Quilts (2016)

For two drumkits, synthesizer, and maraca

— written for Tigue

I wrote Quilts in 2016 to play with my percussion ensemble Tigue. The music was written while in residence at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art during the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival, and was an ecstatic response to the simple yet engrossing wall drawings and conceptual structures of Sol Lewitt that line Mass MoCA walls. Using Euclidean rhythms (an expression of n events across m positions) I was able to algorithmically express structures of density through time, creating an immersive and percussive composition that gains intensity to the end. Like Sol Lewitt’s wall drawings, logical systems govern the form of the composition, layering a small collection of rhythmic material in alternating permutations until all have been expressed. I find that these logical systems are similar in expressive capabilities to our understanding of chord qualities, when accepted as the music’s defining language, where certain rhythmic densities are dissonant and others are consonant. Ultimately, the composition was written to be a transcendent celebration of rhythm, a whirling declaration of pure neon energy. After teaching the music to the members of Tigue using simple “cheat sheet” scores with rhythms and formal structures, the piece quickly became one of our most performed compositions, a cornerstone of our sound, and a work we performed throughout the United States and Europe over multiple seasons.

The clip above is one of the last performances of Quilts, received by an audience of thousands at the 2018 Percussive Arts Society International Convention. Start at 8:00 to hear complex hocketing break down into component parts before launching into a new section. And watch from 11:00 to the end to see rhythmic density accelerate at a nearly exponential rate to the conclusion. The “score” for this composition has only ever existed as a series of written rhythms with the form of the piece transmitted orally. This way, the entire, complex composition can be understood with a minimal written footprint, encouraging a more engaged “cue” based performance between the musicians. To me, this ability to free music from the page allows a performance to tap into something ultimately more human than the complexity that grounds the composition.

Still Life No. 1a + No. 1b (2016)

For prepared piano and violin

— performed by Karl Larson and Maya Bennardo

Liminal Horizon (2018)

For any 6 instruments playing specific frequencies and elephant bells

— Commissioned by the Dartmouth Contemporary Music Lab