Suite for flute quartet that follows the Arno river from its source to its arrival in Florence.

6 - Cannottieri Sull’Arno

5 - L’Arno In Secca

4 - L’Arno Attraversa Firenze

3 - L’Arno Entra A Firenze

2 - I Fantasmi Del Rinascimento

1 - La Sorgente Dell’Arno

The title translates as “Quarantine Games for Two” and showcases some of the positive aspects of the quarantine such as spending more time with family and playing and making music within our bubbles. 
The suite is in three movements, fast-slow-fast, and each movement explores different ways of combining twos and threes, duplets, and triplets, simple and compound, seconds and thirds. "Rhythmic Dualism" is fast and energetic and starts with a theme in Lydian dominant mode, alternating with lyrical sections both constantly alternating between duplets and triplets. “Duplicitous Isolation” is slow and lyrical. “The Binary Prance” is an energetic dance in 15/16.

3 - The Binary Prance

2 - Duplicitous Isolation

1 - Rhythmic Dualism

The music one hears as a child has a profound influence on our own musical development. Sometimes that music has such an impact that it transforms us into musicians. My musical education started with my parent’s record collection that included Bach’s solo keyboard, violin, and cello works, as well as great romantic chamber works by Beethoven, Shubert, Schumann, Frank, and Faure (there was one pop album in our household: Sargent Pepper). 
While composing this work, these childhood musical memories kept appearing and would pull me in a variety of different directions, hence the title Divergent Memories. Some of these “memories” include the Baroque unending flow of 16th notes, the dramatic gestures of Bach’s solo works for cello and violin, the strength in Beethoven’s cello and violin sonatas, as well as French virtuosic lyricism.
The working title was Seven, as most of the rhythmic cells are built on different subdivisions of a seven-beat meter such as 3-2-2, 2-3-2, and 2-2-3. The complexity is magnified by having 7/4, 7/8, and 7/16 meters nested within each other. 
The driving sixteenth-note patterns are relentless, and demand an athletic performance on the part of all players. 
Special thanks to Sae, Linda, and Nicholas for performing this work tonight.

Divergent Memories for Piano Trio

Time is a work for processed and amplified violin, acoustic piano and prerecorded material. 
In the past I have written several works for instruments and prerecorded/synthesized material, but was always troubled by the difficulties of synchronizing the instruments with the prerecorded material. 
While working with sequencers that also incorporate scoring features, I realized that it would be possible to have an electronic work playback in sync with a score. In Time, while the sequenced material is being played back, musicians can follow a score on the screen in which the cursor is pinpointing the exact position. With this setup, both tempo and meter changes are very manageable.
In working with two instruments, a dual monitor setup is needed for both instrumentalists to have their own score. 
No synthesizers were used in the creation of Time. All of the prerecorded material was created by assembling, manipulating and processing hundreds of small audio clips of composed and then recorded material. 
The inspiration of the work derives from a beautiful poem by Ohio pet Dale Seeds. 

Once Remembered, not Forgotten

In the clock ticks between consciousness and sleep
Images and fragments break the surface of shrouded memory,
Coming into technicolor focus, colors ride on warm breezes,
With scents of spring rain, summer grass, wood smoke,
A perfumed hand.

Images orchestrated with half melodies,
Half forgotten, half remembered.

We reach to hold the moment,
Collapse it into our arms and draw it to a place
Where photos never fade and echoes continue on forever.

Time For Electric Violin, Piano and Computer

Je Vous Parle En Francais

Ciaccona, for piano trio

Performed by the Lontano Trio
Yeim Lee, violin
Trisha Doo, cello
Amber Ginmi Scherer, piano

In this work, the ciaccona (Italian for chaconne) is deconstructed. A traditional chaconne is a set of variations on a set of changes in triple meter, but in this work, those elements (while present) have been amplified, dissected and mixed in with manipulated material from the chaconne itself.

Sebastian Birch

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