Dancing Over the Abyss (2021)
Picc., b. cl., perc., pno., vln., vc. | 7'
During the time I was composing this piece, I had immersed myself in the music of several 1960s and 70s artists, including, primarily, the Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan. I have always been fascinated by the minute fluctuations in tone of voice, pitch, and timing with which these (and many) popular artists seem to communicate in such expressive and individual ways. By using microtonal fluctuations and many patterns that are only loosely determinate in time, I strove to make this piece a testament to the unquantifiable and not-sufficiently-notatable (by my estimation) in music. This scenario also has the quality of giving a certain unpredictability to the music, partially lending the piece its title. More specifically, the feeling described in the title-the sense of a looming emptiness being toyed with-reached me through Dylan and the Grateful Dead ("Desolation Row" and "Brokedown Palace" especially, although they may not seem to have much in common with my piece on the surface).