duo or ensemble+audio playback

(Composer's program note excerpt)
The primary idea behind my composition is that of generating a musical process and seeing what happens to it: not necessarily “evolution” in the scientific sense, but a brand of musical “development” – organic growth and gradual change. Accordingly, Darwin’s Dream begins with a perky little electronic motive (created on an ARP synthesizer at Bowdoin College some 30 years ago). It is quite repetitive at first, almost minimalist, but gradually a few other layers of sound from my memory bank (literally, early works of mine taken from my tape collection) are added to the mix, altering the course of the soundscape.  Whenever a fairly dense texture is reached, I return to the original electronic tune and add a completely different set of sound-memories, leading to another altered fabric. The very last of these alterations produces the most complex texture of all, and segues into a snatch of the 1950s worm music – only to fade away to my original little tune.

Darwin's Dream II excerpt from ACA Festival performance

Composer's note:

In the northern Pacific Ocean, currents move in vast spirals that carry debris between far flung locations. A plastic bottle blown off of a landfill in Tokyo might turn up on the Alaskan coast. A disposable lighter swept into a storm sewer in San Diego might wash ashore on a Hawaiian beach. Miles off the coast of California, an immense sea of plastic slowly swirls, threatening wildlife and gradually entering the food chain as it breaks down into tiny fragments.

The densest of these despoiled areas, dubbed “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” is the size of Texas and extends thirty feet below the ocean surface. Our practice of using permanent, non-biodegradable materials for temporary storage will have potentially far-reaching effects on biodiversity and the health of people who eat seafood.

The Widening Gyre metaphorically engages this environmental catastrophe. My intent is not to depict lurid scenes of accumulating trash in a literal way, but rather to transform the general process into an engine for music-making. 

Flexible instrumentation-- a duo of melody instrument and piano, plus CD recording (electronic collage of many sound sources). Visual image projection and narration by a third performer are optional.  All performers speak isolated lines of text written by Charles Darwin.  Performers work with a 30-minute CD recording, and choose a portion of that recording (anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes). They then perform (some improvised) material, using an instruction sheet, against the recorded sounds.  An homage to Charles Darwin -- his life and work - in celebration of his 200th birthday year.

Premiered by the Aarhus Symphony and the British pianists Philip Mead and Stephen Gutman. Much of the source material for the tape part was recorded on a Bosendorfer Imperial Grand, and subsequently digitally edited and collaged into the pre-recorded material. The sequence of pitches, E-flat, B-flat, A, E, appears in the tape part at the beginning, and serves as the basis of organization for the entire work. The tape part was realized during a residency at the Danish Institute of Elecroacoustic Music (DEIM) in May 1993. The solo piano parts were written in a concerto-like virtuosic style. The recording (Capstone, SCI), was made in cooperation with the Danish Broadcasting Corporation.

Excerpt, Aarhus Symphony, Philip Mead and Stephen Gutman, pianists 1994

Reliquary of Labor is a celebration of labor, construction and collaboration in all forms.