Pianists Kathryn Fouse and Adam Bowles wrap up their recent Alabama tour presented by the Birmingham Art Music Alliance with a concert at the University of Alabama in Huntsville on Sunday, March 1. They’ll perform their program of new compositions for piano, including my piece Cypher, A Circle for two pianos. Other composers on the program include Ron Clemmons, Michael Coleman, Monroe Golden, Gavin Green, Michael Huebner, Mark Lackey, and Emily Zhang.
Cypher, A Circle is a series of guided improvisations using the puzzle-like diagram above to determine pitches, durations, number of notes, etc.
The concert is part of the 12th Annual UAH Keyboard Festival which will feature works by CNSNC (Consonance), a New Jersey-based collective of six contemporary composers on Monday, March 2.
This was my first time participating in Genuary. Here are some reflections about the experience.
Scheduled Work Means Work Gets Done
My long-standing journal practice has taught me about the out-sized power of small, incremental work completed on a schedule. And the Genuary work provided similar benefits. The main benefit, of course, is simply finishing things–even if they’re small and feel inconsequential at the time.
More Ideas Come From More Work
Finishing work leads directly to more ideas for the next thing to try. The gallery above hints at some of these behind-the-scenes connections: ladder-like forms and loops recur, grids divide the space, we become “sensitized to difference through…repetition“
Not Too Precious
When making decisions in the moment, every choice can feel fraught. But a little time and distance is always helpful. Looking back on a month of work, it’s amazing to me how I had already forgotten about some of the pieces. There were a few disappointments, of course (I let that out of the studio?) but I also occasionally surprised myself (I made that?).
Grids
Almost every piece uses a grid template which takes care of the cell sizes automagically when I specify how many rows and columns to draw. (Some of the pieces wound up as a ‘grid’ of 1 cell wide by 1 cell high, just because it’s easier to change the variables than to separate the grid code from the rest!). I think I gravitate to grids often because they connect so well with my sound work, my modular scores, my interest in variation, etc.
Colors
I’ve been playing with colors more and more, inspired in part by Tom Sachs’ Colors video. Genuary provided a great time to go even deeper. I do most of my creative coding for pen plotters, so color comes later in the process when the pen actually hits the paper. For Genuary, I was able to think about color much earlier. One of the tools that I created was a simple list of my go-to colors and their hex codes, similar to
color prussianBlue = #003153;
color isabellene = #f4f0ec; //light beige. Works great as a background
color verdegris = #43b3ae;
color puce = #cc8899; //the color of fleas
color lemonYellow = #f7ef79;
color cadmiumRed = #f25364;
color alizarinCrimson = #AC1F25;
color yellowOchre = #C18F32; //good match
color burntUmber = #633C16; //good match
I’m sure I’ll keep adding to and refining this list.
Tweak Mode for Final Touches
I found Processing’s Tweak Mode to be a great way to make last-minute adjustments. I loved being able to try out different scaling, spacing, transparency, colors, etc. all on the fly.
Hank Lazer and I are returning to our recent performance celebrating the release of Lazer’s poetry collection Abundant Life. Hank will read selections from the book. I’ll provide some ambient field recording sounds, play my electric clawhammer guitar, and deploy some voice-responsive electronics.
“[Art is] a craft-based tool for the study of consciousness.” — Caroll Dunham
I think this description fits what Lazer and I do together.
Friday, February 13, 2025 5:30pm Abundant Life Lorrie Lane Studio 2420 Gary Fitts Street Tuscaloosa, 35401 Reading and performance with Hank Lazer
We’re happy to be performing in Lorrie Lane’s recently expanded studio on an evening’s program that includes some hands-on art marking, too!
Tomorrow pianists Kathryn Fouse and Adam Bowles kick off a six city tour of Alabama presented by the Birmingham Art Music Alliance. They’ll perform a program of new compositions for piano duo, including my piece Cypher, A Circle. Bowles and Fouse premiered the work in 2013.
The piece is a series of guided improvisations using the puzzle-like diagram above to determine pitches, durations, number of notes, etc.
Other composers on the program include Ron Clemmons, Michael Coleman, Monroe Golden, Gavin Green, Michael Huebner, Mark Lackey, and Emily Zhang. Not every program includes every piece; the ones that include my work are in bold below.
Tuesday 2/10 1pm – Shelton State Community College, Terrific Tuesday Series, Tuscaloosa AL
