Name: Spirals, Orbits, and Circular Paths [2021, for ensemble] by Matthew Monaco
Duration: 10 min 20 s
Description: Premiered by Ensemble InterContemporain (conducted by Léo Margue) on November 12, 2021 in Paris, France.

Premiered by Ensemble InterContemporain (conducted by Léo Margue) on November 12, 2021 in Paris, France.

Spirals, Orbits, and Circular Paths [2021, for ensemble]

Premiered by the Del Sol Quartet. 

Recorded and mixed by Nathan Corder

Fits and Starts [2024, for string quartet]

Performed by Alain Billard in the Ircam Espace de Projection as part of ManiFeste 2024

Recording: Sébastien Naves
RIM: Rémi Le Taillandier

Additional mixing by Nathan Corder

Blur [2024, for contrabass clarinet and electronics]

Endless Rain | for organ (live)

central park ramble 04.22.25 (binaural)

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.

Premiered by Ensemble Linea at the Festival aux Chandelles, in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, France, on May 30, 2025.

'Thread' was commissioned by the Royaumont Foundation with support from Christine Jolivet Erlih.

Jeremie Fevre, flute
Andrea Nagy, clarinet
Ernst Spyckerelle, violin
Laurent Camatte, viola
Johannes Burghoff, violoncello
Carolina Santiago Martinez, piano
Jean-Phillippe Wurtz, conductor

Recorded by F. Gauvenet.

Additional mixing by Nathan Corder.

Thread [2025, for ensemble]

BWV 1034 - III. Andante

La Mia Barbara (Excerpt)

https://joshuamastel.com/Blur/
Performed by the New Fromm Players at Tanglewood Music Center August 18, 2025.
Sheena Lan, violin
James Gikas, violin
Audrey Wang, viola
Han Lee, cello

Blur | for string quartet (2025)

reading session at Tanglewood Music Center (Koussevitsky Music Shed), July 2025.

four masks (artifact) | for orchestra (2025)

http://matthew-monaco.com

Composer/Pianist

Matthew Monaco (b. 1997) is a composer of acoustic and electroacoustic music. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2022, Matthew received his master’s degree from the Conservatoire de Paris (CNSMDP), where he studied composition with Stefano Gervasoni and electronic music with Yan Maresz, Luis Naon, et Grégoire Lorieux. In May 2020, he received his Bachelor of Music from the New England Conservatory, where he studied with Stratis Minakakis, minoring in music theory.

His works have been performed in the United States and Europe by groups such as Ensemble intercontemporain, Ensemble l’Itinéraire, Ensemble Court-circuit, the Callithumpian Consort, the Del Sol Quartet, the Brouwer Trio, members of Ensemble Linea, the Orchestre des lauréats du Conservatoire (of the Paris Conservatory), and others. Matthew’s music has been performed by conductors such as Hugh Wolff, Jean Deroyer, Stephen Drury, and Léo Margue, and featured in festivals including ManiFeste and Voix Nouvelles. His work with electronics has been performed in venues including Ircam, UC Berkeley’s CNMAT, and Stanford University’s CCRMA. Matthew served as Composer-in-Residence for the newly-formed Alinéa Ensemble during their inaugural season (2019-2020).

He has had masterclasses and lessons from composers including Kaija Saariaho, Tristan Murail, Philippe Leroux, Francesco Filidei, Philippe Manoury, Francesca Verunelli, Toshio Hosokawa, and Du Yun. From 2018-2020, Matthew co-curated NEC’s contemporary music series “Tuesday Night New Music”, where he developed monthly programs of intimate concert evenings highlighting premieres by NEC’s composers. From 2015-2016, he interned with the New York Philharmonic, working within the Young People’s Concerts, Very Young Composers program, and other educational programs. Matthew’s initial musical training focused on piano studies, jazz, and improvised music.

Matthew’s research focuses on intersections of phenomenology and music theory, creating a space for work-specific methods in contemporary music analysis. Current research investigates musico-grammatical paradigms in the music of Cecil Taylor.

Spirals, Orbits, and Circular Paths [2021, for ensemble]

Matthew Monaco

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