“Reverberation: MuYu” 56 MuYu (Temple Blocks) for five percussionists (2020-21) 
Fang-Yun Tsai, Yu-Ying Chang, Yu-Wen Hung, Chi-Yi Chung, and Chi-Hsia Lai, percussion

12.4.22 Miaoli, Taiwan

Reverberation: MuYu (2020-21) Excerpt

for none shall gaze upon the Father and live

The Swan (solo piano)

Viento Negro - violín solo en scordatura

TorQ's premiere performance of 'Liar's Dice', part of a 7 movement work for percussion quartet. Shakers and dice cups! 

Liar's Dice

Original musical score for Mike Birbiglia's film, DON'T THINK TWICE.  Composed, produce and performed by Roger Neill

Don't Think Twice

"Don't Think Twice, It's All Right"

This violin concerto is dedicated to violinist, Mira Benjamin.

The title, Faith in Numbers, is taken from a popular science documentary by James Burke of the same name, which shows how technology emerges from seemingly unconnected events in history. This title doesn’t refer to faith in a religious sense, but to signify a complete trust in something or someone. I chose this title for my composition because of the utilization of the same basic proportions in all structural levels. By doing this, the reiteration of simple numbers and ratios, applied to different aspects of the composition, combine to form a complex whole.

The third and fourth strings of the violin are retuned: the G string is tuned down a sixth of a tone, and the D string is tuned up a quarter-tone. This microtonal scordatura transports the treatment of pitch in the music to the resonance of the instrument itself. In this way, my ideas about pitch inform how I want to tune the violin, then the retuned violin informs me about how I want to use pitch in the composition. The open strings define the important tonal centres of the work as well as the construction of the modes, which are drawn from the first seven harmonics of the opens strings.

The percussion quartet perform on a drum kit, two almglocken and a steel string guitar. The guitar is played primarily with mallets while secured on its back to a table. By using the guitar as a percussion instrument I am tipping my hat to Lou Harrison and the use of a double bass in his violin concerto, which uses a percussion quintet instead of an orchestra. Each of the guitars is tuned to a different open chord, corresponding to the pitch of one of the open violin strings.

Faith In Numbers: Concerto for Violin with Percussion Quartet (Mira Benjamin/Architek Percussion)

"Bitter Suite" fifth movement from song cycle, Myriads.
Text by Kendra Harder
Mezzo-soprano - Erica McFadden; Piano - Matthew Praksas; Guitar - Kendra Harder
Live performance at the Emerging Composers Masterclass at the Strata Festival of New Music 2016 at the SSO Rehearsal Space, Saskatoon, SK.

Bitter Suite (Myriads) (mezzo-soprano, guitar, piano)

Hengilás

The Swan (solo piano)

Vincent Ho

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