Concerto Ludus for Piano and Gameboy
Composed 2022-2023
Dr. Matthew Thompson, Piano

February 4, 2023
The North American Conference on Video Game Music 10
Stetson University

~~~~~~~~~~

The best music can transport the hearer's imagination to another time, another place, another world. Video games possess the same potential – and their musical soundtracks are key to immersing players deeply in the gameworld. Concerto Ludus for Piano and Gameboy is an homage to the style and soundtracks of 'retro' video game music, drawing all its electronic sound sources from the sound card of the original Nintendo Gameboy – a console that defines many of my childhood musical memories.

I composed Concerto Ludus following nearly three years of writing no new music. There were many reasons for this hiatus – a global pandemic, burnout from finishing grad school, mental health struggles, starting a new teaching job – but I yearned for my creative energies to flow once more. When I conceived this piece, the prospect of
composing for solo piano – that well-trodden medium of countless composers before me – was daunting, spurring me back to my roots. The sounds I knew best, drawn from deep within my musical soul, form this piece's immersive musical journey: a recapitulation and revisitation of the soundworlds that first set me on the path of a composer.

All electronic sounds produced using SocaLabs' plugin Nintendo Gameboy PAPU, an emulator of the original Nintendo Gameboy's sound card. Learn more about SocaLabs' plugins at https://socalabs.com.

Concerto Ludus for Piano and Gameboy

This piece was commissioned by the Texas Flute Society and individual donors Deborah Ragsdale, Ann Vinod, and Spencer Hartman for the 37th Annual Myrna W. Brown Competition. 

This piece explores the ideas of light and shadow and the interplay between them. The title comes from a passage by one of my favorite authors:

"In that moment [he] understood the singing of the bird, and the language of the water falling in the basin of the fountain, and the shape of the clouds, and the beginning and end of the wind that stirred in the leaves; it seemed to him that he himself was a word spoken by the sunlight."

Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea (1968)

Live recording by Leslie Richmond, the competition winner.

Spoken by Sunlight

San Antonio Ambient Orchestra - San Antonio Ambient Orchestra - Broadway Bird Records 005

Full Tracklist: 1. Adrift in an Alien Sea  (Joe Caploe (Dreamitmusic ASCAP)) 2. Ethereal Pyramid  (Jared Davis (Jared Evan Davis ASCAP)) 3. Are You Listening?  (Anastacia Cervantez (Anastacia Cervantez Music)) 4. Guitar Tea  (Brandon Davis (Azuma Music BMI)) 5. Elidosta  (Wesley Uchiyama-Penix (WSU-P Music)) 6. In Lieu of Balance  (Nicholas Lucero (Nicholas Lucero Music)) 7. Pleroma  (Derick Penrod (DERICKPENROD BMI)) 8. In:Direction  (Elias Hudson (Queen’s Revenge ASCAP)) 9. Phases of Trying  (Charlie Ruth Welty (Lone Cactus Publishing ASCAP))

San Antonio Ambient Orchestra Directed by Miles Jefferson Friday and Andrew Bergmann

Iker Ascanta - Synthesizer *
Andrew Bergmann - Electric Guitar, Acoustic Bass, Recording Engineer
Matthew Calvillo - Electric Guitar
Joe Caploe - Synthesizer, Percussion
Dan Carillo - Electric Guitar
Anastacia Cervantez - Electric Guitar, Trumpet *
Jared Davis - Electric Guitar
Khyara De Jesus - Synthesizer *
Ashley Dreemurr - Vocals
Atreyu Dunson - Synthesizer, Piano *
Evan Feist Synthesizer - Electric Guitar, Live Mixing
James Glasco - Flexatone
Miles Jefferson Friday - Electric Guitar
Elias Hudson - Synthesizer
Nicholas Lucero - Electric Guitar, Synth Keyboard and Percussion, Trumpet
Charlie Massey - Electric Guitar *
Derick Penrod - Electric Guitar, Melodica, Vocals
Jackson Sray - Synthesizer *
Wesley Uchiyama-Penix - Synthesizer, Piano, EWI
Charlie Ruth Welty - Electric Guitar
Braulio Gutierrez Gonzalez - Videography, Cover Art
Russell Roberson - Recording Engineer

Each track is produced by the track’s composer.
Mastering by Evan Feist

San Antonio Ambient Orchestra:
The San Antonio Ambient Orchestra (SAAO)—a constantly-evolving new music ensemble consisting of students, faculty, and members of the San Antonio art and music communities—was formed by Andrew Bergmann in 2020 to perform the 45-minute ambient piece Conveyors at the third edition of UTSA’s MuTeFest. For subsequent MuTeFests, the SAAO produced and released three full-length videos—Wheelies, Morning Concert, and Fan. Each video featured pieces from local composers such as Wesley Uchiyama-Penix, Derick Penrod, Joe Caploe, Samuel Gaskin, Acetlo, and Sam Harris, with audio and video production from Bergmann and Even Feist. The SAAO also served, in 2022, as the ‘house band’ for the noted Overnight Sound concert—a one-time-only event organized by Bergmann and fellow SAAO member Pamela Martinez which also featured about 20 like-minded ensembles and 13 continuous hours of sound.

In 2025 the SAAO convened yet again, this time in collaboration with UTSA Assistant Professor Miles Jefferson Friday and his UTSA student ensemble SAILOR, and created nine new pieces, each composed by a member of the group. This new set—along with some appropriately expansive projected visuals—was premiered at the UIW International Arts Festival and the UTSA New Music Festival. After these performances, the group did a series of recording sessions which eventually yielded the group's first album release (on UIW’s record label Broadway Bird Records): San Antonio Ambient Orchestra.

Moving forward, with Friday and Bergmann as co-directors, the SAAO will build from this album release, finding new multimedia locations for their distinct and transformative sonic atmospheres.



Here are links to pervious SAAO full-length videos: 

Wheelies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEDLf7Ob2WU

Morning Concert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCdO2FDykKQ&t=4024s

Fan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KJ_14Um47k&t=241s

SAAO Facebook https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100065077428666
SAAO Youtube https://www.youtube.com/@mute685 
UIW Department of Music https://www.facebook.com/uiwdepartmentofmusic https://www.instagram.com/uiwdeptofmusic/?hl=en


 

05 Elidosta

Made from Audio Tech class session samples. (Featured rap by Brandon)
A surround sound version was also premiered at UTSA's MuTe Fest 2018 Surround Sound Night.

Tyson

This work is my first for live laptop performance. Composed using only Connie Francis’ 1959 recording of “Tennessee Waltz,” I sought to explore the beauty of the original as well as the extremes of what was possible through electronic manipulation of small and large samples of the source material. Rather than making the music unintelligible, my goal was for the piece to be recognizable from the beginning and to showcase the possibilities of using only one recording to create wildly different sounds.

I Remember The Night - for live laptop

The title of this work takes its name from the legendary forest in the tales of King Arthur where the wizard Merlin is buried, an image that conveys a sense of wonder, mystery, and, of course, magic. I sought to evoke each of these in my first work for wind ensemble. The chant-like opening theme is introduced by alto saxophone and then transformed through numerous reharmonizations and modulations.

Broceliande - for Wind Ensemble

This track was created for a competition hosted by SA Recordings and Alev Lenz.  The competition called for participants to recompose a track off of Alev Lenz's a cappella album "3" into a new piece of music.  

Big thanks to Alev Lenz and SA Recordings for hosting this competition.

Cigarettes And Blow - Alev Lenz REcomposed

Composer, producer, and instrumentalist.  Normally write music for traditional instruments, electronic, and soundtrack; however, I enjoy many types of music such as rap, rock, and experimental.

Cigarettes And Blow - Alev Lenz REcomposed

Wesley S. Uchiyama-Penix