On the Nature of Thingness - LIVE Premiere at LPR

Live performances

Written for the International Contemporary Ensemble, this cycle of chamber and solo works (for flute, clarinet, toy piano, trumpet, guitar, and percussion) uses amplification, live processing, and spatialization to reveal acoustic phenomena of the instruments and the fragile athleticism of virtuosity.

These excerpts are from a CD, released on New Focus Recordings.

The Bright and Hollow Sky

Music for percussion and electronics.

These are excerpts from a CD released on Mytoeses Music

Memory Spaces

Live premiere by Parker Kitterman and International Contemporary Ensemble at Christ Church Philadelphia, Sept. 23, 2018.

Commissioned by Christ Church Preservation Trust with support from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage

Nathan Davis - The Proof Notes

Every cymbal holds a world of sounds, many of which are only apparent when one holds it close to the ear, like a tuning fork.  Ubiquitous in Asian and European cultures, cymbals used in music are essentially the same as those once used in warfare and in meditation, and all carry layers of martial and ritual associations that are as complex as their overtones.  "Whet" uses a large collection of hand cymbals, played with invented and adapted techniques of scraping, rotating, and clashing.  The musicians also use microphones to bring the listener close to the small sounds, which would otherwise be lost amidst transient explosions.  The title comes from an interest in a process of friction and conflict used to make something sharper, be that a knife, a mind, or a sound.  It was commissioned for TimeTable by Meet the Composer Commissioning Music/USA.

Whet (for 3 players and 18 cymbals) performed live by TimeTable

Bell of Silence, for SATB Choir and Handbells - composed by Nathan Davis on a text by Jennifer Michael.  Dedicated to the Sanctuary Choir of the Park Avenue Christian Church for the 2013 Christmas Gala.  

This is a live recording of the world premiere, sung by the Sanctuary Choir at PACC, conducted by Paul Vasile, together with the Riverside Ringers.

Bell Of Silence

When to Stop (1996) for solo marimba

performed by Adam Sliwinski, marimba
Live at The Tank NYC - recording of the World Premiere.

When to Stop was commissioned by Robert Van Sice.

When to Stop (performed by Adam Sliwinski)

Music for percussion and electronics.

These are excerpts from a CD released on Mytoeses Music

Crawlspace - excerpt (ND, induction mic and computer)

Diving Bell - excerpt (ND, triangles and electronics)

Saariaho - Six Japanese Gardens Mvt 3 (ND, percussion)

Written for the International Contemporary Ensemble, this cycle of chamber and solo works (for flute, clarinet, toy piano, trumpet, guitar, and percussion) uses amplification, live processing, and spatialization to reveal acoustic phenomena of the instruments and the fragile athleticism of virtuosity.

These excerpts are from a CD, released on New Focus Recordings.

Like sweet bells jangled - excerpt (International Contemporary Ensemble)

pneApnea - excerpt (Claire Chase, alto flute)

The Mechanics of Escapement - excerpt (Phyllis Chen, toy piano and clock chimes)

Dowser - excerpt (Joshua Rubin, bass clarinet)

The Bright and Hollow Sky - excerpt (International Contemporary Ensemble)

Built from recordings of short-wave radio broadcasts.

Morningside Lights - Morse

Sunday morning bells from Église St-Trophime in Arles, recorded from the adjoining cloister.

Arles Cloister Bells

Recorded inside the La Grotte de Sainte Marie-Madeleine à la Sainte-Baume, a cliffside cave and shrine where Mary Magdalene is said to have spent the last years of her life.

La grotte de la Sainte-Baume

Waves moving rocks at la Plage du Bestouan, Cassis

Plage Du Bestouan

Birds singing along the path to la Grotte de la Sainte Baume.

Les oiseaux de la Sainte Baume

Live performance of Quatre Huîtres (2016) for solo hammered dulcimer, composed and performed by Nathan Davis. Written at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France. Commissioned by ICE First Page for the Mostly Mozart Festival and Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival.

Quatre Huîtres (for hammered dulcimer) performed live by Nathan Davis

performed by Tony Arnold and ICE, live at LPR

4 - An outside with an inside in it (On the Nature of Thingness)

3 - Vowels (On the Nature of Thingness)

2 - DADA (from "On the Nature of Thingness") performed by Tony Arnold and ICE

Performed by Tony Arnold and the International Contemporary Ensemble, live at LPR 5/31/11

1 - Study of the Object (On the Nature of Thingness)

For string quartet and live electronic filtering.
Excerpt from live premiere performance by the Calder Quartet at the Donaueschingen Musiktage.

Using instruments and performance space as related resonant vessels, "Echeia" is inspired by the writings of Vitruvius regarding an ancient system of theater acoustics. It was composed at the Camargo Foundation and commissioned by Donaueschingen Musiktage for the Calder Quartet.

Nathan Davis - Echeia - Mvt 1 - On the Sensation of Tone

Excerpts from the Starkland CD release "On the Nature of Thingness", music by Phyllis Chen and Nathan Davis, performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble

Ghostlight - excerpt (Jacob Greenberg, piano)

On speaking a hundred names - excerpt (Rebekah Heller, bassoon)

Study of the Object - excerpt (Tony Arnold, soprano, and ICE)

Chamber dance opera, performed by Katalin Karolyi, Peter Tantsits, International Contemporary Ensemble, Brooklyn Youth Chorus. Recorded live in premiere at BAM Harvey Theater, with dancers Wendy Whelan and Jock Soto and six puppeteers).

"Hagoromo" is a re-imagining of a 400 year old Noh drama, with a new libretto by Brendan Pelsue. Commissioned by ICE and American Opera Projects, it premiered at 2015 BAM Next Wave Festival.

Hagoromo 9 - Angel Emerges

Hagoromo 15 - Ascension

Hagoromo 11 - An Angel Fading

Performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble.

"Inside Voice" was inspired by the Fisk Organ at Christ Church Philadelphia, in a transitional state of becoming. During an early visit to work with it during installation, many of the ranks were in place, but some were not. Therefore the keys would always produce air through the system of hoses, but when certain stops were engaged (those with no pipes installed) they produced only filtered white noise. It is a wonderful sound, but one that is not playable on the finished organ. Instead, the members of ICE, using their instruments to produce air sounds, form a metaphoric human bellows that is played using virtual valves created electronically. A glimpse inside the workings of a living instrument, this was a moment that will not happen again—or at least not until 300 years from now when this organ is in an advanced state of decay.

This piece is a movement of "In Plain Air" commissioned by Christ Church Preservation Trust for the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and Parker Kitterman. Original support for In Plain Air was provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Philadelphia.

Nathan Davis was awarded a residency at the Camargo Foundation in partnership with GMEM to develop electronics for "Inside Voice”, with the assistance of Monica Gil Giraldo.

Inside Voice

Recorded on the 11 bells of at Christ Church Philadelphia.

This piece is a movement of "In Plain Air" commissioned by Christ Church Preservation Trust for the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and Parker Kitterman. Original support for In Plain Air was provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Philadelphia.

Bellarmonic

Written for and commissioned by yarn/wire and their residency at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn.  

"de clocher à clocher" is for two pianists playing a piano (on keys and pulling strings, prepared and unprepared) and two percussionists playing metal instruments (striking, scraping, and pulling strings).  It takes it's title from a line in Rimbaud's "Illuminations" ("I have stretched ropes from bell-tower to bell-tower...").

This is a recording of the premiere at LPR on March 22, 2012.

de clocher à clocher (performed by yarn/wire)

The Sand Reckoner by Nathan Davis
Performed live at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music by Ekmeles and Jacob Greenberg, 9/07/18

By the time of Archimedes, the number of grains of sand by the sea and the number of stars in the sky were already common examples of the limits of human knowledge and understanding. In “The Sand Reckoner”, considered the first scientific paper, Archimedes boldly creates an exponential numbering system and uses the scientific method in order hypothesize and to prove the size of the universe. In doing so, he confronts innumerability, infinity and finitude, and, in doing so, challenges articles of faith, that which is knowable and unknowable. My piece adapts this text, together with commentary from several sources on the material and metaphor of sand, from the Wycliffe Bible, from William Blake, and from counting rhymes, in a setting for six solo singers and celeste, with electronics.

Sand Reckoner - Ekmeles

Kebyar Untai (2005) for cello and hammered dulcimer, performed by Odd Appetite (Ha-Yang Kim, cello; Nathan Davis, hammered dulcimer)

Nathan Davis - Kebyar Untai

Live recording of Skrzyp Skrzyn performed by the Calder Quartet

Skrzyp Skrzyn (CMF 2010) - Calder Quartet

Live premiere performance by Ryan Muncy at Constellation in Chicago.

Cipher (for bari sax and electronics) performed by Ryan Muncy

Nathan Davis "writes music that deals deftly and poetically with timbre and sonority" (NYTimes). He has received commissions from Donaueschinger Musiktage, International Contemporary Ensemble, American Opera Projects, Tanglewood, Calder Quartet, Yarn/Wire, Steven Schick, Claire Chase, Miller Theatre, and the Ojai Festival. His opera/ballet "Hagoromo" premiered at the BAM Next Wave Festival. Lincoln Center presented “Bells” for ensemble, multi-channel audio, and live diffusion broadcast through a conference system to audience members’ mobile phones. Other performances at Mostly Mozart Festival, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, the Park Avenue Armory, The Kitchen, Roulette, Darmstadt, Helsinki Musica Nova, and Acht Brücken Köln. Davis was a fellow at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France, and received awards from Meet The Composer, Fromm Foundation at Harvard, Copland Fund, Jerome Foundation, American Music Center, MATA, and ASCAP. CDs include "The Bright and Hollow Sky" and "On the Nature of Thingness".

Nathan Davis music

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks