Spinning Silence in the Possible Blue

string quartet
2016
11:45"

Spinning Silence in the Possible Blue (2016, dur. circa 11:00”) was written for the Lydian String Quartet. The work is inspired by flocking birds, using both images of flocks and flocking algorithms as a means of creating fundamental temporal and registral materials. The musical surface simulates flocking behavior by using gestures that imitate one another while never precisely replicating behavior, creating a dense and active counterpoint. Similarly, images of flocks of birds provide the structural underpinnings of the composition.  Though the resultant score is not augenmusik, it does represent a sonification of visual information. In some cases, this sonification is achieved through “transcribing” visual images while in other instances the visual images provide time and pitch constraints for a flocking algorithm. Indeed, an alternate score could consist of the series of images that provided the impetus for the work.

Click here to see the April 13, 2017 performance by the Lydian String Quartet.