Triptych for Percussion Quartet

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Each movement represents a different historically-informed compositional style inspired by three historical/contemporary figures.

 

Movement I: Many Landscapes is based on the life and work of Miyamoto Musashi (c. 1584-1645), a 17th-century Japanese samurai, writer, and artist. The score is graphic notation made up of Sumi ink and watercolor on paper. Performers are given free choice of three instruments/objects each with which to interpret the score.

 

Movement II: Quincunx is based on the life and work of Elisabeth Lutyens (1906-1983), a British serialist and experimental composer, and is one of quasi-atonal, decaphonic serialism. Five 10x10 matrices were arranged in a quincunx shape (like the number 5 on dice) and used in combination with chance operations to inform both melodic and rhythmic structures.

 

Movement III: Ceiling Fan Ratios takes its name from the ceiling fan in the studio of American visual artist Jon Verney (b. 1987). Each voice of the ceiling fan, from the slight hum of electricity, the whirring bearings of the electric motor, the blades spinning through the air, the light bulbs rattling against their glass enclosures, to the clinking of the pull-chains, all have certain repetitive numerical relationships to the others, both intervallic/harmonic and rhythmic, which informed the composition of this final movement.

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Performed by Mobius Percussion on February 13th, 2020 at Vermont College of Fine Arts.

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