solo tape or audio playback prerecorded

composer's note:  We normally hear the dripping of a faucet or the ticking of a clock in relative isolation. What happens when many variants of these sounds, joined with others from the household, combine to create a dense musical texture? Driptick orchestrates the clash of multiple, incompatible speeds projected by these sounds, and plays on our sense of musical timing. What makes music sound fast — is it surface rhythm, the rate of pitch change, or pure energy? In its three-part form, Driptick searches for answers.

redbird express (2010), for solo digital media, is an aural whirlwind journey through the internationally and topographically rich neighborhoods pierced by the No. 7 train of the New York City subway system Flushing Line. This line was the last in New York to see the World’s Fair era cars retired in 2003. Painted a red hue, the cars were nicknamed “Redbird.” After their retirement nearly 1300 retired Redbird cars were sunk off the US coastline to create artificial reefs. As a child, the composer visited the 1964 World’s fair in New York and was allowed by a conductor to push the button that opened the Redbird train’s doors upon arriving at the fair in Queens. Little did the composer know his fascination with these trains would turn musical 45 years later while visiting the city for the first annual New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival.

Computer generated tape piece

Gressel String Theories - excerpt

Blue States (2008) was composed during the fall and winter of 2008. The title alludes not only to states that voted for the Democratic nominee in the 2008 election, but also to various jazz elements and moods of sadness, largely abated by the results of the election.

The opening introductory section settles on jazz chords at the end of its long phrases. In the next fugal section a jazz tune is presented in several timbres and speeds, as if a group of players were standing around waiting for their turn to get in a lick. A strong bass line proves counterpoint here and elsewhere throughout the piece.

Two introspective sections follow – the first with sustained white-noise chords punctuated by bell-like attacks, the second with vibraphone-like chords. A further set of variations moves from an almost catatonic state to a full emotional outburst, perhaps occasioned by the election results. Another faster jazzy section leads to a recapitulation that expands and alters the original three sections.

Blue States - excerpt

Originally a 4 track electronic composition of processed piano sounds extracted from an earlier recording of one of my piano works. All of the processing was performed in a classical electronic music studio, with a large moog synthesizer, and peripheral sound modifiers, as well as 2 and 4 track analog tape decks. The modified sounds were organized by types of movement and gesture, and assembled into a kaleidoscopic progression of transforming colors and textures. The work has since been transferred to CD.