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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:

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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: