Some of the larger projects.

Umbra & Penumbra (12 poems to 行欣) for amplified percussion and orchestra (2019)

I wanted to hear what would happen if the sounds of solo percussion were placed at the foundation of the orchestra. (In most pieces in the concerto form, the soloist serves the function of ornament.) As we began working on the piece Greg Stuart and I quickly arrived at the idea that a single kind of sound on a single instrument would form the basis for each section. Each sound, whether relatively simple or complex, whether consistent or erratic, is magnified (i.e., extended and amplified). The role of the orchestra is to draw out the colors cast by the shadow of this sound. There are twelve relatively short sections in the piece.

Large Ensemble Works (since 2012)

fields have ears (9) (2012), asleep, forest, melody, path (2013), anabasis (3) (2015) and asleep, desert, choir, agnes (2016) were all written for and premiered by ensembles Greg Stuart has assembled in South Carolina.

A mist is a collection of points (2014)

Large scale work for piano, percussion and sine tones, written for Greg Stuart and Phillip Bush and premiered at the Columbia Museum of Art, South Carolina, in 2015 and then at REDCAT (Disney Hall) in Los Angeles later that year. A recording by them was released on New World Records in 2015.

Continuum Unbound (2013-2014)

In 2013 Greg invited me to South Carolina to work in the Congaree National Park over several days, to “map” the park with a series of field recordings. By boat and on foot we explored the landscape with its flora and fauna, stopping at regular intervals to make recordings. It is a dense forest, with ponds, rivers and wildlife, and a very deep, singular depth-of-field, which you start to sense when you are deep in the park. The project evolved into a set of three 72-minute compositions, documented on the three disc set on Gravity Wave, Continuum Unbound. (The limited edition box set sold out, but the individual volumes, Kingsnake Grey, Congaree Nomads and Anabasis are all available on bandcamp.)

Hearing Metal Series (2008-2011)

Four pieces for metal percussion and electronics. It began in 2008 when Greg commissioned a piece for the large tam-tam he had access to at UCSD (which they acquired to record Stockhausen’s Mikrophonie I). We discovered that the tam-tam, when played very softly and recorded from a very close position, made very complex but basically uncontrollable sounds (i.e., harmonies). Hearing Metal 1 was written to create a framework for bowed and struck sounds on the instrument. The tam-tam recordings are mixed with sine tones that serve to slightly focus the harmonies. The three movements take their titles from sculptures by Constantin Brâncuși: Sleeping Muse, The Endless Column and Sculpture for the Blind.

Hearing Metal 2 (2010-11) made use of a large collection of Greg’s recordings of low-to-mid range metallic percussion to form a huge virtual “orchestra” of these sounds. For this piece, the Brâncuși reference is to La table du silence and the “approach” to the table is represented by a long prelude using mostly field recordings.

Hearing Metal 3 (2010) for 16 suspended cymbals and sine tones, based on Prometheus, 1911, and Hearing Metal 4 (2011) for crotales and electric guitar, based on Bird in Space, were written for live performance (but both have also been recorded).

July Mountain (2009)

A piece written for recorded percussion and field recordings that grew out of the “orchestral” recordings Greg made of ricefall (2), A wave and waves and an unrhymed chord. This 21-minute piece is a long crossfade from a stack of 10 field recordings to a mass of individually scored percussion parts (10 “ensembles” or layers). It is based, on Greg’s suggestion, on a poem by Wallace Stevens with the same title. (The recording was eventually released on Gravity Wave in 2010.)

A wave and waves for 100 percussion instruments (since 2007)

Written for Greg to record in 2007. (The recording was released on Cathnor Records in 2010.) We performed in a “wave field synthesis” (with live musicians) version of the piece at the Maerzmusik festival, Berlin, in 2010. Greg then helped to direct the premiere live performance at the Melbourne Festival, Australia (produced by Speak Percussion, Eugene Ughetti) in October of 2015. Thereafter Greg and I helped to direct performances of it at the Elevate Festival in Atlanta in 2016, (Stuart Gerber, directing), at Big Ears in Knoxville in 2017 (Andrew Bliss, directing) and at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center (NY) with International Contemporary Ensemble (Ross Karre, directing) in 2018.

ricefall (1) and (2) (since 2006)

Premiered at UCSD (La Jolla) by red fish, blue fish in 2006 and then ricefall (2) recorded by Greg in a version for 64 parts thereafter (released on Gravity Wave in 2010). The work was expanded to include sine tones and pitch playing instruments for a tour of the east coast (US) in 2016, culminating a performance at OpenICE at the Abrons Center in New York.