chamber orchestra and audio-visual media - 35 min.
Program Notes:
This work is for chamber orchestra, fixed and live 8 channel surround sound digital audio media, and fixed and live digital video media. It served as my master's thesis composition project. The name comes from an ancient mechanical object discovered in a Greek shipwreck, which is believed to be an astronomical clock. I was inspired to create this work by my own "Antikythera Mechanism," a program called Celestia, from which I also created the astronomical source material for the video movements. Furthermore, I explored musical clockworks throughout the piece in both the acoustic and electronic movements, though the results are hardly predictable or mechanical. The underlying processes are always tinged with chaos theory, emergent behavior, and most importantly my own intuition, lending them the same organic and natural qualities observed in nature and the cosmos. The movements break down as follows:
Prelude: Improvisation for piano and live electronics (2 players, not notated) - ca. 5'00"
Movement I: for chamber orchestra and live electronics - ca. 4'00"
Eclipse I: Mars & Deimos (fixed digital audio and video media) - 2'00"
Data Interlude I: Strange Attractor Study: Henon Map (improvisation for live electronics) - ca. 5'00"
Eclipse II: Ida & Dactyl (fixed digital audio and video media) - 1'15"
Eclipse III: Jupiter & Europa (fixed digital audio and video media) - 1'50"
Data Interlude II: Cellular Automata Study (live digital audio and video media) - ca. 5'00"
Eclipse IV: Neptune & Triton (fixed digital audio and video media) - 1'20"
Movement II: for chamber orchestra - ca. 4'00"
Postlude: Disklavier Study: Improvisation for solo piano - 3'00"
Performance History:
World Premiere: April 11, 2009
ATLAS Black Box Theater, University of Colorado at Boulder
The Orchestra: Lisa Philips, flute, Katie Bloise, oboe, Katie Vedder, bass clarinet, Brian Jack, bassoon, Audrey Frantz, horn, Derek McDonald, trumpet, Sam Keehn, bass trombone, Anthony Green, piano, Danny Schade, drums, James Andrewes, violin I, Rachel Sliker, violin II, Timothy Rowland, viola, Matt D'Ordine, cello, Brandon Houghtalen, conductor, Paul Hembree, computer
Recording