works » small chamber ensemble/electroacoustic

Commissioned by the Aspen Music Festival
Year Composed: 2017, rev. 2023
Duration: 0:05:20
Premiere: 8/3/2017: Los Angeles Philharmonic Noon to Midnight; Kaleidoscope; Iris Company
Additional Performances: Riot Ensemble (London), ensemble mise-en (Brooklyn), Berkeley Symphony, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Ecco Ensemble, ArtShare L.A.

Program Notes:

Audiogenic epilepsy, extreme puppetry, fricatives on the verge of intelligibility, and a guessing game of identifying who is doing what. Based on a poem by Nick Volpert outlining his visceral response to the 2016 United States sociopolitical events, a live amplified quartet duels with an electronic quartet, flickering between harmonious commingling and bouts of grating friction.

Untitled

clinging to a smooth surface scratching fingernails backwards
tippest top in the empty air
looming untouchable up ahead
a golden wheel made of wheels
curling in horror, screaming shapes to fill the yawning gulf
a pin I wear to ensure I’m always small
unending over and over like a river for centuries
not quite! not quite! not quite!

— Nick Volpert, November 8, 2016