A Real Buster is a multimedia work for tenor saxophone, live electronics, and video that reflects on Buster Keaton’s legacy as a comic actor and as a filmmaker. The name Buster, given to him by Harry Houdini, referred to his extreme resilience to pain, which is manifest in his dangerous stunts featured in his movies.
To be premiered at the Kairos Multimeda Concert on April 2, 2024 by Drew Hosler at the Shoolroy Theatre, College of Wooster.
Commissioned by and written for Ting Luo for the New Arts Collaboration, Cosmic Cliffs finds inspiration in and uses imagery from NASA’s James Webb Telescope. This multimedia work for piano and interactive media features electronic sound and video that reacts to the performer and allows for the performer to explore the sonic landscapes in points of rest in the piano part. The work is built around the overtone series, the foundation of timbre, representing the powerful filtering process that allows the telescope to block out unwanted light to capture events millions of light years away in stunning brilliance.
Premiered by Ting Luo on May 19, 2023 at Old First Concerts, San Francisco, CA.
Co-written and premiered with Csaba Jevtic-Somlai, Race in Space! contemplates the experience of private space travel. The music is both sprightly and explorative with clear melodies and tonal bouts blended with growling, multiphonics, bends, scoops, glissandi, and even reconstructions and additions to the clarinet. Electronic interludes based on NASA footage frame the launch and landing movements.
Movements
Preparations
Liftoff
Leaving the Atmosphere
In Outer Space
Splash Landing!
Premiered by Csaba Jevtic-Somlai and Dylan Findley on June 29th, 2022 at the annual International Clarinet Association ClarinetFest, Reno, NV.
At the onset of the 2020-2021 pandemic, I found myself, along with many others, on social media more than ever before. Ironically, the time online did not fill my social void. I felt anxious, discouraged, and hooked to every social and political issue. If only I knew earlier that I was playing with fire! The artificial intelligence keeps people online through endless information and the yearning for replies and reactions. It has also been the hotbed of conspiracy theories and misinformation that have led to hate towards already marginalized groups and even terrible acts of violence. With such forces in play, how can one get to know the real you?
In i2i, the two performers (each a capital I) attempt to connect, but they compete with the aggressive electronics. Only when they see through the games of the electronics are they able to overcome its influence. In other words, the individual “I” steps down (lowercase “i”) to arrive at a unison (a2). Only by interacting directly and not through the filters of media are they able to see eye to eye.
Premiered July 15, 2021 at the International Trombone Festival by Russ Zokaites and Nathan Mensink.
Commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University
Lo! contemplates a path towards peace amid tumultuous times. The year 2020 will be remembered primarily for its pandemic and the equally disheartening voices of confusion and contention that offer quick cures, people and nations to blame, compromised statistics, and other conspiracies. More intense feelings came from the death of George Floyd and subsequent protests including riots against police brutality and continued systemic and personal racism. All this heralds a controversial presidential election that has politicized these ongoing events. The music represents this noise with… noise. Old advertisements and game shows, moody string quartet music, and synthesizers create a whirlwind of grit and chaos.
In stark contrast, the year 2020 also marks a year of celebration for Latter-day Saints, the Bicentennial of the First Vision, during which God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to the prophet Joseph Smith. The 14-year old farm boy questioned the state of his soul and pled to the Lord concerning his salvation. He was saved from darkness because he had put faith in his Redeemer and acted upon it. In great noise we, like him, can find answers to prayers and feel peace. The trumpet music weaves hymn tune fragments as respite to the frenzied sounds. As the electronics give way to consonance, the trumpet performs over just-intoned electronics over a fundamental pitch, representing purity through a connection to heaven.
This project was made possible through the groundwork done by the Prelinger Archives and the Internet Archive. Special thanks are also warranted to Erin Jossie for her help filming, and Erin and Michael Findley for their help editing and finessing the video component.
For information on future performances and the background of the work, visit this page dedicated to the project.
Interested in performing this work? The score is available for purchase below, and the electronic audio component (stereo fixed media with visual cues operated through Max/MSP) is available for those who plan to perform the piece live (I’ll be in touch about that!). Read about the video component below.
While this piece can be played without the video, the video component adds important context to the work, including the faces and translated words of those who tell their stories. However, the video of The Story of Our Journey is owned by non-profit advocacy organization Their Story is Our Story. Please contact them to make arrangements for the video to be projected during performance.
Performances/Showings to Date:
April 14, 2023- Live performance at the College of Wooster for the Their Story is Our Story residency Displacement Today in Wooster, OH. Performed by Csaba Jevtic-Somlai.
February 21, 2022- Live performance of movements 2 and 3 at the Worlds Within the One recital at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in La Crosse, WI. Performed by Dylan Findley.
November 19, 2021- Live performance at the Glendale Civic Center in Glendale, AZ. Sponsored by the City of Glendale Office of Arts and Culture through their Performing Arts Grant Program. Performed by Csaba Jevtic-Somlai.
November 5, 2021- Live performance at the Glendale Ampitheater in Glendale, AZ. Sponsored by the City of Glendale Office of Arts and Culture through their Performing Arts Grant Program. Performed by Csaba Jevtic-Somlai.
October 23, 2021- Live performance at the Millcreek Library in Salt Lake City. Performed by Csaba Jevtic-Somlai.
October 21, 2021- Live performance at Brigham Young University as part of Their Story is Our Story’s residency. Performed by Csaba Jevtic-Somlai.
June 20, 2021- Online showing through Washington D.C.-based organization Sunset Run for Refugees (World Refugee Day).
June 18, 2021- Live excerpts performed at World Refugee Day activities in Salt Lake City, UT.
March 19, 2021- Online showing #2 through City of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture
January 22, 2021- Online showing through the City of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture
December 5, 2020- Online video “European premiere,” followed by panel discussion with TSOS Europe representative.
October 16, 2020- Online video premiere, followed by panel discussion with TSOS Phoenix area representative.
The solitude during the COVID-19 quarantine draws me to the incidental sounds of everyday life, both those of nature and those we have imposed upon our sonic environment. In the spirit of John Cage or Brian Eno, Music for Earbuds accompanies rather than distracts from the soft sonic stirrings around the listener during daily tasks. Electronic music from earbuds frames ambient sounds through contrasts of soft melodic gestures, processed intimate natural and mechanical sound samples, and complete silence. By gently drawing attention to soft, processed and synthesized sounds, intermittent silences invite the listener to experience the ambient music already in motion.
Commissioned by the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts for their Art for Uncertain Times project.
Virtual premiere, June 2020.
Improvisations I: MicroTunes is a structured improvisation or “half-composed” piece for soloist of any instrumentation and live electronics. This improvisation explores different detuned scales and microtonal harmonies. The music challenges the performer to navigate the dormant structures built into the electronics and poses questions about the liminality between composition and improvisation. This is the most recent addition to a larger Improvisations series. See the following links for further examples:
Improvisations IV: An Appeal to the [SOUND] Masses
Improvisations V: Two-Track Mind
Improvisations 5.2: Two Tracks for Two Minds (free electronics with laptop performer)
Improvisations VI: Just, Plane, Natural
Written for and in collaboration with Eric Giles
November 21, 2019 by Eric Giles, White Recital Hall, UMKC, KCMO.
A Statement and the Sound for group of performers and PowerPoint presentation deliberates the aesthetics of music in a nuanced and lively pre-recorded lecture on aesthetics. Some completely (un)intentional glitches might still need to be worked out…
June 17, 2019 by Mnemosyne Quartet, UMKC Composition Workshop, White Recital Hall, White Recital Hall at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, KCMO.
Clarinetist: Dylan Findley
Bassoonist: Martin Van Klompenberg (note: electronics are soft in video recording)
Pa-Hay-Okee, written for reeded instrument, refers to the site now known as the Florida Everglades. This word, from the Seminole language, translates to “grassy water,” describing the vast marshes filled with sawgrass and other plants. The sawgrass acts as a symbol for the entire natural region. Fields of sawgrass appear beautiful, but as implied in its name, each blade of grass can cut through flesh. In this complex habitat are both the breathtaking reeds, herons, turtles, and even manatees and flamingos as the glades approach the ocean. Yet, alligators and venomous snakes lurk within this formidable domain. My work captures this paradoxical beautiful danger through a mysterious, lyrical, and volatile interaction between the instrumentalist and the live processing of the instrument’s sound. All electronic sound in the piece derive from live input during the performance.
Performances:
February 21, 2022: Martin Van Klompenberg, Worlds Within the One, Annett Recital Hall, University of Wisconsin La-Crosse, La Crosse, WI.
Improvisations VI: Just, Plane, Natural manipulates the improviser's playing to be different partials of harmonic series. Though the performer is free to improvise within the bounds of good judgment, the form is dictated by the order of events in the Pure Data software.
This is a part of a larger Improvisations series.
Improvisations IV: An Appeal to the [SOUND] Masses
Improvisations V: Two-Track Mind
Improvisations 5.2: Two Tracks for Two Minds (free electronics with laptop performer)
Improvisations I: MicroTunes
Interested in performing Improvisations VI: Just, Plane, Natural?
Contact me for more information.
Performances:
March 31st, 2017 [Premiere], Clarinova, Leslie Miller (clarinet).
April 28th, 2017, Refreshing the Feeling, Ian Flatt (cello).
October 3rd, 2017, Composers Guild: Ensemble Series #1, Gabbi Roderer (flute).
March 9th, 2018, National Student Electronic Music Event, Jon Kratzer (trumpet).
Free improvisation based on Improvisations V. For any instrument and laptop performer. Listen to other pieces in the Improvisations series below:
Improvisations IV: An Appeal to the [SOUND] Masses
Improvisations V: Two-Track Mind
Improvisations VI: Just, Plane, Natural
Improvisations I: MicroTunes
Interested in performing Improvisations 5.2: Two Tracks for Two Minds?
Contact me for more information.
Performances
April 15th, 2017 [Premiere], THIS IS THE END: Society of Composers, Inc., Andrew Friedrichs (trombone), Dylan Findley (laptop).
April 28th, 2017, Refreshing the Feeling: A Concert of Works by Dylan Findley, Paige Towsey (violin), Dylan Findley (laptop).
The second piece in my Improvisations set, this piece experiments with randomized, manipulated loops of material produced by the improviser. These loops inherently create rhythms, and the improviser performs according to the rhythms. The form is set, making it a unique and identifiable piece. This is part of a larger Improvisations series. See the following links for further examples:
Improvisations IV: An Appeal to the [SOUND] Masses
Improvisations 5.2: Two Tracks for Two Minds (free electronics with laptop performer)
Improvisations VI: Just, Plane, Natural
Improvisations I: MicroTunes
Interested in performing Improvisations V: Two-Track Mind?
Contact me for more information.
Performances:
April 9th, 2016 [Premiere], Denney, Findley, Taylor, Dylan Findley (clarinet).
This improvisation is fed through a Pd Extended patch, which processes, modulates, and loops the improvised sounds. The structure is determined by a loop pedal, and the performer is encouraged to familiarize him or herself with this structure to take advantage of its unique qualities. This is the first of a larger Improvisations series. See the following links for further examples:
Improvisations V: Two-Track Mind
Improvisations 5.2: Two Tracks for Two Minds (free electronics with laptop performer)
Improvisations VI: Just, Plane, Natural
Improvisations I: MicroTunes
Interested in performing Improvisations IV: An Appeal to the [SOUND] Masses?
Contact me for more information.
Performances
March 26th, 2015 [Premiere], Group for New Music: Student Edition at Brigham Young University, Dylan Findley (clarinet).
September 23rd, 2015, Student Composers Inc. at University of Miami, Brian McKee (bassoon).
November 7th, 2015, FEASt Festival at Florida International University, Diana Ramirez (violin).
Electroacoustic work featuring mouthpiece noises. Optionally started with several wind instrument performers making noises through their mouthpieces.
Interested in having Synergic Sourceline performed at a concert?
Contact me for more information.
Performances:
Written with office sounds and inspired by photographs of volcanic magma.
Interested in having Molten Sepulchres performed?
Contact me for more information.
Performances:
January 11, 2014. [Premiere], Utah Xtalk.