A track by Paul Poston and Evan Arnett (https://soundcloud.com/evanarnett). We wanted to write something that could be in a JRPG.

Then Began a Great Adventure

Synthetic Soundwalk draws on the writing espoused by Murray Schafer regarding the soundscape: a musical compositions made directly from or to mimic, electronically, a natural environment. Schafer believes that society has become dominated by “eye culture" by putting strong emphases on the visual thereby causing the deterioration of an individual’s ability to listen.

The material of this worked is derived from electrical buzzes, hums from air conditioner units, noises from vending machines, and other sounds that tend to go unnoticed. It presents these sounds in both altered and original forms forcing the individual to confront sounds that they generally choose to ignore or forget, and hear them in a musical context.

Synthetic Soundwalk

Prelude in D major

My newest work A Storm After Spring for Perriot Ensemble, performed by:

Noemi Caron-Marcotte, Flute
Emily Mehigh, Clarinet
Lena Vidulich, Violin
Micheal Cotton, Cello
Marketa Ornova, Piano


A Storm After Spring

Recently revised. Performed by Andy Harms, Trumpet. 

Anticitizen One

Spiral for Solo Violin and Electronics
- Jeany Hsieh, Violin
- Paul Poston, Electronics

Written in 2013-14.

Spiral

E.ram requier sa costum e son us. - Raimbaut de Vaqueiras

Performance by:

Kenneth Cox - Flute
Andrea Vos-Rochefort - Clarinet
Walter Park - Violin
Courtney O-Keefe - Viola
Gregory Rowland Evans - Cello
John Murton - Conductor

10 Movements on the Line of a Troubadour Poem

The work is a representation of my vision of space when I close my eyes. Vast and mysterious, I'm also caught up with wonder whenever I see the brilliant pictures of the heavens. The piece swarms the listeners in a plethora of different sine and triagle waves and creates an light atmosphere of color and sound. The piece works in two ways: subtle changes in wave oscillations and difference tones.

performed by Paul Poston

Conceptual Sketch no. 2

Flashback to my first orchestra piece, if only my undergrad did orchestra readings.

Awesome Music

His Determination/His Reward

Composer: Paul Poston
Performers: VIVE! Ensemble
June 2, 2018 @ Farr Best Theatre. Mansfield, Texas
Program notes:
When visiting Spain last year, it was an essential that I go see the Reina Sofia museum of art, which mainly features modern paintings, photography, and installations of Spanish artists. When I first looked upon Monument aux espagnols mourt por la France, I knew that I wanted to write a response to the paintings of Pablo Picasso.
Mainly incorporating works from Picasso’s cubism period, the series of short movements provides a glimpse into my thoughts when looking at and contemplating the works. These include:
1. Girl before a Mirror
This piece begins and closes the work, because there are two wildly contrasting, yet eerily similar, images in this work. The girl staring at herself in the mirror is strong, vibrant, happy, and full of life, yet in her eyes there is a hint of pure apathy as she considers her image in the mirror.
2. Le Pigeon Aux Petit Pois
Humorously pictures a group of pigeons fighting for food at a standard café.
3. Mounment aux espagnols mourt por la France
Picasso was an ardent communist, not necessarily a follow of Soviet interests, especially after Party criticism of his portrait of Stalin. He 
strongly opposed United Nations interventionism and war in general. Here he paints a memorial for Spanish soldiers who died in France.
4. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
A work portraying five nude female prostitutes on Carrer D’Aviyno in Barcelona. Each figure is presented in a very confrontational manner, seemingly attempting to entice a passerby to engage in her services.
5. Girl before a Mirror
A refrain of the first movement that highlights the ugliness, dying, and darkened color of the girl’s mirror image. Nearly identical to the first, the dissonance in the strings exposes the girls innermost thoughts as she confronts herself in the mirror.

Picasso Dreams of Drawing Squares

Composer: Paul Poston
Performers: Unheard Of//Ensemble
5.13.18 | New Hope Baptist Church | Mansfield, TX

Each landscape is a representation of my experience and thoughts of different locations I visited in Japan during the spring of 2017. 

I. The Souls of Adashino Nenbutsu-ji

This temple, founded in 811, sits in an area where people have historically abandoned the bodies of the dead, exposing them to the elements. Now some 8,000 statuettes, which were scattered around Adashino and collected in 1903, memorialize the souls of the dead. The movement contains strong representations of time and death, yet remains hopeful that the souls abadoned have found peace.

II. The Markets at Zenko-ji Temple

Less focused on the history of the temple, the movement highlights the vibrancy of the people and markets that lead up to the temple. Especially on festivals and weekends, people busily swamp the temple, many wearing traditional japanese items, shop for trinkets whilst having a good time with friends and family.

III. The Torri of Fushimi Inari

Althought technically the shinto god of rice, merchants and manufacturers of Japan traditionally view him as the patron of business. Since being built in 1499, the main shrine has amased nearly 10,000 torri (the orange gates) on its main path. While traveling the path, one becomes transfixed with a sense of weight and reverance, as the path contains several smaller shrines spanning the 2.5 miles trail. It is a custom to donate to the temple in order to see a wish to come true, or to thank for a wish that has become true.

IV. The Rakan at Otagi Nenbutsu-ji

There are nearly 1,200 Rakan Statues at Otagi Nenbutsu-ji. The statuettes, usually humorous in nature represent the disciples of Buddha. In writing this movement, I tried to channel the whimsical and mischievous nature conveyed in the statutes. Therefore, despite the movement starting with some gravity (representing the serious discipline it takes to create these rakan), the movement quickly dissolves to quarky and disjunct motives.

Paul Poston

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