Déjà Rêvé translates from French to “already dreamed”, describing the sensation of feeling like you’ve dreamed about an experience before it happens to you in real life. Musically speaking, I was particularly interested in creating a textural tapestry exploring the relationship between the dreamt and lucid experiences. The best word to describe the listening experience of this piece is patient, using very sparse material to create variations upon the first three minutes of music,
mimicking the introspective feeling of linking dreams to reality. As the piece unfolds, the music shifts from an indefinite, translucent background to a more active and deliberate foreground, allowing for the ideas and implied repeated experiences to gain clarity–as if the subject is becoming aware of their déjà rêvé.  This piece was performed by Chapman University's Temianka Quartet in 2021.

Déjà Rêvé- for string quartet

I. East Ninth Street - Joan Mitchell
II. All Green - Mary Abbott
III. Untitled 1942 - Lee Krasner

Three Pieces After Abstract Expressionists (2021) is a musical response to three abstract expressionist paintings by Joan Mitchell, Mary Abbott, and Lee Krasner (respectively) in three movements.  Orchestrated for a mixed chamber ensemble, this piece aims to use synesthetic pitch and textural content derived from the color spectra used in the paintings. While other periods in the development of visual art use representational content or subjects, abstract expressionism relies solely on gesture and color, or even lack thereof. The intrinsic linear nature of music necessitates an element of dimensionality that abstraction lacks, so the shifts and progression of texture in this piece follow the way one’s eye focuses on different areas and details of a painting as if taking the time to study them in a museum.

Three Pieces After Abstract Expressionists

I. New
II. Waxing Crescent
III. First Quarter
IV. Waxing Gibbous
V. Full
VI. Waning Gibbous
VII. Third Quarter
VIII. Waning Crescent
Epilogue

Luna is a representation of the phases of the moon, outlining one complete orbit around the Earth in eight movements--one for each phase. Each phase is illustrated using differences in musical texture and
contrasting ranges on the cello, representing the diverse physical textures and levels of light on the surface of the moon that we perceive from Earth. This piece was written for the 2020 Impulse New Music Festival, and was premiered by Robert deMaine as a winning composition of the 2021 INMF New Voices Competition

Luna - for solo cello

Emma Tucker - English horn
Dr. Louise Thomas - Piano

Paul Hidemith - Sonata for English horn and Piano

Performed by Neave Trio
Anna Williams, violin
Mikhail Veselov, cello
Eri Nakamura, piano

MOSTLY MODERN FESTIVAL
Skidmore College, Arthur Zankel Music Hall
Saratoga Springs, New York (USA)
6/22/2022

Mycelium are branch-like structures that produce mushrooms.  The growth of mycelium is the longest stage in the life cycle of fungi, which facilitates the process of decomposition in an ecosystem and allows different plants and organisms to communicate with each other through the network of mycelium.  This piece observes the crucial role that mycelium plays in the balance and harmony of the natural world.  The spectral pitch organization seen in Mycelial Sentience aims to mirror the connectivity in the structure of mycelium, and its remarkable ability to bring sentience to an ecological community.

Mycelial Sentience - for piano trio

Nebula(e) is an exploration of the harmonic series of the flute, limited to very few sets of fingerings from which the pitch content of the entire piece is derived. The melodies ebb and flow in and out of undulating patterns and rhythmic layers - creating a hazy and cloudy “textural nebula”. The significance of the spelling of the title, Nebula(e) is both an implication and rejection of plurality. The inclusion of two flutes creates a homogeneous sound world, with each flute dovetailing in and out of each other. Blending the identity and presence of two separate flute sounds blurs any sense of clarity and bridges the gap between one sound and multiple. The degree of separation between the textures of both flute parts is what creates nebulae.

Nebula(e) for two flutes

Dedicated to violinist Carina Yee, Verdigris is inspired by the Robert Frost poem, “Nothing Gold Can Stay”, which represents, change, uncertainty, and impermanence.  The first line from the poem reads “Nature’s first green is gold”, which to me evoked lots of implications about color and synesthetic association, leading me to title the piece Verdigris.  Verdigris is a blue-green rust or petina on brass or copper from oxidization.  The music is built around the idea of decay, and on a fundamental level, a color and textural change over time.  This gradual obscurity is portrayed through the lens of rusting metal, creating an eerie and ethereal sound world.

Verdigris - for prepared violin

The Stones Will Still Cry is a commentary on climate change and the adverse effects humans have on the natural environment.

Text by jaze matteo wharton
Scored for a capella SSAATTBB choir, and performed by Peabody NEXT Ensemble, conducted by Dr. Beth Willer

The Stones Will Still Cry - for mixed chorus

Axis of Asymmetry showcases the different tunings and timbres utilized by the baroque and modern violins. It is also a reconciliation of baroque style characteristics as well as my own. Both violins display similar materials, but their roles in transforming them are separate, resulting in an implied axis around which the parts move in opposition to each other.

Axis of Asymmetry - for duo baroque and modern violins

In Medias Res: one minute of viola music is a fragment taken out of context of implied music before and after what is heard.  The minute of music showcased has no definite beginning or end. The conception of In Medias Res comes from imagining how I perceive 60 seconds of music within a larger context, while still contained to a seemingly excerpted listening. Performed by Sergio Sánchez Perera.

In Medias Res: one minute of viola music

For Ensemble Linea:

Keiko Murakami, flute
Andrea Nagy, bass clarinet
Carolina Santiago Martínez, piano 
Helena Sousa Estévez, accordion
Ernst Spyckerelle, violin
Laurent Camatte, viola 
Johannes Burghoff, cello
Jean Philippe-Wurtz, conductor

Barbed Gossamer - for Ensemble Linea

for tenor voice, clarinet, viola, trumpet, and trombone

Fallen Elm is an homage to the last remaining old American elm tree in Mt. Vernon Place outside of the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. The tree fell this past April because its roots could no longer support its canopy. The tree’s falling resulted in a collective mourning in the Mt. Vernon community for both the loss of a mighty, opulent figure of nature, as well as the history and marker of change that the tree represented for Mt. Vernon.

Text:
A solemn hush, a stillness
Silent shadows beneath a shrouded bough A fallen elm
Blinded by the brutal sky
Stark, unbearable brightness
Where once stood a lofty canopy
Only skeletal rings remain

Fallen Elm - for Bent Wrench

For Hardanger string quartet - performed by Bergamot Quartet:

Ledah Finck, Hardanger fiddle
Sarah Thomas, Hardanger fiddle
Martine Thomas, Hardanger viola
Irène Han, Hardanger Cello

A Plague, A Whisper, A Loveliness - for Bergamot Quartet

An Elusive Fog

A California native, Emma Tucker (b. 2001) is a composer and oboist. “Like an impressive machine”, her music combines spectral harmony with a synesthetic relationship between color and sound. Her musical influences range from Renaissance music and French impressionism to 21st century microtonal landscapes and just intonation. Her music is also aesthetically inspired by visual art and natural science, and is formally constructed primarily by creating shifts in harmony and timbre. Emma has worked with esteemed groups such as Ensemble Modern, Bergamot Quartet, Ensemble Linea, International Contemporary Ensemble, Brightwork NewMusic, and LIGAMENT.

Emma is currently pursuing a DMA in music composition at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University in the studio of Felipe Lara, from which she has also earned her MM in the studios of Oscar Bettison and Eric Wubbels.  Emma also holds Bachelor’s degrees in music composition and oboe performance from Chapman University where she studied with Jeffrey Holmes, Sean Heim, Vera Ivanova, and Ted Sugata. Her music is registered with ASCAP, and her works are self-published.
Learn more at emmatuckermusic.com

Emma Tucker

Popular tracks