“Posso Volare!: Originally written for solo violin during the Alba International Music Festival in Italy about four years ago. It recently underwent some modifications to fit within the stylistic trappings of the tape and instrument genre. The title is a result of my bad Italian. I wanted to say ‘posso avere’ when asking for some acqua frizzante, but I said “posso volare.” The waitress humored me by pointing outside. Which is true, flying is really easier to do outside. “Hmmm. What a great title,” I thought. It turns out that the more I work with this piece the title is beyond autobiographical poetics. The piece does illustrate a semi-conscious desire to fly on behalf of both performance forces. At times this desire is fulfilled by one force doing what the other cannot do. Where one’s limitations begin, the other can take over and push the music somewhere else. Just like the violinist has physical/acoustic limitations (register, amplitude, timbre, etc.) the “faux-chamber” ensemble found within the electronics has limitless timbral/registral possibilities. Yet, the electronics are limited in the emotive spontaneity and flexibility that is only found in the innate “humanness” of the violin.” (April 2010)

“Flux Flummoxed: As I began this project I was preoccupied with the idea of the music moving in and out of stylistic boundaries—as if transported and transformed from its original form. However, it seemed that this movement inevitably became frustrated and/or undercut by interjecting gestures, sudden stillness, quick fades, or any combination thereof. As this ‘frustration’ of thematic/stylistic became more apparent—and became a governing factor of the work—I tried to piece together some short phrase that encapsulates this idea. The words flux flummoxed kept coming to mind. Put together as a phrase it seems almost like some non-sensical post-modern bricolage, but nevertheless kept popping up in my mind. Then, as chance would have it, I came across a 2006 article by scientist Phil Stauffer from Ground Water (a hydrogeology journal) with the title “Flux Flummoxed: A Proposal for Consistent Usage.” From this article and my amateurish look into physics and electromagnetism, a title was born (for which I thank Phil Stauffer for his like-minded cleverness).  Each of the movements represents some aspect of flux not as literal signifiers for extra-musical scientific phenomena (an impossible task); but rather, as sonic explorations that were aptly titled after the movements were composed. And, as a homage to the idyllic days of Velcro^TM, pegged pants and time-traveling DeLoreans, the last movement (Flux Capacitor) fills my obligatory shout-out to popular culture that seems to run rampant in the ever-so-tightly-knit circle of contemporary music culture.” (April 2009)

On to a little bit about the music. Here is my working program note for the performers (not necessarily the audience–quite yet). I am gradually coming around to the idea of program notes written by the composer. But I have only come so far as conceding that it is more necessary for the performer to get inside the composer’s mind and pre-occupations than the audience. Anyway, here is the blurb:

“This piece was written for the Norfolk New Music Workshop sponsored by the Yale School of Music. I use the idea of the sweeping, broadway-esque waltz as a point of departure (along the lines of what you would hear in a pops concert). Departure is as apt and cogent as can be in this case. The ‘waltz’ theme as introduced in the very beginning of the piece with the strong agogic weight on the second beat doesn’t ever become more than a fragment–an ephemeral essence of something familiar to the ears. It makes various appearances throughout and is essentially recontextualized from a broad sweeping motive to a delicate and fragile fragment. In the middle of all of this are various loops that are sent into motion. They closely resemble the aspects or detritus of the waltz-like theme but become individualized and divorced from the feeling that began the piece. In a way, one can easily become disoriented as the music unfolds. Out of such disorientation come surprising moments of synchronicity and clarity, culminating in the reification of the waltz fragment (as mentioned above) in a more fragile, yet coherent state.”

]]> http://christiangentry.com/2010/06/02/wltzloopfrgmnts-and-a-little-discussion-about-typeface/feed/ 0 http://christiangentry.com/2010/03/30/norfolk-new-music-workshop/ http://christiangentry.com/2010/03/30/norfolk-new-music-workshop/#comments Tue, 30 Mar 2010 19:45:44 +0000 admin http://christiangentry.com/?p=158 Just found out that I have been asked to attend the Norfolk New Music Workshop this summer in Connecticut. Should be fun. That means a new piece is on the horizon. Yikes!

Also, the talented Duo Capri (Ben Sung, violin and Jihye Chang, piano) are set to premiere my Barlow Endowment Commission Flux Flummoxed on April 19th at Minnesota State University-Moorhead. Stay tuned for upcoming recordings and news!