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), Brightwork newmusic at Hear Now Festival (Los Angeles), Berkeley Symphony, Tanglewood Music Festival, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, OSSIA New Music, University of Minnesota New Music 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