Vera Schnider 
Piano - Coco Schwarz
Violin - Maximilian Haft 
Cello - Jan-Filip Ťupa

Recording and mixing - Joël Cormier

Program note: 
“Stained light” is a part of an ongoing attempt in my work to uncover sensations and emotions from my own childhood. It can be both nostalgic and dark, as I try to remember how sensitive I felt to everything as a child – to the weather, to the energy of people around me, to the sounds of the world. In the piece, I try to create fragile spaces in which small details can affect the whole system, uncovering layers of sweetness or of darkness. There is something always under the surface, like a hidden song, half-remembered, heard from a distance.

Stained light | for ensemble proton bern (2023-24)

commissioned and performed by Blaurenz Duo
Rebecca Blau - flute
Rebecca Lawrence - double bass 
electronics – Isaac Roth Blumfield

live recording at Theater Pavillion, Lucerne, Switzerland on July 8, 2024

recording - Fernando Manassero
mix - Isaac Roth Blumfield

Half life | for amplified alto flute and double bass (2024)

Madrigal for.. (six pianos in 72 edo)

Ataraxy of the End

L’amour pur for vocalist and electronics
Commissioned as First Prize Winner of Sweetwater/SEAMUS Commission Award 

-
Program Note

A pure, bold, dazzling connection of souls
At a heartbreakingly beautiful point in time and space. 

How truthful and courageous can you truly be?

-
Studio recording version
Performed & Mixing by Liann J. Kang

L'amour pur (2024)

https://youtu.be/mTG-Hk_wYaY
This piece was made by programming a suite of Python packages that “read” through a .txt file of Melville’s book and, using several LLMs trained on 19th-century English-language literature (and the King James Bible and Shakespeare—Melville’s most apparent syntactic influences), “translates” or interprets the sentiment analysis of the text into various musical parameters in real time. I built logics to govern harmonic structure, modulation, rhythmic activity, polyphonic density, harmonic salience/chromatic saturation, pedaling, velocity, and methods of sliding between the poles of each parameter in the hopes of creating an emergent, strangely organic musical response out of the program. Due to the real-time response of the code, every run is unique, even when it’s reading the exact same text. My intent is to do the whole book, with unique tweaks and updates for each chapter (there are 136) to create constantly varying “movements” of piano music. I want the music to create the same sense of vastness that the book does. A sense that this could never end. And an ambiguity between wanting it to, and hoping it never does.

MOBY-DICK; or, THE WHALE: CHAPTER I.—LOOMINGS.

for string quartet [2016-19]
Performed by the JACK Quartet [https://jackquartet.com]
Commissioned by the Westdeutschen Rundfunks for the JACK Quartet and the Wittener Tage fur neue Kammermusik

This is a performance of the second half of the piece. The first part was written after this performance. The JACK Quartet & I are actively looking for opportunities to premiere the finished piece. Contact me if you have the means & the interest in programming this 60-minute quartet.

More info here: https://www.timothy-mccormack.com/yourbodyisavolume

MOBY-DICK; or, THE WHALE: CHAPTER I.—LOOMINGS.

Joshua Mastel