Movement 3: Day and Night (1937) and Waterfall (1961) 

The third movement moves from Escher’s Day and Night into Waterfall to create a symmetrical conclusion to Escher Keys. Beginning in the sky of the first image, the listener moves back and forth, side to side between viewing the white birds and black birds, neither of which visually can be seen at the same time. Moving into the patterned, chess-like view of the fields, the viewer is confronted with two opposing rivers. Wooden timbres comprise much of the timbre pallet. Day and Night is the only woodcut I selected to be included in this piece. All the other pieces are lithographs. As the opposing rivers move into the cities, the listener shifts from Day and Night into Waterfall, which continues with fluid flowing movement from the opposing rivers. Like the first movement, the soloist in this movement retains its more traditional relationship with the orchestra interjecting his statements often to have the orchestra respond with atmospheric tessellations. After building back up solid pillars of the castle-like structure, defying logic, the middle section of this movement deconstructs from birds into missiles. The mysterious Shepard tones return over the war zone to conclude with the over blowing airy texture of the opening and perpetual motion of the rising harmonic series.

Escher Keys Mvt 3

Movement 2: Three Worlds (1955) 

The second movement reflects a less conversational relationship between the soloist and the orchestra. The timbre and dialogue is more subtle and introspective. There is great room for the soloist to interpret his perception of the artwork in the movement. This movement begins submerged under water, in the underworld. Gradually climbing through the reflected branches the second section of this movement moves into bird song. Starting out with a Messiaen-inspired bird song, the music moves to a deep cormorant call (native to Louisiana), a brief cry from a white-throated sparrow and general songbird calls all layer to create an otherworldly pallet. The descent of the leaves falling takes the listener back into the world below thus merging the three perspectives: the world above, below and on the surface.

Escher Keys Mvt 2

Movement 1: Ascending and Descending (1960) 

Mapped by register, irregular rhythmic patterns, endlessly rising canons and forever loops, the first movement is the longest of the concerto drawing on a traditional soloist/ensemble relationship. Starting with a dirge-like march reflecting the monotony of the circling monks, the piece shifts abruptly to the working activity of the monks with no practical purpose. With some variation, this pattern continues until the middle section of the piece, which descends to the second tier of Escher’s artwork; this section is focused on contemplation, reflecting out and the solemn arches representing the endless process of finite. Slowly descending to the third tier with Shepard tones in the background sounding as if the lines are moving upwards and downwards simultaneously, a familiar canon by Bach appears before returning to the forever loops. The movement ends with the figure looking outwards, monochromatic, as if a descent into nothing. Like Escher’s piece, this movement grapples with double meaning and contradiction.

Escher Keys Mvt 1

Having a blast writing for Amy Williams' Interludes Project which she will be bringing to LSU in February.  Thanks to the Cage Trust for this awesome virtual instrument which is helping me expand my imagination on this masterpiece.  Having SO. MUCH. FUN.

Interlude Influenza teaser -- test opening

Performed by the CNME SQ, spring 2022 (dress rehearsal for Carnegie Hall) featuring my amazing ensemble featuring Hayoung Cho, MK Guthrie, Cat Chen and Eduard Teregulov.  Blackbird was inspired by Wallace Steven's "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," about making the ordinary extraordinary.


Part 1: Observation

1. Moving I (eye):
Among twenty snowy mountains,
the only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird.

2. Th(r)ee:
I was of three minds,
Like a tree
In which there are three blackbirds.

3. Mimes:
The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.
It was a small part of the pantomime.

4. One:
A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and a blackbird
Are one.

5. Inflection:
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.

6. Icicles:
Icicles filled the long window
With Barbaric glass.
The shadow of the blackbird
Crossed it, to and fro.
The mood
Traced in the shadow
An indecipherable cause.

Blackbird (part 1) dress rehearsal for Carnegie Hall

Composed for Atlantic Brass Quintet.  Premiere 10/21/22, LSU.  

“Fight-or -flight” is a human response to stress and relates specifically to the release of hormones when the body is in danger.  

Flight||fight (of the honeybees) is inspired by this metaphor, and specifically relates to the process that honeybees go through in making honey.  Like brass players, honeybees are sophisticated communicators.  The colony is one that depends solely on roles; there are drones, workers and a queen.  After building an intricate hive made up of hexagons, they begin their work to make honey.  First, a worker bee goes out to gather nectar.  The bees do a dance, flapping their wings at a very fast buzz to determine where the nectar is (literally which direction from the sun). Once the worker bee gathers the nectar, she comes back to regurgitate the nectar into several cells.  This process occurs several times and they flap their wings to make the serum thicker.  Finally, once the honey is made, they cap it off and move on to the next cell.  Bees make very little honey in their life span, which makes this process all the more impressive.  Featuring Timothy Albright, Timothy Leopold, John Manning, Seth Orgel and Miki Sasaki

Fight || Flight

Background:

I first heard Luisa Sello play in Thailand in 2011.  Her performance in Chiang Mai struck me through her dramatic flare, theatrical stage presence and masterful sound, with impeccable phrasing and intonation.  After corresponding for more than a year, she heard my work E: clipse for wind symphony which premiered at Mahidol University in 2012; at which point, she asked me to write her a solo piece.  Having never written for solo flute, I was eager, but a bit intimidated by a renowned list of composer giants from the genre.  I re-acquainted myself with the repertoire, and flute players.  The pieces that resonated for me both formally and musically returned time and time again: Density 21.5, Bach’s a minor partita, Syrinx, Berio’s Sequenza, peppered with a bit of Sciarrino and Takemitsu.  All the pieces I was drawn towards treated the flute as a polyphonic instrument.  The idea of dividing a melodic line through counterpoint has been a fascination for me, especially for a primarily melodic instrument.   Register, attack and dynamic (among other parameters) can allow multiple lines to emerge, even though only one is playing.  Perception of how our ear separates parts is a core interest in this piece, derived emotionally from the Rainer Maria Rilke quote.  “I hold this to be the highest task of a bond between two people: that each should stand guard over the solitude of the other.” 

Program notes:

Flone is meant to imply an arrow, piercing, to divide, a splice to split; also, it suggests, being alone, and protecting that solitude.

Formally, the piece is constructed around “tension points” initiated by tempo changes resulting in sudden, dramatic shifts in personality.  The dissonant multiphonics, derived from the diminished seventh progression in the Allemande of Bach’s Partita, signify the onset of a change.  The Bach quotation gradually becomes more identifiable until one third of the way through the piece, (similar to a technique I explored in E: clipse), when it then fractures itself, and echoes the opening, more ethereal in character, gradually returning in a flipped dynamic shape (crescendo from mp to f).  What begins the piece as a descrescendo (a dying away of sound to “niente”), ends the piece with a tension, a crescendo with sudden interruptions, distractions and disruptions.


FLone (US premiere performance, April 28, 2014)

Swansongs: Inspired by Swedish artist Hilma Klint (1862-1944), this cello and piano duet is a commission for Eduard Teregulov and Albina Khaliapova who will feature the work on one of their upcoming programs dedicated to female composers.  

Klint is especially known for her mystical thought, like that of Hildegard von Bingen, but centuries later.  I aim to draw parallels between these two artistic women separated by hundreds of years.  I will appropriate some of Hildegard’s music, where I will weave select quotes into a modern interpretation of mysticism.  Of note, Klint’s work ran parallel to the development of abstract art (such as Mondrian, Malevich and Kandinsky) all of whom were all inspired by the Theosophical movement founded by Madame Blavatsky.  The inner and outer world is important in Klint’s work.  Swans have been a metaphor for one who takes flight from worldly trappings.  She directly references the Chinese symbol of yin and yang which is further highlighted by contrasting color.  While clearly struggling, they also function as mirrors – the white swan could represent femininity and the black masculinity or the spiritual vs. material or the visible and invisible; there is a duality to all of these paintings.  The music will explore balance and imbalance, and other dualities of life.  Though Hildegard was a non-dualist, the two shared many commonalities such as a search for own truth, both members of all female organizations, while Klint allowed hand to be led by spirit (automaticism), Hildegard believed music was the ultimate mode of communication that most closely resembled the angles.

Movement 1: (The Swan) – Hilma’s Symmetry (and Chaos)
Movement 2: Hildegard
Movement 3: (The Swan no. 3): Lock and Key

Gibson - Swansongs - III. Lock And Key

Gibson - Swansongs - II. Hildegard

Gibson - Swansongs - I. Hilma's Symmetry

For flute alone.   “I hold this to be the highest task of a bond between two people: that each should stand guard over the solitude of the other.” 
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet


FLone, studio recording (2014)

For flute alone. “I hold this to be the highest task of a bond between two people: that each should stand guard over the solitude of the other.” 
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

FLone (2014), best studio recording

E: clipse(d) is the acoustic culmination for a series I have been composing during the past 3 years for a variety of electronics and live instruments inspired by the aural trajectory of an eclipse. An eclipse is the obscuration of light, an emotional reduction or loss of splendor, status, and/or a reputation that forces us to examine our mortality. Ironically, in this space, magnetism and opposition join – awe and fear combine to create a truly phenomenal example of the interconnectedness of experience. This mirrors out to perception.

Bach’s  organ chorale, “Aus Tiefer Not Schrei Ich Zu Dir,” (BWV 687) is a primary building block in E: clipse. All of the material in the piece is directly derived from the chorale. The appropriation of the Bach material gradually becomes more recognizable as the piece progresses, though remnants of the theme are present through out. The harmonic language waivers between minor and phrygian and the most perceptible or “Bach-like” quotations function in a combined scale that gradually becomes more and more chromatic until the piece culminates. Throughout the piece, the featured tenor sax becomes more refracted as the focal point, like a lunar eclipse.

E: clipse(d), live 10/24/14

When Plato waxed poetically about the "music of the spheres," he thought that there were mathematical relationships between the earth, the sun, the moon, and the planets, which resembled the properties of a vibrating mass such as a tightened string or a tubular column of air. The ancient Greeks believed that there were astronomical ratios between earth and the heavenly bodies, which were the same as the acoustic nature of a vibrating string. The source of their theory, the mathematical division of a string length, provides one of the great timbral characteristics of stringed instruments - their ability to sound harmonics. These appropriately ethereal sounds create a wonderful contrast in color to the normal tone of a modern string instrument.

In 2007, I became increasingly aware of my ephemeral relationship to nature and began to experiment with electronics into my work. While I have frequently connected life experiences with my composition, this on took a very special credence since my connection between writing music and living had fused so fundamentally. I have been interested in exploring extended techniques for strings for some time, however it has only been recent that this interest has broadened into the realm of electronics. 

An eclipse is the obscuration of light, an emotional reduction or loss of splendor, status, and/or a reputation that forces us to examine our mortality. Ironically, in this space, magnetism and opposition join - awe and fear combine to create a truly phenomenal example of the interconnectedness of experience. This mirrors out to perception.

"E: Tip" is one of series that explores a "template” of compositional ideas with different versions exploring different angles of the perception of an eclipse. General formal and thematic material include: the trajectory of an eclipse visually through time, the harmonic series, and consonance and dissonance fading in and out between very "real" and "unreal" sounds, specifically, extended technique for cello in combination with manipulated recordings of bull-frogs.

This piece was commissioned by Madeleine Shapiro and the American Composers Forum.  Alvin Wong is featured on this recording.  

Cellist Alvin Wong performed across the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Seoul Arts Center, and Hong Kong Cultural Centre. He was featured in music festivals such as Atlantic (USA), Intimacy of Creativity (Hong Kong) and Thailand International Composition Festival, and has given masterclasses around the globe. Advocate in new music, he has premiered concertos by Barry Conyngham, James Ogburn and Angel Lam, and many cello works written for him. Alvin studied with Aldo Parisot and Janos Starker, and received the Doctor of Musical Arts from Yale. He is currently on faulty at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music in Australia. 

Caitlin Horsmon has created a visual accompaniment available on vimeo: https://vimeo.com/29233943

Thanks to Bob Beck for his sound engineering on this track!


E: Tip (2009)

"E: Vespers" is a single-channel video collaboration between composer Mara Gibson and visual artist Rebecca Dolan. The audio, it is part of a series of works composed for a variety of electronics and live instruments inspired by the aural trajectory of an eclipse. The video is part of a series focused on the horizon as a point of locus and grounding.

An eclipse is the obscuration of light, an emotional reduction or loss of splendor, status, and/or a reputation that forces us to examine our mortality. Ironically, in this space, magnetism and opposition join - awe and fear combine to create a truly phenomenal example of the interconnectedness of experience. This mirrors out to perception.

Like in "E: Tip," general formal and thematic material for the series include: the trajectory of an eclipse visually through time, the harmonic series and consonance and dissonance fading in and out between very "real" and "unreal" sounds.”

The ebb and flow of the ocean and the veiling of the horizon mirror this visually.

Denver-based artist, Rebecca Dolan created the visual counterpoint to this project which can be viewed: https://vimeo.com/18969138


E: Vespers (2010)

D(u)o investigates the movement from:
•	The mechanical to human (machine to man)
•	The imaginary to real
•	A music box to performer
•	two performers to one performer

----------
I. Lullaby
I frequently sight read through Armenian lullabies at the piano when I was pregnant with my son.  This movement is for two pianos and is the most lyrical of the three.  I wanted to evoke memories of a music box and childhood.  

II. For 4
For 4 is organized by register and plays with the ideas of exchange and mimicry.  Structurally, the movement is a mirror of itself (folding in on itself), while diverting itself with expansion and contraction.  It is Homage to many, including Ligeti, Nancarrow, and Bugallo/Williams duo.

III. Hands
Hands is the most virtuosic and often acrobatic of the three movements.  My aim in this piece was for the two performers to chase one another to such an extreme that they become ultimately fused.  


III. Hands, D(u)o (2006)

II. For 4, D(u)o (2004)

I. Lullaby, D(u)o (2005)

Performed by the Amherst Sax Quartet, June in Buffalo, 1999.

Plumb (1999)

For clarinet quartet including Gabrielle Baffoni, Brad Baumgartner, Michael Miller and Cheryl Melfi as part of STRIKE A POSE:  Featuring original choreography by artist Paula Weber, a troupe of dancers and musicians come together in a dynamic performance mirroring the ideas of gesture, pose and movement seen in the exhibition George Segal: Street Scenes, all set to city beats and sounds of the street at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art.

Plumb 1 for clarinets (1999/2010)

Moments (2013)
“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.” –Confucius 

Moments is comprised of five methods. Methods I, II, and III are further subdivided by additional improvisations, which are more loosely notated, creating eight movements in total. Method I and Improvisation I (for clarinet) represent reflection. Method II and Improvisation II (for viola) and Method III and Improvisation III (for piano) represent imitation. Method IV and Method V represent experience. Moments was composed for Michael Hall and ensemble.


Moments: Method 1

Moments: Improv 1

Moments: Method II

Moments : Improv II

Moments: Method III

Moments: Improv III

Moments: Method IV (2013)

Breath

I left the biggest space for it.

Have a hard time
thinking of it. Oh it’s supposed to be
so DEEP, go all the way down. Breathe into your pelvis,
into your feet. There comes a point

when you see that none of it is bullshit after all & at that point
no one wants to read your poems anymore. I probably peaked

at twenty-two. The universe is a breath
& every breath a universe. Oh god I’ve done it again:

took too big a breath, bigger than “natural.” Told my friend
I wasn’t sighing at her. I’m no longer a teenager. She’s good; she gets it.

The thing that got me hooked at first on breath
is how much warmer it is coming out than going in.

Come in, air around me! Is what I say in my mind, Come in and I’ll do something to you & you’ll be the same again soon.
---
By Hannah Ensor
---
Composed for Megan Ihnen and Michael Hall, "One Voice" is intended to be exactly that. Each performer is charged with mimicking the phonetic sounds between one another: some are spoken, some sung and many played. The aim is to blend as much as possible with one another. The voice and the viola are closer than one might initially think. A big part of this idea came from the Asian ehru, an instrument inspired by the sound of wind. Humanly voiced, like the viola, mezzo is the natural compliment.

One Voice (2016), world premiere

Sky-born, for four soloists, two singers per part featuring the UMKC Conservatory Singers (including Vicki Olson, Melissa Edwards, Lorissa Sampson, Mindy Guidroz, Michael Patch, Matt Wilson, Joshua Maize, Thou Yang), led my Robert Bode with Samuel Huang, Elaine Ng, violins and Ezgi Karakus, cello

Mara Gibson, 2016

Let me go where'er I will,
I hear a sky-born music still:
It sounds from all things old,
It sounds from all things young,
From all that's fair, from all that's foul,
Peals out a cheerful song.

It is not only in the rose,
It is not only in the bird,
Not only where the rainbow glows,
Nor in the song of woman heard,
But in the darkest, meanest things
There alway, alway something sings.

'T is not in the high stars alone,
Nor in the cup of budding flowers,
Nor in the redbreast's mellow tone,
Nor in the bow that smiles in showers,
But in the mud and scum of things
There alway, alway something sings.

Music, by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), 
American essayist and transcendental philosopher

While simple enough, this text holds deep meaning for me. I discovered it in a book of selected poetry for children shortly after my son was born. Since then, it has functioned as an anchor in many ways. Often the most beautiful (or be it, meaningful) experiences are generally the most challenging and superficially unattractive.

For me, this poem is full of idealism and hope, in the ugliness, in the reality, something we unfortunately do not share enough. I have wanted to set this text for some time, and thanks to the encouragement of two Kansas City choral ensembles and generous support of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, I finally have done so.

Performance Notes: 
Tutti sections all begin chant-like; the solo sections sing. Contrast welcome on repeated sections. Two voices per part, dropping to one voice per part during solo sections.

Sky-born

Fanfare (2003) was originally composed for the Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra.  I primarily write for smaller chamber ensembles, but this project allowed me an opportunity to increase the size of my pallet. The piece has also been performed in Norway (by the Trondheim Youth Orchestra in 2009), the Kansas City Youth Orchestra (2011) and most recently by the LSU Symphony (2017) featured on this live recording conducted by Dennis Llinas.

Fanfare is about the development of an idea, one that is not strictly melodically or harmonically driven where rhythm and timbre are of the utmost importance; the piece is about layering.  I was most interested in separating musical parameters so that the parts could be heard more clearly.  While it was a lesson for me writing for orchestra, it was also intended as a new look at how musical materials are put together for listeners.

Analogies I made while composing include: building blocks, sandcastles (where everything is a building block – if you lose a part of the foundation it is crushed) and kaleidoscopes (where big patterns often fragment and become closer together). Descriptive words I used to think about the music included: gradations, in-betweens and spectral/spectrum.

Musical materials I used for formal construction included African drumming patterns and Gamelan scales from Indonesia.  Art analogies I made during my process of composing include those playing with primary colors, like in the works of Robert Delaunay.

Fanfare with LSU Symphony conducted by Dennis Llinas 10/10/17

Performed at Snug Harbor in Charlotte North Carolina June 2018.  Blackbird was inspired by Wallace Steven's "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," about making the ordinary extraordinary.  

Part 1: Observation

1. Moving I (eye): 
Among twenty snowy mountains, 
the only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird.

2. Th(r)ee: 
I was of three minds,
Like a tree
In which there are three blackbirds.

3. Mimes:
The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.
It was a small part of the pantomime.

4. One:
A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and a blackbird
Are one.

5. Inflection: 
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections 
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.

6. Icicles:
Icicles filled the long window
With Barbaric glass.
The shadow of the blackbird
Crossed it, to and fro.
The mood
Traced in the shadow
An indecipherable cause.

Blackbird: Part 1 Observation with Beo String Quartet

Secret Sky perfromed by Chicago Composers Orchestra, Allen Tinkham conducting.Photo credit, Daniel Lory.  Hands down this past October was one of the best career months I have had to date.  Thank you!

Rumi’s words anchor Secret Sky:

“This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet.”

Secret Sky is inspired by the island community of Beaver Island, Michigan. Robert Nordling and the Beaver Island Cultural Arts Center commissioned me to compose this piece as a part of the 2017 Baroque on Beaver Festival where it received its premier.

Beaver Island is an extremely ecologically diverse area. As a consequence, there are a plethora of bird species inhabiting the island. In tracking the bird patterns around the island, moving from the north end to the east side, around to the west side and back up the central, I discovered several sonic patterns (based on the bird calls themselves as well as their migration paths).

The North end begins with a lighthouse, a beacon of sorts. Then, migratory songbirds prevail with a brief encounter with a swan. Sparrows and flutters dominate the east side of the island with marshy foul and woodpeckers leading us around to the west side. Also, on the west side, we are introduced to the other lighthouse on the island, after which we move through a graveyard and then reach the highest bluff on the island. Finally, circling around to the central area, we experience the greatest habitat diversity with bluebirds and osprey, indulgent in their wavering squeals. An undercurrent of the piece is the subtle roll of a wave on the shoreline, moving interchangeably through the parts.

Secret Sky is dedicated to my uncle and godfather, James Gibson, 1949-2017.  Secret Sky was the result of work started at the MacDowell Colony during my residency in 2016.

Secret Sky: one hundred veils to fall (Chicago Composers Orchestra performance October 2019)

Composer Mara Gibson is originally from Charlottesville, VA, graduated from Bennington College, and completed her Ph.D. at SUNY Buffalo. She has received grants and honors from the American Composer’s Forum, the Banff Center, Louisiana Division of the Arts, ArtsKC, Meet the Composer, the Kansas Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, the International Bass Society, ASCAP, the John Hendrick Memorial Commission, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, the MacDowell Colony and Yale University. Internationally renowned ensembles and soloists perform her music throughout the United States, Canada, South America, Asia, and Europe. Dr. Gibson has taught at the UMKC Conservatory as Associate Professor where she was the founder of the UMKC Composition Workshop and co-director/founder of ArtSounds. Starting fall 2017, she joined the faculty of Louisiana State University where she is currently Associate Professor of Composition and Area Head with tenure.  Mara released her first compilation CD ArtIfacts May 2015, with her second CD Skyborn released in November 2017 close behind through PARMA Recordings.  Her third CD project released in the summer of 2020 features Secret Sky performed by the Athens Philharmonic Orchestra.  Recently,  she completed her bassoon concerto, Escher Keys funded through a Louisiana Board of Regents (ATLAS grant).  Check out her upcoming projects and performances here: https://maragibson.com/ (under news).

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