The Poetics, in seven movements, is a large ensemble work for flute, saxophone, two percussionists, two pianists, and string quartet. Metaphorically, The Poetics explores the possibility of coexistence and stems from a credence (naive or not) that no matter what we believe or what our political/social views are, most people are kind and they care about the local communities within which they live. Society is a multilayered network consisting of individuals, small and large communities, connected in ways one person cannot often see. Caring exclusively for our local communities without also understanding the network of hidden connections confines society, and often makes us ignorant of other people’s needs. We can be more mindful of other people’s needs by embracing larger, close-knit communities that are often unseen to us. This is the motivating idea behind The Poetics. The Poetics explores a musical realization of the hidden connections within a multilayered network. The seven movements are Prelude, From Afar, Around G, Interlude, Gently Morphed, Arcs, and The Poetics of Harmony. 

Possibilities for Partial Performance:
	If one wishes to play the piece as a 20 minutes set while still preserving the gist of the narrative arc, one might perform the following movements as “The Poetics Suite I”: Prelude, From Afar, Around G, Gently Morphed, The Poetics of Harmony. From Afar, Around G, Gently Morphed, and Arcs can be programed as individual pieces.

Sarah Frisof - Flute
Susan Fancher - Saxophone
Sae Hashimoto - Percussion 1
Russell Greenberg - Percussion 2
Laura Barger - Piano 1
Julia Den Boer - Piano 2
Hsiao-Mei Ku - Violin 1
Eric Pritchard - Violin 2
Jonathan Bagg - Viola
Caroline Stinson - Cello
Verena Moesenbichler-Bryant - Conductor

Recorded by Mark Manring at Baldwin Auditorium, Duke University, Durham, NC. March 20-21, 2023.

7. The Poetics Of Harmony

6. Arcs

5. Gently Morphed

Holds was premiered by Utario Duo on March 29, 2023, at Kemp Recital Hall, Illinois State University, 2023 Red Note New Music Festival. 

Haruka Fujii - Marimba
Rika Fujii - Vibraphone 

Program Note: 
“Holds” are features of conducting technique corresponding to changes in musical time, such as interruptions, fermatas, tempo changes, and so on. While composing the present piece I have been reading about the conductor’s performance of holds, and I started to realize that the essential question with this is never “how long to hold” but “how can we get back at it,” or “how can we plunge back into tempo” after the hold. Or, “are we ever going to get back at it?”

Thus, Holds explores different lengths of fermatas, and the performance of flow. I invite for performers’ interpretations of how they can “get back at it” after these holds. The harmonic language of the duo is created from the parsimonious movement of one pair of perfect fifths to another. Holds is written for Utari Duo to be played at the 2023 Red Note New Music Festival at Illinois State University, Normal, IL.

Holds

Rainy Days is a set of pieces for harpsichord and electronics that are very close to my heart. The name Rainy Days is quite literal: I took a one-minute recording of almost all the rain that occurred in Durham, NC, from March 1-June 30 (excluding the two weeks when I was out of town). I also wrote some prose accompanying them, mainly to remind myself what they were and how they felt to me.

Rainy Days is divided into three volumes, and each volume is about 10 minutes in length. Volume 1 is about March 2022.

Recorded at Nelson Music Room, Duke University
Recorded by Brooks Frederickson
Harpsichord - Huijuan Ling

Rainy Days Vol. 1

Set 2.m4a

Set 1.m4a

Set 3.m4a

Set 5.m4a

Performed by Johnathan Torsak
Oct. 27th 2015
Cohen Family Studio Theatre,
College-Conservatory of Music,
Cincinnati, OH

Three Movements for Saxophone and Live Electronics II Misshape (2015)

Zhixin Xu

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