Portfolio of Works: Composing Perceptions of Time in Music

Abstract

This portfolio contains three compositions whose primary aims are to manipulate perceptions of time through sonic contrast and similitude. The works also explore composing performer interactions, integrating electronics into an acoustic environment, and using varying levels of indeterminacy to increase performance possibilities. All three pieces were written between 2021 and 2022 in partial fulfilment of a Master’s thesis at the University of Alberta. The first of these works, w.RivEr.ST & nimbi, for saxophone quartet, uses interlacing multiphonics to create a static bed of sound with constantly varying inner motion. The second section, nimbi, is a single page, indeterminate score that encourages sonic exploration and improvisatory techniques. Both sections of the piece are written with proportional notation and require performer interaction and communication to maintain alignment of musical events, consistent pacing, and musical cohesion. The second work, Below, the Boarhound and the Boar, for trumpet, violoncello, percussion, and electronics, deviates from the previous work in that it uses conventional, measured notation to control pitch, dynamics, timbre, and tempo. This piece marks my first significant endeavour into the use of electroacoustic techniques, such as additive synthesis, granular synthesis, and analysis/resynthesis, as compositional tools. Its primary goal is to manipulate temporal perceptions through abrupt contrasts in register, dynamics, and timbre. The final work, Grey on Indigo, Faded, for flute, clarinet, violin, violoncello, and piano, builds on w.RivEr.ST & nimbi by expanding on ideas of silence, space, and static flow. This work, however, adds a four-channel field recording, played back at nearly imperceptible levels, in order and further draw attention to the silence and space between sounds. Audio recordings found at https://ualberta.aviaryplatform.com/r/wd3pv6cm2k and Performance Patch.maxpat files found at https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-4gv3-8n72