Inversion

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This is my movement of "In Memoriam", the collaborative requiem created by Inversion Ensemble in 2020-2021. This was such a meaningful project to be part of. Huge thanks to all involved for this incredible recording!

Performed by Inversion Ensemble under the direction of Trevor F. Shaw
Soprano Soloist: Carol Brown
Pianist: Michelle Schumann

Text:

...as the fowl can keep
Absolute stillness, poised aloft in air,
And fishes front, unmoved, the torrent's sweep,
So may the Soul, through powers that Faith bestows,
Win rest, and ease, and peace, with bliss that Angels share.

- William Wordsworth, excerpt from “Rest and Be Thankful! – At The Head Of Glencroe”

Until the morning of Eternity
Her rest shall not begin nor end, but be.
- Christina Georgina Rossetti, excerpt from “Rest”

The direct perceptions which I now have are those which now fall within my "specious present".
Of those which are beyond it, I can only have memory or anticipation. Now the "specious
present" varies in length according to circumstances, and may be different for two people at the
same period. ...The [objective] present through which events really pass, therefore, cannot be
determined as simultaneous with the specious present. And thus an event may be past when I am
experiencing it as present, or present when I am experiencing it as past. The duration of the
objective present may be the thousandth part of a second. Or it may be a century... What reason
can we have to believe in the existence of such a present, which we certainly do not observe to
be a present, and which has no relation to what we do observe to be a present? Whenever we
perceive anything as existing in time -- which is the only way in which we ever do perceive
things -- we are perceiving it more or less as it really is not.
- J.M.E. McTaggart, excerpt from “The Unreality of Time” (1908)

Pie Jesu: Her Rest Shall Not Begin Nor End But Be

This fixed media piece was spliced together from two improvisations (totaling about 10 minutes) by 4 members of the BISoN iPad ensemble (including myself) using a Max/MSP patch I created. The goal of the patch and of this piece was to create a kind of 4-person meta-instrument in which each performer physically controls a narrow parameter of the sound in order to demand a novel type of sensitive communication between the improvisers. No overdubbing was used to create the final piece, and all effects were controlled by the iPads through Max using touchscreen, gyroscope, and accelerometer data sent via the MIRA and GyrOSC apps. Once the initial recording/improvisation process was over I spliced together the final piece in Logic, only adding crossfading between sections and panning.

Source sounds included the Renaissance French song "L'homme Arme" and the ensemble reading together at random from Arnold Schoenberg's Structural Functions of Harmony.

Performers:

Trevor Villwock - sound file looping
Selena Wellington - reverb
Aidan Cook - delay effects
Hunter Ewen - filters

I'm excited to announce that this piece has won the 2016-2017 CU Boulder Undergraduate Spark Award for electronic music!

[Cover image source: http://glitchtext.tumblr.com/]

Broken Franglish

lattice for climbing, for trumpet, smartphone, and max/msp. 

The gyroscope is used to control various effects in the Max patch throughout the piece (delay, filter, pitch shift, etc.) as well as the speed and pitch of a recorded trumpet soundfile being looped in small sections. The performer wears the smartphone in an armband and moves their arms and rotates to control 3 different parameters at a time.

Trevor Villwock - Trumpet
Recorded January 2018 in Austin, TX

lattice for climbing (2018)

Premiered by Inversion Ensemble under the direction of Trevor F. Shaw on March 3rd, 2019 at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Austin, TX. Scored for 3 electric keyboards and SATB choir. 

Keyboards played by
Cina Crisara (tuned 33 cents flat)
Verlaine Shaw (concert pitch)
Trevor Villwock (tuned 50 cents sharp)

[1 cent = 1/100th of a semitone]

I was incredibly thrilled with this premiere!! To everyone involved, thank you so so much for making my piece come to life in such a beautiful way. This was without a doubt one of the most fun and stress-free rehearsal experiences I've ever had with a piece. Special thanks to Trevor Shaw and Robbie LaBanca with Inversion Ensemble for creating such an incredible force for adventurous and diverse new music in Central Texas.

Text (original):
locked 
always approaching 
almost breaking

This piece was written specifically for Inversion Ensemble and was inspired by my (many) experiences with sleep paralysis, a sometimes-terrifying condition in which the mind is awake and aware but the body is unable to move. It usually occurs during either the process of going to sleep or the process of waking up. Despite usually being quite uncomfortable, this very strange liminal state somewhere between consciousness, dreaming, and unconsciousness is extremely fascinating to me. The title refers to the pre-Socratic philosopher Zeno of Elea (pictured), who is most famous for his paradoxes that suggest all motion is impossible and thus an illusion.

Dreaming of Zeno

Inversion Ensemble
Aether: Fire - passion/psyche
March 1, 2020
Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Austin, Texas
Trevor F. Shaw, Artistic Director / Clinton Bray, Guest Conductor
Austin Haller, piano

The Heart Asks by Trevor Villwock
Text: Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
The Heart asks Pleasure – first – 
And then – Excuse from Pain – 
And then – those little Anodynes 
That deaden suffering – 
And then – to go to sleep –
And then – if it should be
The will of its Inquisitor
The liberty to die –

Upon reading this Emily Dickinson text for the first time, my mind was immediately drawn to the current opioid epidemic in the U.S., and then to the broader theme of addiction in all its manifestations. At many times our conscious thoughts, motivations, and actions are driven only by our base animal desires even if we tell ourselves another story. In my piece I tried to capture our fraught relationship with our reptilian brain and the way this relationship intersects with a modern world where quick satisfaction is a very easy thing to find.

The Heart Asks by Trevor Villwock

Hello! I'm a composer, pianist, and bandleader based in Austin, TX. If you like something you hear and are interested in performing it, please contact me at trevorvillwock@gmail.com for details! 

cover photo (shot by Alex Salinas): Glossolalia Online at Call It Anything Fest, Kenny Dorham's Backyard, May 26th, 2019