quintet for flute, percussion, piano, violin and cello

Flight Patterns

Recorded live in concert by the musicians of Kamraton. 

October 17, 2015
Irma Freeman Center for Imagination
Pittsburgh, PA

kamraton.org

Nine Lives 9: Leap

Nine Lives 1: Silver Streams

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

Recueillement, for soprano, mezzo-soprano, clarinet, violoncello, percussion and piano (2016) 
Lara Troyer, soprano 
Denise Howell, mezzo-soprano
Tiago Delgado, clarinet
Brian Bennett, percussion
Brian Klickman, cello 
Yuka Nakayama-Lewicki, piano
Kent State Stark Main Hall Auditorium 
April 17th 2017

Baudleaire is one of my favorite poets. Like all his poems, Recueillement has an inherent musicality made of beautiful sounds and rhythms. Recueillement is translated as “meditation” but the original French word implies a sense of gathering within oneself. 
The poem is a sonnet and is in the standard 4 4 3 3 line structure. In my setting, each stanza is associated with a pedal note and a primary interval for the voices. In the first stanza there is a D pedal and the major second permeates the vocal lines. For the remainder of the stanzas the pairings are: pedal B and an interval of a minor third, Eb and major third, Eb and minor second. The D pedal returns at the end to complete the circle. 
I did not attempt to translate the text into music (it already is music!) but rather deconstruct the text and have it observed, interpreted, commented and critiqued by the singers and instrumentalists. 
This is a reworking of a setting I did of this poem two years ago for voice, piano and percussion. What started out being a simple re-orchestration turned out to be an extensive rewrite.

Recueillement, for Soprano, Mezzo Soprano, Clarinet, Cello, Piano and Percussion

Trio for Viola, English Horn, and French Horn

Time For Electric Violin, Piano and Computer

Sebastian Birch

Related tracks