Quiet Music for Ensemble (2017)

[WARNING: FLASHING LIGHTS]

Program notes: Quiet Music for Ensemble is an environment of collisions and disconnections through which new details and perspectives are revealed. Any synchronicity of light and sound is purely coincidental.

Technical Description: The patterning of the lightbulbs is controlled by a system comprising a Max patch, arduino uno board, and a relay system I built myself (you can sometimes hear the relays clicking during the performance). The activity of lights progresses through different states of probability-based patterning. In much the same way a composer shapes sound over time, I (with a lot of help from the computer) shape light over time, creating textures, densities, and rhythms.

The audio processing is structured in a very similar way (also in Max) but instead of lightbulbs, it turns on and off the amplification of individual performers. The Max patch also routes these audio signals through envelope shaping, distortion, and reverb to add a changing spatial depth to the performance (in the same manner that light modifies our perception of the physical space.

Explanation: Quiet Music for Ensemble is one of my photosonic compositions and is an adaption of my solo piece Quiet Music for Strings: Simple Switches Cause Hits and Misses. Both versions of the piece ask the performers to play sounds that are at the very edge of audibility but also require significant physical gesture. The interactive light system modifies the audience’s perception of physical gesture by hiding, revealing, shadowing, and distorting the performers’ motions. Quiet Music for Ensemble was made for the SPLICE Ensemble.