experimental

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Figurings

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Figurings takes inspiration from character-based written languages. The individual characters have their own pronunciations and several meanings, yet they combine to form nuanced words within a grammatical structure. To write the piece, I designed a pictographic notation of various multi-faceted musical figures. The music “figures out” these sonic characters as one might learn a sentence in a foreign language. Each syllable is pronounced and then combines with another to form musical words. As the piece progresses, stretched and sustained words contrast metered iterations, all in counterpoint with inevitable silences.

A special thanks to clarinetist Calvin Falwell and the McCormick Percussion Group under the direction of Kevin Von Kampen for preparing and premiering this unconventional work.

Premiered October 25, 2023 at the University of South Florida.

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Cosmic Cliffs

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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.

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i2i

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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

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Lo!

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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.

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Music for Earbuds

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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.

Performances:

Virtual premiere, June 2020.

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Improvisations I: MicroTunes

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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

Performances

November 21, 2019 by Eric Giles, White Recital Hall, UMKC, KCMO.

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A Statement and the Sound

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Premiered by the Mnemosyne Quartet, heard here.

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…

PERFORMANCES

  • June 17, 2019 by Mnemosyne Quartet, UMKC Composition Workshop, White Recital Hall, White Recital Hall at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, KCMO.

BINGO

BINGO is a highly complex work featuring five musicians and three procedural operators. The procedural operators work through various strategies involving sophisticated formulas to determine the aural boundaries essential to the cohesive dynamism among the ensemble members. Despite the piece title, this work must not be interpreted to be a game of any sort. 

 Performances

  • March 14, 2019 by Seth Davis, John Dragoo, Austin Engelhardt, Joseph Gonzalez, Miguel Silva-Leon, Dylan Findley, Jacob Frisbie, and David Witter for Classical Revolution
    Californos, KCMO.

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Improvisations VI: Just, Plane, Natural

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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:

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Improvisations 5.2 Two Tracks for Two Minds

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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).

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Improvisations V: Two-Track Mind

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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:

FOR 20 ELECTRIC KEYBOARDS

A free-form piece based off of both Terry Riley's In C and John Zorn's Cobra. Letters indicate repeated musical ideas and numbers specify which pianist performs which idea. The director has complete control over the order of the events, though there are three suggested sections to follow in order to create a departure and return.

Interested in performing FOR 20 ELECTRIC KEYBOARDS?

download here.

Performances:

  • April 11, 2015, [Premiere], Brigham Young University ALMA Lab (Open Lab Time).
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Improvisations IV: An Appeal to the [SOUND] Masses

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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

[Breathe if needed]

This open instrumentation work develops rhythms based on four articulations/attack styles of the performers' choice. It can be performed by at least two performers, and there is no limit on the number of performers.

Interested in performing [Breathe if needed]?

Contact me for more information.

Performances

February, 21st 2017, Catch and Release: Student Composers, Inc., Diego Matallana (contrabass), Guillermo Ospina (percussion), Dylan Findley (clarinet).

November 20th, 2014 [Premiere], Group for Experimental Music, Stuart Wheeler (voice), Chris Morrison (piano), Brian Lee (percussion), Dylan Findley (clarinet).

Thoughtsketches

Thoughtsketches features an open-ended structure that allows for improvisation.  This technique is largely explored by Christian Asplund, who I studied with at the time.  The first movement, Canonic Perception, has a line of text that is read by the performers at the rhythm of their choice, but within a tapped tempo. It proceeds in a round.
Synesthesia provides a uniquely colored chromatic scale for each performer. The vocalist has a list of colors with associated words to vocalize. The instrumentalists play within the limits of the colored notes according to which color they feel matches the word.

Interested in performing Thoughtsketches?

Contact me for more information.

Performances: