Music
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Seiend for brass quintet and live electronics
The title, Seiend (“Being”)–pronounced “zye-ent”–is a somewhat unused German participle found primarily in philosophical writings, referring to the ‘true and honest self’, a life lived without pretenses or embellishments.
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Roses Don’t Need Perfume for solo guitar and electronics
Roses Don’t Need Perfume takes its title from a quotation by Uruguayan writer, philosopher, journalist, and historian Eduardo Galeano.
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Katafala for solo marimba, percussion quartet, and live electronics (2006)
Katafala takes its name from two ancient roots (Greek and vulgar Latin respectively), kata and fala “supported/sustained” and “down”, respectively.
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To Be Neither Proud Nor Ashamed for alto saxophone and electronics (2003)
To Be Neither Proud Nor Ashamed takes its title from Cecil Forsyth’s description of the saxophone in his 1913 orchestration text as having no history “of which to be either proud or ashamed”. The piece was composed and developed in collaboration with saxophonist Randall Hall, the electronic part being the result of many hours of private
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Birches for viola and electronic sounds (2002)
Birches was composed as a response to the poem of the same title by the great American poet, Robert Frost. My intent was not to “set” the poem, but rather to explore its inner workings — to re-imagine its parentheticals, present in Frost’s vicarious vision of a boy, a scene of birches, and the truth
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Long Path for solo piano and tape narration (2001)
Long Path was written in 2002 for my dear friend Solungga Fang-Tzu Liu for the occasion her final concert as a student at the Eastman School of Music. The piece begins with a reading of the poem of the same title by its author, Fang-Tsu’s mother, the much-admired Mongolian poet and painter Muren Hsi (b.
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Kajato for trumpet/flugelhorn and electronics
The trumpet and flugelhorn have a lineage in the world of transmission and signals. A blast of sound across a valley could signal war or the hunt or even just dinner. They were an extension of the human voice across great distances. The electronic part of Kajato was made with this lineage in mind, using