ELECTRONIC WORKS:
Wait a Minute
I grew up in Texas. We have a saying about our weather: “if you don’t like it . . . wait a minute.” Driving distances can be long between towns and getting caught in a quickly developing storm can be terrifying, yet somewhat mystical. All source sounds were recorded inside a ‘94 Honda del Sol driving on a Texas highway. Sounds were processed using C sound.
Wait_a_minute.mp3
Where Morning Dawns and Evening Fades
For Alto Saxophone and CD.
Psalm 65:8 “Those living far away fear your wonders; where morning dawns and evening fades you call forth songs of joy.” (NIV) The saxophone is the driving force behind this piece. The processed sounds on the CD are derived from a recording of my saxophone duet, A Chase. The shape of the work is designed to emulate the dawning of a new day, the labor of the day and the quiet of the evening sunset.
Commission and premiere by saxophonist Stacy Maugans of Valparaiso University.
Little Nikko
Nicolás Useche was my friend and fellow student at the University of North Texas while we both were working on our Masters degrees. He was 30 years old when he was tragically killed in an auto accident. One of the projects that Nicolás and I had worked on together was for each member of the class to use a common sound source to develop their own piece of music. So, it is proper to use these sounds to honor Nicolás.
Almost . . .
Almost . . . is a piece about waiting. There is a certain tension between our expectations and reality. Usually, there is a time period that takes place between the birth of an expectation and the resulting reality. This time can be short, as when we wait at a restaurant for our favorite meal, or much longer as when we are waiting to win a competition. Much of life’s experience is spent in this “in between” time — the time of Almost . . . The source material for this piece was recorded on the campus of the University of North Texas in the fall of 2003. I used Peak, Audiosculpt, SoundHack and Nuendo to create Almost...
Shimmering Waves
One of the most powerful concepts of the 20th century is the idea that any complex particle can be represented as the sum of many simple particles. Specifically, this thought gave birth to quantum mechanics in science and additive synthesis in music. In Shimmering Waves, I experimented with breaking down one sound into it’s many components — the partials that make up the timbre that we recognize as a bell. These four simpler sound waves are harmonically related as the pitches E-B-E-F#. I also cross-synthesized these four waves with several other sounds, making four versions of each sound. This way, each other sound retains something of the four pitches. The end result reminds me of watching the ripples of water on a lake shimmer in the moonlight.
The Commute
Anyone who spends more than an hour a day in your car driving to and from work or school will enjoy this piece. Writing electroacoustic music is often a serious endeavor for the composer who is experimenting with new sounds, software and techniques. The Commute is all of these things to me, but it is also a lighthearted salute to the past three years of a closer relationship with my little Honda than I could have ever imagined.
Shakedown
I arrived at the campus of UNT with a limited understanding of the possibilities of creating music with a computer. Shakedown was my first real attempt to create a meaningful sonic experience out of everyday sounds, that were, of course, altered by a series of computer analysis and resynthesis tools. This experience opened my ears to the sonic potential of just about anything, even my dog, Taaffe
