Where I Lay My Head

Written in 2018 for singing glasses, singers, and strings (open duration)

 From the score:

 I’ve been interested in the idea of “place” in my music, and how music can come to represent a place, space, or an idealized version of one. For this piece, the strings are tuned to the fundamental resonant frequencies of my bedroom, while the singing ensemble performs at the American standard, A=440. In other words, a naturally occurring phenomena (resonance) interacts with human-chosen institutions (440 Hz). To me, this dichotomy has some parallels with how our human presence interacts with the natural world. I am a natural person, but my residence is a synthetic interaction.

In a way, I think of this piece as a living and breathing installation. There is no climax, but the piece is organic, flexible, always different but always similar. Much like a new apartment, it appears the same on the surface, but the beauty is in the decoration, our memories, or what that space means to us. It is different for each resident, but the frame remains the same.

This piece is an invitation of residence, where we may engage, relax, or maybe even sleep.

 This was the first piece I completed in its entirety in Texas. It sprung out of a conversation on spectralism during a seminar on contemporary music topics; I don’t remember the substance of that conversation, but I remember the whole idea coming into my head at once and thinking it would be an interesting concept for a series of pieces consisting of several works tuned to various locations that can be moved around or performed in their respective spaces.

 I never made more than the one, but I think it works well and I’ve loved performing it (even if it is a little tedious to tune).

 I have day dreams of all the pieces this piece would be fun to perform works like this: caves, cathedrals, foyers...