Vastness of Pines - String Quartet No.4

I've finished the legwork on my other string quartet, the one for four violins. It has a few structural issues I think... but I'll iron those out tomorrow morning. As ever, I'd love to hear what you all think - particularly about the transition into the less tonal material in the centre. I PARTIcularly hate the midi sound on this one, as I wish so dearly to hear those emotional violins...

Score & Audio here

Because I owe him a debt, here's the Neruda:

Ah vastness of pines, murmur of waves breaking,
slow play of lights, solitary bell,
twilight falling in your eyes, toy doll,
earth-shell, in whom the earth sings!

In you the rivers sing and my soul flees in them
as you desire, and you send it where you will.
Aim my road on your bow of hope
and in a frenzy I will flee my flock of arrows.

On all sides I see your waist of fog,
and your silence hunts down my afflicted hours;
my kisses anchor, and my moist desire nests
in your arms of transparent stone.

Ah your mysterious voice that love tolls and darkens
in the resonant and dying evening!
Thus in the deep hours I have seen, over the fields,
the ears of wheat tolling in the mouth of the wind

telephones

so I'm a little obsessed with telephones. I built a very crapulous lo-fi extremely-breakable telephone installation in 2013-2014 and have wanted to do SOMETHING with telephones ever since.

and one of my pieces right now is a piece for an old telephone. I'm so happy and excited. I'm working with this amazing percussionist to use the telephone and its beautiful mechanical ringer as a percussion instrument.

So I maybe didn't compose much today in the traditional sense, HOWEVER!

I did research telephone options and eventually ordered a device that will hopefully enable the telephone piece of my dreams??

Fingers crossed, friends. Tomorrow, more fishes.

Circus Project

Hi MoMers - I’m Katie, a viola player from Perth at school with Andrew and Christine in New York. I love what you’ve got going on here. Andrew and I were chatting about a project that I’ve got in the pipeline and he suggested I could reach out to see if anyone is interested to jump on board…

I’m in the early stages of collaborating with a NYC circus performer called Craig. We’re going to put together a small crew to create a show – lots of aerials… silks/rope/lyra plus handstands, etc.

I think we have the potential to do something really powerful – the idea we’d like to focus on is the synthesis between aural and visual. The process of organising sound – from composition to the physical movements of playing – is at the forefront of our discussions of narrative. Using evolution as the fundamental theme we are considering ideas like shifting from black and white to colour over the course of the entire performance (including projections on the walls?) and dissolving the division between performers and audience.

As far as music goes, I’d love make a soundtrack that leaves space for free improv and deliberate silence between new and old compositions. I have viola and electric 5-string violin (with loop pedal and possibly effects if I can get my hands on one). I have a percussionist in mind, and open to suggestions for other instruments but I’d like to keep it to a small group.

You can probably tell this is more a long-term project for us, but I’d love to hear if it sparks some interest.

24 Harmony on accel with steady tempo

Trying to go a bit further with hearing different tempi and assigning them harmony as they progress at different speeds...work in progress. Please excuse trap beat its 3:45am here in syd.