Full pieces

Deadlock I

"all night, all day" live recording by New Keys (Regina Schaffer, Kate Campbell, Anne Rainwater, Anthony Porter) at the San Francisco Center for New Music, 10/8/15

all night, all day

ABOUT RUBY FULTON

I write music which invites listeners to explore non-musical ideas through sound. My musical portfolio includes explorations of mental illness, Buddhism, philosophy, psychedelic research, addiction, and chess strategy; and profiles of iconic popular figures like the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and musicians Syd Barrett and Whitney Houston. I have collaborated on interdisciplinary projects with thinkers and makers in the sciences and literary, movement and visual arts. 

I'm a multi-instrumentalist, performing on and writing for violin, trumpet, and keys. Much of my work falls into the category of concert music, written for ensembles ranging from duos and trios to full orchestras, choirs, and wind ensembles. I also write music that I perform myself, using loops and samples to become a one-person orchestra. Whatever musical genre or instruments I choose, my music reflects the rhythms and pulses of daily life, and the world around me. My music has been performed by the Boulder Philharmonic, the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, the Holland Symfonia, Volti, and Newspeak; and programmed on the Bang on a Can Marathon, the Guadeamus New Music Festival, and the SONiC Festival. 

I teach composition and music theory at the University of Idaho Lionel Hampton School of Music. I hold a doctorate from the Peabody Conservatory of Music, with additional degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Boston University. 

WEBSITE: www.rubyfulton.com

ROAD RANGER COWBOY
Live recording by Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Vladimir Kulenovic, conductor

Road Ranger Cowboy is an imaginary take on the larger-than-life perspective of a cowboy whom I encountered in real life at a truck stop in Waterloo, Iowa. He was a thin, elderly man with long white hair, dressed from head to toe in ornate western cowboy clothing, complete with a ten-gallon hat and a shining set of spurs. Since we were in a fairly urban area, just off a busy interstate, with no horses in sight, I wondered why he might be wearing such a costume, and I invented the narcissistic character of the Road Ranger Cowboy. I researched
the effect which severe narcissism has on the processes in the brain, and learned that the narcissistic mind blocks out the majority of sensory input, filtering out everything except the information which bolsters their fantastical self-image. My piece begins with a simple country western tune, which represents a "normal" view of life. Gradually, the music is pulled apart and distorted, as only a few pitches are selected by the cowboy's narcissistic
system. Although the tune is in A Major, the cowboy's filter eventually plucks out
the notes of a B-Flat Major scale, just in time for a grandiose version of the tune, which is reality as seen through the cowboy's perspective. The piece ends with a solo flute, representing the loneliness of this dystopian American hero.