Flying Machines Mvt. 1 (excerpt)

Flying Machines Mvt. 3 (excerpt)

01 Rituals - Mock Up

Silver Bells

Y Ahora

Brick-olage

Commissioned and performed by Brooks Hafey

The graviton is a hypothetical quantum particle that is purported to transmit the force of gravity. Like the photon, it is thought to be massless and therefore travel at the speed of light, and it would simultaneously exhibit properties of both particles and waves.

In Gravitons, the accompaniment (individual staccato notes and the chords that they form) and the melody are very closely connected in such a way that the melodies seem to emerge out of these collections of staccato notes.

Of course, gravity gets very complex when multiple objects interact with each other. At times the “force” of the melodic line pulls inward, other times outward; sometimes accelerating, other times decelerating. Toward the end of the piece, one can imagine “particles” being stretched farther and farther apart, perhaps as if in an expanding universe.

I composed this piece with several compositional “rules” and technical limitations in mind. First, the original staccato line is always present, although it goes through several transformations. Additionally,the damper pedal is never used; only the sostenuto. Finally, tempo is strictly regulated, changing only through metric modulations in ratios of 2:3 or 3:4.

Gravitons (Live)

Commissioned and performed by Katherine Weintraub.

In Rarefied Air revolves around a few contrasting thematic ideas, or places. One may imagine traversing an environment where beauty, mystery, excitement, and treachery can exist at the same time. Some places are visited and revisited throughout the piece, each time experienced with a new perspective. Others are encountered once and referenced later only indirectly, as a memory.

In Rarefied Air

Work in progress for alto saxophone and interactive electronics. This is a demo - comments welcome!

Ñamandú Excerpt - work in progress

Sonata: Encounters, mvt. 1

Sonata: Encounters, mvt. 2

Ñamandu is a musical reflection on the creation myth of the Mbyá, an indigenous people native to central South America. In their folklore, a handful of creatures have been present since the beginning of time; among them is the sacred hummingbird, which sustains the creator deity, Ñamandu, as he creates the earth and the heavens.
Like the Mbyá creation story, all sounds in this piece stem from those present at the beginning: the saxophone (here, the creator), the hummingbird, and later, the owl and the lapacho tree. The listener is made to feel as if in the center of creation, where one may feel the interconnectedness of all things, and perhaps the reflection of divine wisdom.
Ambisonic spatialization places the listener within a surrounding sonic atmosphere, and effects like granular synthesis, compression sidechaining, and real-time polyphony help create a sonic environment where one can envision the primordial “space-time” that the Mbyá told of.

Ñamandu

Flying Machines I. Ezekiel's Airship

Joshua Keeling is emerging as an adventurous voice in new music, drawing from tonal, non-tonal, jazz, electroacoustic, and spectral traditions to craft vibrant musical works.
His repertoire includes chamber, orchestral, wind ensemble, and interactive electroacoustic compositions, as well as collaborations with filmmakers, choreographers, and playwrights. His music has been performed both nationally and internationally at a number of venues and festivals including: the North American Saxophone Alliance National Conference, Red Note New Music Festival, the Society of Electro-Acoustic Music (SEAMUS) National Conference, the Toronto Electroacoustic Symposium, the San Francisco Festival of Contemporary Music, and conferences of the Society of Composers, Inc. and the College Music Society. He is a recipient of the Beyer Award in Chamber Music Composition.
He received his D.M. from Florida State University. Additionally, he has studied at the University of Texas at Austin (M.M.), the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber (Dresden, Germany), and Belmont University (B.M.).
Dr. Keeling has held teaching positions at Illinois State University, Illinois Wesleyan University, and Collin College.

Joshua Keeling

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