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Gutai

For piano and live electronics

Gutai is a piece written as an experiment in self listening. During the piece, every musical choice the pianist makes has the potential to come back later through the electronics. The performer must always be listening and be ready to respond to and come to terms with the decisions made previously in the performance.

Megalith

For five voices of any type

Megalith is a piece for five voices of any type, written with the hope of promoting a deeper sense of ensemble communication. The goal was to make a piece that is entirely dependent on the members of the ensemble being present and attentive to each other. To achieve this, the vocalists are each given specific graphic instructions on how to maneuver through the piece and shape each vocalization. Rhythm and dynamics are reduced to simple shape and placement, pitch is stripped away to test how the ensemble can work together as a group to navigate a harmonically driven piece when no specific pitches are notated. Megalith as a whole is meant to shine a light on communication, understanding, and trust within the ensemble.

Excerpt from Book I

For open instrumentation

"Book I" is a series of graphic musical scores for improvised performance, aiming to captures musical moments in a still image. It is my attempt to preserve the aesthetic of a sound in ink. The hope for this collection of scores is that musicians can interpret these captured moments into full pieces of music and create something new from it. Each page was made through a different method and care was taken to never imbue too much force onto the ink. Using simple brush strokes, gravity, air, rocks, and other found objects from my daily life, I tried to allow each image to maintain control over itself.

A Turning Point

For Solo Cello

Three Pages from Book I & II

For open instrumentation

A Turning Point

For Solo Cello

The Color & Space

Any solo Instrument and Electronics

The Color & Space is a short piece made to engage the audience with their surroundings. As the performer interprets a graphic score, focusing on the transformation of color, a transducer or speaker is hidden in the space and a delay is put on the instrument. The performer plays, as what they play is heard again, played back from an unknown location. The result should be the performer begins to play a short duet with this unseen instrumentalist. This duet will cause the audience to scan the space looking for the source of the other player and forcing them to acknowledge the space they are in. The hope of the piece is to give the audience a moment to appreciate and take in the space, which is as much a part of the performance as the performer themself.

Dissatisfaction

For Mixed Quartet

Divergence

For Soprano, Flute, and Double Bass

Noise Box

For saxophone and live electronics

Noise Box is a piece about change and exploring the limitless beauty of the saxophone. It takes place over three movements, each of which is meant to highlight a different aspect of the saxophone. Through the electronics, the subtle characteristics of the saxophone are illuminated and elevated. A new sonic world is created to surround the instrument.

Movement I: Singing -Singing is the movement based around the idea of the saxophone producing multiple voices. The saxophone has this mystical ability to break free of itself and become its own choir. I wanted to create a platform to allow the saxophonist to show this unique ability and to allow the saxophone to sing in the way that makes it such a special instrument. This is achieved through large leaps, rapid arpeggiation, multiphonics, and the saxophonist using their own voice in combination with playing.

Movement II: Breathing -Breathing is a movement based around the most integral of all relationships between the saxophonist and their instrument: breathing. The movement is quiet and short, serving as a platform to show the subtlety of the instrument. Through small changes in the amount of air added and taken from a note, different ways of playing notes, playing with too much air, and playing with no air, the music allows the creation a truly intimate moment with their sound.

Movement III: Thinking -Thinking is the most free, while also being the most constricting point of the piece. The performer is given only five different finger positions to play, but allowed the utmost freedom in what to do with them. It is a moment of music that pushes the player to truly think outside the box.

Dead Trees

For String Quartet

Rain on a Thin Metal Roof

For full orchestra, read by The New England Conservatory orchestra on May 2nd 2023.

Press

For Solo Violin

Press is a piece for solo violin that focuses on one of the most fundamental aspects of violin sound production, the motion of the bow. Utilizing detailed notation of each bow stroke, the performer takes strong control of the timbre of the instrument. Anchored by the pitch of G, Press takes each gesture and pushes it just a little further, developing each pitch either through the motion of the bow or through micro-tonal implications. With each press of the bow, a new sound world is introduced, exploring the tonal color possibilities of the violin.

Ebb & Flow

Solo Oboe and Resonant Piano

3...2...1...

For 3 or more instruments

An Alms

For amplified tam tam and electronics

An Alms is a piece about the evolution of sound and timbre as well as the relationship between sound and the performer. The performer manipulates and augments the sounds produced by an amplified Tam-Tam and Singing Bowl. Over the course of the performance, the pure metallic sounds produced by the Tam-Tam and Singing Bowl grow more and more distorted with the addition of the coins and electronics. The distortion and change to the sounds continue to grow and evolve naturally as the performer interacts with the piece. An Alms is as much about the performer growing and understanding the sounds they are working with, as it is about the sounds itself. This mutual understanding between the performer and the sound culminates in the performer cadenza. These relationships, between purity and distortion, performer and sound, attack and resonance, are what define An Alms as a piece.

Re | Run

For Solo Piano

519

For Solo Suona

Hear more of my music on my YouTube and SoundCloud pages.