spiked
Chamber Orchestra
7'30"
7'30"
|
Performances
Alarm Will Sound Alan Pierson, conductor Missouri Theatre 7/30/16 | Columbia, MO |
Program Notes
I composed spiked during the exhilaratingly busy final months of my senior year at USC, and its persistently erratic rhetoric is partially a result of my delirious yet determined state of mind. I settled on the title because of its pungent ambiguity and its relation to the musical features of the piece. The word spiked can mean that something quickly increased (and likely subsequently decreased) such as in this 2013 headline in The Atlantic: “Oil Prices Spiked Thanks to a Misread Tweet.” Likewise, contours which rise and fall rapidly and unexpectedly are a salient feature in the piece. Additionally, spiked can mean to add something that gives flavor or interest as in “saffron-spiked rice” or “Who spiked the eggnog?” In the piece, solo instrument melodies are frequently spiked with color from other instruments in the ensemble doubled in unison. This process is exemplified by the colorations of the piano solo at the beginning of the piece, and reversed at the very end when a klangfarbenmelodie version of this material dissolves back into a piano solo. Ultimately, spiked was written with the immense talent and energy of Alarm Will Sound in mind. |