3rd Annual Melos New Music Concert, Philadelphia - Dec. 7 2012
ensemble39 - Live performance recording
Stanislav Chernyshev, amplified bass clarinet
Nigel Armstrong, amplified violin
Jessica T. Chang, amplified viola
Gabriel Cabezas, amplified cello

**The complete score can be viewed at the following link: http://jasonthorpebuchanan.com/asymptoticflux/page1.html

Program Notes:

“Asymptotic Flux: First Study in Entropy” was written over a three month period while traveling and hitchhiking throughout Europe, surrounding time spent attending at the IRCAM Manifeste Festival in Paris and the Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt. As one might imagine, composing with pencil and paper while constantly on the move can be rather cumbersome, having only short periods of time available to focus, and often taking place in awkward workspaces like cafes, restaurants, hostels, and the apartments of my various hosts. Most of these environments were quite busy and chaotic spaces. This situation presented a challenge after having spent most of my compositional activity to date in an academic setting with a piano or other musical equipment readily available.

My original intent when I set out was to explore the timbral possibilities of the bass clarinet, utilizing a variety of techniques to produce complex soundscapes and microtonal sonorities that would provide germinal material for the work while unifying the ensemble. In addition to the sonorities that are worked out through sampling and spectral analysis of multiphonics, additional pitch content is generated through an acoustic analogue to a process known in electronic music as “single-sideband modulation,” resulting in a series of combination tones made by adding two frequencies (for instance, a bass clarinet tone and an open scordatura string of the cello), to one another, producing a series that grows exponentially (i.e. 100Hz+200Hz=300Hz, 200Hz+300Hz=500Hz, etc.).

The title comes from an arguably conceptual device: the low E-flat that simultaneously pervades the work and is non-existent. I imagine that the ensemble is always reaching towards this E-flat as a point of centricity, but never quite arrive; analogous to an asymptote, as it approaches infinity. Entropy can be described as the “measure of the disorder or randomness in a closed system,” or the “tendency for all matter and energy in the universe to evolve toward a state of inert uniformity.” (source: American Heritage Dictionary). Taking some poetic liberties in reducing the scientific definition of “entropy” to simply a unit of measurement for chaos, one might say that this work conveys a state of high entropy in music, in stark contrast both to my previous work and to the classical tradition itself. This is a characteristic that I feel reflects not only specific elements of the compositional process, but also the result of the technical demands made on the performers, as well as my state of mind throughout the creation of this work.

Please note that all sounds heard in this performance are produced acoustically without electronic processing.

- Jason Thorpe Buchanan

Rochester world premiere can be heard here: https://soundcloud.com/jasontbuchanan/asymptotic-flux-first-study-in
and seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMel9NUt30s

For more information, please visit: 
http://www.jasonthorpebuchanan.com
http://www.melosmusic.com
http://www.ensemble39.com

Asymptotic Flux: First Study in Entropy (2012) by Jason Thorpe Buchanan - Philadelphia Premiere

3rd Annual Melos New Music Concert, Philadelphia - Dec. 7 2012
ensemble39 - Live performance recording
Stanislav Chernyshev, clarinet
Ayane Kozasa, viola
Gabriel Cabezas, cello


Program Notes:

. . . and see it vanish
The structure of …and see it vanish is highly linear in terms of pitch succession and rhythmic sequence. Bar lines are eliminated to give free flow to the music. It is meant not to have any clear and defined point of entrances and vanishing points for each instrument. They enter and interact freely with each other. When they vanish, they become transparent but still present, as if they have always been, and will forever continue to be. 

– Chin Ting Chan

For more information, please visit: 
http://www.chintingchan.com
http://www.melosmusic.com
http://www.ensemble39.com





. . . and see it vanish (2012) by Chin Ting Chan - World Premiere

3rd Annual Melos New Music Concert, Philadelphia - Dec. 7 2012
ensemble39 - Live performance recording
Alexandra von der Embse, oboe
Jessica T. Chang, viola


Program Notes:

Narcissus Chamber began with pondering the Narcissus and Echo myth. Though Narcissus’s folly is explained visually—it is his reflection in the water—the other senses are less defined. According to the myth, what he hears is Echo, a being distinct from himself. In reality, he is hearing himself reflected in the same way he sees himself in the water. I began to imagine Narcissus as not a person that merely constructs a reality centered around himself but as someone who is incapable of experiencing physical reality. Narcissus is a captive in his character, the casualty in a war between the id and super-ego – the viola and oboe. The steadfast oboe repeats the narcissistic mantra, reinforcing itself with each pass. The impulsive viola echoes this melodic loop, attempting variation futilely. Both voices rest briefly, allowing a moment of reflection and self-awareness before both begin again, reconstructing the same resonant chamber of reality. 
– Brian Penkrot


For more information, please visit: 
http://www.brianpenkrot.com
http://www.melosmusic.com
http://www.ensemble39.com


Narcissus Chamber (2012) by Brian Penkrot - World Premiere

3rd Annual Melos New Music Concert, Philadelphia - Dec. 7 2012
ensemble39 - Live performance recording
Nigel Armstrong, violin
Jessica T. Chang, viola
Gabriel Cabezas, cello

Program Notes:

While I was composing my Trio in the summer of 2012, a poem by Emily Dickinson kept running through my head. It begins: “Dare you see a Soul at the White Heat?/ Then crouch within the door – / Red – is the Fire’s common tint – / But when the vivid Ore / Has vanquished Flame’s conditions, / It quivers from the Forge / Without a color, but the light / Of unanointed Blaze.” While the poem didn’t exactly inspire my music, it did seem to reflect a certain intensity of feeling I wanted to convey: The work begins in a relatively subdued manner, with flowing legato lines played by all the instruments, but a jittery sixteenth-note figure soon emerges, beginning in the cello, and passing to the violin and viola. This might be thought of as the “vivid Ore” whose blaze at times almost overwhelms the texture of the music, especially in one of its final appearances, set as a canon between the three instruments. When the fire seems to have all but spent itself, the sixteenth-note figure appears once more, high in the violin, played over sorrowing lines in the viola and cello. I’ve deliberately left the piece with a question at the end, suggesting that the “white heat” has not completely dissipated, but still glows like fire beneath the embers. 
– David Carpenter


For more information, please visit: 
www.melosmusic.com
www.ensemble39.com

Trio (2012) by David Carpenter - World Premiere

3rd Annual Melos New Music Concert, Philadelphia - Dec. 7 2012
ensemble39 - Live performance recording
Alexandra von der Embse, oboe
Nigel Armstrong, violin
Rex Surany, double bass

Program Notes:

Johnny Carson once said that a New York minute was how long it takes between the streetlight turning green and the guy behind you honking the horn. When I came to the Northeast, I was amazed by the hustle and bustle of it all. It was at once exciting, thrilling, and terrifying. Everyone seemed to be working at incredible speeds, sometimes against each other, sometimes by themselves, and at times together. While the Northeast is notorious for being overly busy, I found Philadelphia to be unique in its interpretation of time and business. The city is certainly a busy place, but often this does not translate into things being done in an instant. As anyone who has had to wait for the bus can tell you, Philly runs on its own time. A Philadelphia Minute is a fast virtuosic piece that reflects my interpretation of life in Philadelphia. It can be crazy with everyone working together at amazing speed, it can be difficult with unexpected turns, it can be chaotic with so much action, but it can also surprise you with moments of beauty that seem to just appear out of no where and stop time dead in its tracks. 
– Ryan Olivier

For more information, please visit: 
www.ryanolivier.com
www.melosmusic.com
www.ensemble39.com


A Philadelphia Minute (2012) by Ryan Olivier - World Premiere

Melos Music is a collective of composers who collaborate to create, publish, concertize, and advance new music to a global community. Melos composers are attracting significant attention in the U.S. and abroad with over one hundred annual concert performances worldwide.  Melos Music’s ongoing projects involve substantial collaborations with other ensembles and organizations which seek to cultivate new audiences and generate enthusiasm for contemporary music.  

Creative projects by Melos and its composers have been supported by ASCAP, New Music USA, the American Music Center, the American Composers Forum, the Theodore Presser Foundation, CBDNA, MTNA, the Mid-American Center for Contemporary Music, and others.  In addition, works written specifically for Melos projects have received awards from BMI, The American Prize, the newEar Competition, and the International Women in Music Conference. Melos composers have also received fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation, the MacDowell Colony, the Fontainebleau Academy, and the Paul Sacher Stiftung Foundation, and they have received fellowships or commissions from leading music festivals including the Tanglewood Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, the Composer’s Conference at Wellesley College, June in Buffalo, the Brevard Music Center, soundSCAPE Festival in Italy, EAMA, the FuBis Academy in Berlin, La Pietra Forum in Italy, and others.

Orchestral works by Melos composers have been performed by the Nashville Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Eastman Philharmonia, the Loyola Symphony Orchestra, the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, the Sound ExChange Orchestra, and the Rutgers Symphony Orchestra.  Wind Ensemble works have been performed by dozens of professional and collegiate ensembles in the United States, Canada, Japan, and elsewhere, while Choral, Operatic, and Art Song compositions receive dozens of annual performances around the world. Additionally, many leading new music ensembles have performed works by Melos composers including the Argento Ensemble, the Cygnus Ensemble, Da Capo Chamber Players, Ensemble Dal Niente, the Fifth House Ensemble, the PRISM Quartet, the Jack Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, and the Momenta Quartet. Melos composers have also been featured at major electro-acoustic festivals including the International Computer Music Conference (England), the NYC Electro-Acoustic Music Festival, the Workshop on Computer Music and Audio Technology (Taiwan), and the SEAMUS National Conference (Miami, FL).  

Melos composers are frequently featured on radio broadcasts, webcasts, and lectures throughout the U.S., and the group released its first commercial recording in 2012.  With all this and more, the group is quickly establishing itself as an important arts organization featuring many important emerging American composers.
