Vík / Wyoming

2023

for large ensemble (animated graphic score)

about

Vík / Wyoming is created from a composite of recordings taken from two sources: the dress rehearsals of Vík (2017), a piece for full orchestra interpreting an animated graphic score, and environmental field recordings taken after a surprise summer snow near Shoshoni, WY (2020). The ensemble featured in this recording is the CalArts New Century Players.

I include this piece as a work sample because it incorporates a range of my compositional interests - improvisation, iteration, collage, found material, and digital manipulation/production.

In Vík, topographic features from a map of Vík (a place located in southern Iceland) are simplified and separated into discreet objects, and each of those objects is assigned a musical/motivic value. The arrangement of these values as well as the arrangement of these objects in the compositional space, situated and framed by the aspect ratio of the film screen, come together to make a moving graphic score. In performance practice, the result is a semi-improvisational space that allows for freedom despite/because of strict parameters within a fixed duration.