Go Free, Giant! for Electronic music (2010)
PROGRAM NOTE:
In composing my first electronic piece, Go Free, Giant, I wanted to capture familiar sounds of everyday life, and then take them out of their ordinary contexts with digital processing. Throughout the piece immediately recognizable sounds, like those created by a coffee pot, door, or elevator, coexist with manipulated versions of themselves producing an often surprising mixture of the real and unreal. Even though I had no programmatic associations going into the piece, I was surprised how vividly certain sounds conjured images for me (especially a particularly mournful processed running faucet). These images eventually coalesced into a dream-like narrative involving an unjustly imprisoned giant who eventually earns his freedom after many tears (and some eccentric dancing). It occurred to me that these "ordinary" sounds might then have an extraordinary significance in my gentle giant's universe, and that my strange digital creations might not sound so out of place in his world after all.
DURATION: ca. 10’45’’
PERFORMANCES:
In composing my first electronic piece, Go Free, Giant, I wanted to capture familiar sounds of everyday life, and then take them out of their ordinary contexts with digital processing. Throughout the piece immediately recognizable sounds, like those created by a coffee pot, door, or elevator, coexist with manipulated versions of themselves producing an often surprising mixture of the real and unreal. Even though I had no programmatic associations going into the piece, I was surprised how vividly certain sounds conjured images for me (especially a particularly mournful processed running faucet). These images eventually coalesced into a dream-like narrative involving an unjustly imprisoned giant who eventually earns his freedom after many tears (and some eccentric dancing). It occurred to me that these "ordinary" sounds might then have an extraordinary significance in my gentle giant's universe, and that my strange digital creations might not sound so out of place in his world after all.
DURATION: ca. 10’45’’
PERFORMANCES:
- Performed on October 6th, 2010 at the Composer’s Guild Concert Series
- Presented on July 7th, 2010 at the Etchings-A Festival of Contemporary Music in Auvillar, France
