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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




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 Zelickman and Joseph Howell, clarinet; Ross Karre and Brian Archinal, percussion; Steven Schick, conductor.




score samples

UPCOMING/RECENT
· 3/6/2011 — video interview for accents online, the web mag of the ensemble intercontemporain.

5/6/2011 — open end will be performed by Melanie Sehman at the Bellingham Electronic Arts Festival in WA.

4/23/2011 — open end will be performed by Melanie Sehman at the Wayward Music Series in WA.

4/19/2011 — open end will be performed by Melanie Sehman at Portland State University in OR.

3/12/2011 — open end will be performed by Melanie Sehman in NY, NY.

· 2/25/2011 — Crumbling Walls and Wandering Rocks will be performed by Ensemble InterContemporain as part of their 2011 season at Cité de la Musique in Paris.

·11/11/2010 — open end will be performed by Brian Archinal at PASIC in Kentucky.

·7/6/2010 — article and video interview by Trevor Hunter at NewMusicBox.com.

· 6/5/2010 — open end will be performed by Andrea Moore at People Inside Electronics in Pasadena, CA.

· 5/27/2010 — Crumbling Walls and Wandering Rocks will be performed by the Wet Ink Ensemble in New York, NY.

· 4/14/2010 — open end will be performed by Melanie Sehman in NY, NY.

· 4/1/2010 — open end will be performed by Brian Archinal in San Diego, CA.

· 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, Freiburg.