ben hackbarth composer
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Crumbling Walls and Wandering Rocks for 10 players and electronic sound

program notes

In Wandering Rocks, the tenth episode of Joyce's Ulysses, several characters go about their afternoon errands. They move around Dublin independently, mostly unaware of each other's activities and locations. Their movements create unique and richly shaped paths, born of the city's crowded streets and transportation lines. As they navigate their routes, they encounter the same people and places. Occasionally, they cross each other's paths and add to the narrative that which could only come from a chance encounter, the thoughts of a passerby.

Crumbling Walls and Wandering Rocks sets simultaneous streams of sound into motion, tracing subtle transformations of timbre and gesture. In certain sections, these sound streams operate somewhat independently. In other moments they share the same space, creating a sort of collision that brings their materials into sharp relief. These moments allow for a kind of exchange of sonic material; an evolution through awareness; communication through proximity. Out of these collisions, framed as happenstance, "musical" relationships bloom.


link to the full recording


 

Crumbling Walls and Wandering Rocks

excerpt 1

excerpt 2

excerpt 3

excerpt 4
for 10 players and electronic sound, 2009
[ STEREO version ]    [more info...]

Batya MacAdam-Somer and Andrew Tholl, violin; David Medine and Andrew McIntosh, viola; Ashley Walters and Derek Stein, cello; Robert Zelickma n and Joseph Howell, clarinet; Ross Karre and Brian Archinal, percussion; Steven Schick, conductor.




score samples

Upcoming Peformances

· 5/27/2010 -- crumbling walls and wandering rocks will be performed by the Wet Ink Ensemble in New York, NY.

· 3/11/2010 -- open end will be performed by Brian Archinal in Tempe, AZ.

· 12/9/2009 -- String Quartet no. 1 will be played by Ensemble SurPlus in E-Werk Grosser Saal, Freiburg, Germany.

· 9/11/2009 -- disjointed movements will be played at the Contempuls Contemporary Music Festival in Prague.