Program Note:

"Re-heard" is a work for fixed media on loop written to accompany visual artist Tiffany Hokanson’s M.F.A. Thesis Show, "Re-seen," exhibited at Indiana University’s Grunwald Gallery of Art in the spring of 2021. In "Re-seen," Hokanson uses salvaged materials from forests fires in southern Oregon and a demolition site in Bloomington, Indiana to create sculptures and prints that, as Hokanson writes in her thesis statement, “[reject] the stigma of ‘ruination,’” and instead present “an alternative method for appreciating matter in its present state of being.” "Re-heard" is my sonic and thematic response to Hokanson’s art.

Over the course of twenty-two minutes, "Re-heard" ebbs and flows between the real and the abstract. For long stretches, the piece presents minimally edited field recordings captured by Hokanson at the demolition site in Bloomington. These recordings place the listener in the site—among hulking constructions of gnarled rebar and splintered concrete, within earshot of jackhammers punching through rock and excavators sifting through rubble. Then, gradually, these recordings metamorphose into softer, harmonious, incandescent sounds, gesturing at a wholeness that radiates from within the rough-hewn and “ruined” objects. The quieter sections then give way to the raw field recordings and the cycle starts over again. 

To give the sense that these sound worlds emanate directly from the materials used in "Re-seen," during the debut exhibition "Re-heard" was played back on speakers hidden within one of the show’s sculptures, "Pile," an assemblage of steel, concrete, gravel and dirt on the gallery floor.

Performances:

03/22/21-04/02/21 (Premiere)
Tiffany Hokanson M.F.A. Thesis Show, “Re-seen”
Grunwald Gallery of Art, Indiana University Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture and Design, Bloomington IN.

Re-heard

Program Note:

Monologue imagines the tubist as a character in a play delivering a dramatic lament. (A lament for what? I leave it up to the tubist and the listener to decide.) As the character bewails, a new, mischievous idea occurs to them, but the idea is short-lived, and the character resumes their doleful soliloquy. The mischievous idea, however, won't go away and the character struggles between the two, ultimately choosing the latter and breaking into a gleeful, berserk dance. Monologue was written for, and is dedicated to, tubist Alec Rich, a fearless and sensitive performer who has been my invaluable (and patient!) guide to writing for the tuba. It is with immense gratitude that I give this work to him.

Performances:

05/28/21 (Premiere)
Alec Rich Master of Music Tuba Recital 1
Shirley Welsh Ryan Opera Theater, Northwestern Bienen School of Music, Evanston IL.
Alec Rich, tuba

Monologue

Program Note:

"Dreams of Flight" was inspired by Nancy Rubins’ colossal sculpture "Chas’ Stainless Steel, Mark Thompson’s Airplane Parts, about 1,000 lbs. of Stainless Steel Wire & Gagosian’s Beverly Hills Space." From a small metal plinth erupts an assemblage of scrapped airplane parts, chaotically billowing out in all directions—an explosion, frozen milliseconds after it has occurred. Every inch of the work contains its own maelstrom of metal objects and wires, poised as if slicing and striking blows against one another.

Up close, the sculpture is visually overstimulating, hard to fully comprehend. From farther away, the disjunct parts seem to form a whole: a confused spaceship, a madman’s flying machine, a strange, ungainly bird attempting to take flight. As much as Rubins’ sculpture is boisterous, it is also melancholic. It stretches upwards, yearning to fly but, tamped down by about one-thousand pounds of stainless steel, it never will. The sculpture is eternally stuck mid- takeoff.

"Dreams of Flight" plays out this struggle in ways both fanciful and sincere. The piece is comprised of three continuous sections. The first pictures the sculpture-plane-bird bolting down a runway. Just as it leaves the tarmac, however, it crashes back to Earth. The second section delves into the sculpture’s night-time dreams in which, if only in fantasy, it soars. The final section sees the sculpture make another attempt at flight, barreling down the runway with even more power—perhaps enough power this time...

Performances:

11/14/21 (Premiere)
New Voices for Orchestra Concert
Musical Arts Center, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Bloomington, IN. 
Indiana University Jacobs School of Music Concert Orchestra
David Dzubay, conductor

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