Category: Video

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Tidal Pull

I’ve been collaborating with fiddler, Esther Morgan-Ellis, for the last year on a group of new old-time tunes. We’ve performed them in a series of concerts beginning in Spring 2024. We plan to release a recording of them soon. Here’s a performance of my tune “Tidal Pull” from our concert at the University of North Georgia, Dahlonega.

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Tidal Pull; Esther Morgan-Ellis, fiddle; Holland Hopson, banjo

And here’s tablature for the banjo part and a representative melody line.

Download Tablature for Tidal PullDownload

Notes About This Tune

  • “Tidal Pull” is in D, played in Double D tuning (aDADE) using the clawhammer style.
  • This is one of the few tunes we play that is not crooked, which makes this one great for contra dances
  • The syncopation of the a note in the B part is an important detail that’s easy to miss.
  • For variety, I sometimes play the beginning of the second ending down an octave.
  • I wrote this tune at a beach with a very strong undertow–practically a rip current! That explains the title and the motion of the melody.

Give the tune a try, and let me know how you like it!

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3D Printed Temple Blocks

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I’ve posted info about 3D printed wood blocks or temple blocks to the Digitally Fabricated Instruments section of my site. This represents my first experiments with digitally fabricated instruments and parametric design.

Follow the link above for .stl files to print your own instruments. You can also find OpenSCAD .scad files so you can customize the design to your needs.

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A Long Line of Clouds

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Miolina performing A Long Line of Clouds Just Above the Trees at the Skyscraper Museum

Here’s a lovely performance of my piece A Long Line of Clouds Just Above the Trees for violin duo and live electronic. The piece was played by Miolina: Lynn Bechtold and Mioi Takeda, violins, at their recent concert at The Skyscraper Museum in New York.

See more Miolina videos–including other works from the same concert–on their channel on YouTube.

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Composer’s Voice Feature

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A recent episode of Composer’s Voice featured my music played by Miolina and Craig Hultgren. The half-hour show was produced by Rob Voisey and aired this weekend on Manhattan Neightborhood Network’s Lifestyle channel. If you missed the broadcast you can see the episode on YouTube or Facebook.

The video includes an excerpt from A Long Line of Clouds Just Above the Trees (2022) for violin duo and live electronics performed by Miolina: Lynn Bechtold (violin) and Mioi Takeda (violin). We received support for the project from the Collaborative Arts Research Initiative (CARI) at the University of Alabama. We workshopped the piece during a Summer 2021 residency at the Avaloch Farm Music Institute in New Hampshire.

The episode concludes with a complete performance of Snakeskin (Verso) (2019) for solo cello and live electronics performed by Craig Hultgren (ecello).