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Composition Portfolio

Please leave comments and enjoy my music.

Images Of Solitude II. Water Lily - (2010) - as performed by the Wet Ink Ensemble

I Flaunt The Fiends Of Hell - as performed by the Duke New Music Ensemble - (2011)

According to Puju, the psychic advisor I spoke to in regards to this piece, locking yourself into a frame of mind restricts one’s creativity. He also said that when one is in the Theta State (a hypnagogic or subliminal state), you are at one with whatever you are attempting to deal with, in this case the music should come from your higher self and let the creativity flow freely without allowing yourself and your mind to get in the way.

The piece ‘t h e t a s t a t e' was conceived of as an ambiguously evolving meditation on the ambiguity surrounding the creation of written music. 
‘t h e t a s t a t e' attempts to encompass many differing sound-worlds from noisy clicks and beeps, to extended slow modally-driven improvisations, as well as fast and virtuosic music in the trio combining and clashing with the sounds in electronics.

These electronic sounds are based on the sounds of my voice speaking to the operator from the call-center; my conversation with the psychic advisor Puju; the menus detailing the disclaimers, the terms of use and the price guide of the Psychic telephone service. In its current form, the piece tries to allow the music to move freely from the firmly composed music to sections where the ensemble take control and improvise over the supplied chord changes for a flexible amount of time.

As the work comes to a close, returning to the opening musical texture, the sound of my voice telling Puju about the project and the reason for my calling leaves the piece unresolved, emphasizing both the open-mindedness required to fully appreciate his advice as well as the stark irony associated with a psychic telephone service.

Link to the Score ( PDF ): <a href="http://bit.ly/Thetastate" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">bit.ly/Thetastate</a>
Recorded and Performed by Reid Anderson, Ethan Iverson, and Dave King of The Bad Plus at SoundPure Recording Studios in Durham, NC by Jason Richmond

T H E T A S T A T E - as performed by The Bad Plus - (2010)

The first movement’s material was generated via spectral procedures. Spectral analysis on the chimes was used to collect data that generated the motivic material used throughout the movement. The analysis showed that the harmonics of the chimes produce a non-tempered scale made up of a few discrete semitones and many outlying quarter tones. SOLITUDE is an attempt to reconcile these materials into different harmonic and melodic contexts.

The second movement, in contrast, is made up of tight, square rhythmic gestures and rigid melodic phrases/motives that accumulate together to form the composite whole.

The spectral analysis of the chimes were done with the software SPEAR.
This piece was written under the tutelage of Prof. Pierre Jalbert for the ensemble residency of Speculum Musicae. In April of 2008, DIVERGENCE was awarded the ASCAP Foundation/ Morton Gould Young Composer Award.

Divergence - II. Accumulation - as performed by Speculum Musicae - (2007)

The track is the audio score that was made in collaboration with Brenda L. Burmeister for her video work titled, Clinging and Grasping. 

Visual Silence (from Clinging & Grasping) - (2012)

I'm Kenneth Stewart. Please call me Ken. Thanks for reading. I'd say I'm a bit of a ‘renaissance man’. If I'm playing, it usually has strings. If I'm in the role of curator or composer, a background in performance becomes useful in other ways.

In a previous utterance, music assisted by physical interfaces and sound processing played heavily on my work, however once I finished school my desire to stay behind the desk dwindled. I took to acoustic genres. I'd say for a couple of years I became fascinated with the subtle differences between Jazz and Bluegrass, yet the vast differences in the harmony, sets and motifs specifically in Old-Time and New Acoustic show that what you hear is not always what you expect.

Using the instruments I play I seek to explore the roots of the music that happens around me here in Durham, NC.

The scholarly study of composition prepared me by to use the tools of a composer to develop musical ideas far beyond my own. I took to standards as experimental tools for learning how to create works with rich, melodious textures and romantic harmony.

I'd like to think that the time away from school helped me enhance my original obsession with weaving into my work an underpinning of the ambient electronic music and that of the avant-garde. Or my insistence a perversion for unusual sounds and peculiar timbres somehow coalescing into something familiar and hopeful.

While I do musical research that engages concepts of instrument modification and design and his non-compositional creative work of signal processing (linear and digital) and the hacking and modifications of electronic and acoustic musical instruments and their electronic effects, sometimes what's necessary is putting that all away and singing a simple song.

As a quasi-alumnus member of the Slippage Lab formerly at Duke University now at Northwestern, under the directorship of professor Thomas DeFrantz. Most of my time with Slippage was when I was a graduate student at Duke..
Some other things of note: I was one of Gordon Epperson's final cello students. Nancy Green, and protege, Nelvimar Neves and two summer festivals of lessons and masterclasses as a teenager with Brinton Averil Smith and countless lessons via conversation with colleagues. 

My composition mentors, whom shaped my vision for music creation: Daniel Asia, Pierre Jalbert, Durham’s Scott Lindroth and as well as a summer in Berlin with Samuel Adler; ditto on the colleagues.

Ph.D. from Duke University, and additional degrees from Rice University, The University of Arizona and Pima College in Tucson, AZ.
KennethDStewart.com

Divergence - II. Accumulation - as performed by Speculum Musicae - (2007)

Kenneth D. Stewart