solo instrument(s)+audio playback

Composer's note:  Under the Weather portrays in musical and more literal terms water in motion. Isolated drips, impending storm, distant rumbles, crashing thunder and lightning, eventual calm sunlight and rolling surf are all implied by the music and the electronic sounds, most of which are unaltered from their obvious sources. Under the Weather was written for my wife Cindy, whose storms always end in sunshine, and my colleague and friend, Bill Peterson, whose "Storm Fantasies for the Nineteenth-Century Organ in France," appeared in Keyboard Perspectives, volume II (2009).

Brown Velvet is a work for solo bassoon and live electronics. The work is both decrease and increase. There is a pedal (see below), that begins on the lowest pitch of the bassoon, Bb. Only overtones of that note are initially allowed in the bassoon part. The pedal then progressively “migrates” down to Bb-F-Bb-D-Bb, over two octaves, lower than any acoustic sound. At each new pedal, all overtones above it are allowed in the bassoon. So as a result, the descent (decrease) of the pedal allows ever greater harmonic richness (increase) within the bassoonist’s part. The pedal point is electronic. The version created by the composer is a Max/MSP patch, provided along with this score. (Instructions for the electronic player are included in the patch). But if one wishes to make another realization, it should be possible from the score and tunings provided within. It is important however that the pedal be real-time, i.e. not a pre-recorded part. The essence of the piece is a dialogue between the bassoonist and the “pedaler”, who will probably be performing from laptop.

SYNTHECISMS No. 2 (for Piano and Pre-recorded Tape) was premiered by British pianist Philip Mead at the 1991 International Computer Music Conference, Glasgow, Scotland.

Composer's note: