Nothing but the Blood is a fixed media composition that makes substantial use of the hymn of the same name. The piece takes place in three locations - an abstract, sort of "industrial" and highly electronic start, a contrasting middle with natural sounds and a third that is a joint concert/narration. The story that takes place in the first part is a combination of a dream I actually had with a few images from the apocalyptic passages of the Book of Daniel. 

This piece was premiered on May 17, 2021 at University United Methodist Church in Syracuse, New York during the 2021 Society for New Music Young Composers Pop-up Concert.

For more information about myself and my work please visit my website: www.kevinswenson.com

Nothing but the Blood

This is an audio-only version of my piece Ritual no. 2: and the Angels Continued as recorded by the Syracuse University Singers and four members of the Syracuse University Percussion Studio in April of 2021. For complete information about the piece please visit my website: https://www.kevinswenson.com/audio-visual/ritual-no-2-and-the-angels-continued/

Ritual no. 2: and the Angels Continued

An excerpt from a rehearsal recording of presence performed on April 25, 2022.

Presence Excerpt - Feeding Of The Four Thousand

7X7 (1 to 85,766,121)(Speaker Mix)

Buchlidian Landscape no. 1

Shall The Circle Survive

Buchlidian Landscape No. 2

Quadrangularis Reversum

Ritual Dance In A Buchlidian Temple

Visions

Silent Night

Probably blue is a fixed media work realized in Max/MSP. It is written in 7-limit just intonation and is comprised of 3 overlapping timbral layers: an FM synthesis ostinato, filtered cello drones, and delayed trumpet samples with ring modulation. Multiple parameters of the FM and trumpet sounds are governed using probabilities including spatial placement, inharmonicity ratio, and ring modulation frequency – even the likelihood of their occurrence.

These layered materials span a series of seven justly tuned chords which have a duration of one minute or greater. The durations of the various chords are proportional and they correspond to some the ratios used in the harmonic schema. Each chord change is punctuated by sampled voices which sing the following lines:

Give me Freedom,

Give me Liberty,

or Give me Death.

Give me Life,

Give me Harmony,

To Feed my Head.

The title refers to both the use of probabilistic processes in creating the musical textures and also to the music form of the blues. The piece itself is not directly derivative of the blues form. The lyrics, however, are reminiscent of the longing for freedom that is rightly associated with the blues in light of it’s roots in the spirituals and work songs of African-American people who were enslaved in the United States.

The inclusion of Patrick Henry’s famous phrase “Give me Liberty or Give me Death” is deliberately included to evoke a sense of juxtaposition and irony. After all, that phrase, inspiring as it sound, was uttered in 1775, a time when around 20% of the American population was kept in bondage. For these people, the attempt to reclaim their liberty, an unalienable right which they were granted by their creator, often meant capture, punishment and death. The willingness of people to bear such tragedy reveals the natural yearning of human beings to be free.

Another, lighter reference is made in the final line of lyrics to the 1967 Jefferson Airplane song White Rabbit. The year 1967 was the “Summer of Love.” It was a time when the psychedelic movement of the San Francisco bay area flourished into a national Dionysian craze. This craze was accompanied by the blues based music of bands like the Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and the Grateful Dead. At the same time, 1967 was a year which like 1775 bears a host of contradictions. Amidst the back-drop of the summer of love war raged in Vietnam: two million young American men were drafted to fight against their will. 282,000 of them died. Over 600,000 Vietnamese civilians were killed and many more suffered for years to come as a result of the use of Agent Orange.

The piece itself may seem to have its own inherent contradictions. The music is seemingly simple and serene, unfolding slowly and tranquilly. Yet the concepts that underlie it are tied to complex, sometimes dark issues of the past. Perhaps the space provided in the piece’s unfolding, coupled with the meditative nature of the textures, gives the listener a chance to contemplate these contradictions. Perhaps the listener may reflect on similar contradictions they observe in our own time.

I give no answers – feed your own head.

Probably Blue

Contrary to what its name suggests, For Béla was not originally intended to pay homage to Bartók. The title was given after the completion of the piece in light of the increased reliance on the Axis theory of Ernő Lendvai, a musical concept used to analyze the music of Béla Bartók. Axis theory manifests itself most clearly in the piece’s growing insistence on diminished harmonies as the climax approaches as well as the determination of pitch centers across the piece. Interestingly, the piece’s ending pays homage to another pillar of the 20th century: Igor Stravinsky. The ending texture is directly derived from Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments. 
	The piece is built from two melodic ideas. The first is the descending tetrachord figure first heard at the beginning in the clarinet. The second is first heard in the bass voices and composes out a diminished harmony. The piece’s structure arises as these two melodic ideas, particularly the tetrachord figure, are set in a number of contrasting textures. These various settings amount to brief “scenes” or “images” that often end with a brief eruption of energy before settling down into a new scene. At the climax the two melodic ideas are combined, building tension until a moment of extreme dissonance and amplitude dissolves into a coda section modeled after the Stravinsky.

For Béla

I am a composer and multi-instrumentalist from California whose music spans acoustic, electro-acoustic and electronic sound worlds. For more information about myself and my work please visit my website: www.kevinswenson.com

Kevin Swenson

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