for solo marimba

Carbon White for solo marimba was written in 2016 as a thank you gift to Christopher Whyte, director of percussion studies at Western Oregon University. The piece explores a short motive that was pervasive to my ears in the summer of 2016 before I arrived in Iowa. The structural integrity of the piece conveys the feeling of a dreamlike fantasy that served to entertain my obsession with the acoustical beauty of solo marimba.

 

for voice

The composition shared with you is a performance called, People Like Words, which was originally broadcast in early March and is a collaboration with translator and poet, Kaylee Lockett. The composition features no input mixing techniques and improvisation.

Jacob Harrison Jones is a New Media artist currently receiving an MFA in Intermedia at the School of Art and Art History. Jones frequently performs under the name Jake Jacobs who is the host of The Test of Lime 8-9pm Fridays on KRUI. The Test of Lime features original sound art and experimental performance and interviews.

 

After a fresh snow, a sense of peace and quiet seems to envelop the world in which the snow has fallen. I have always been fascinated by how that altered sonic state feels and the solace that one can find in it, and considered this in the composition of the piece. The performers play ideas that are the same, but that are slightly altered or askew from each other throughout, in an attempt to emulate the altered state that is felt when walking through the fresh fallen snow.

Anastasia Scholze is in the second year of her undergraduate degree at the University of Iowa as a vocal performance major. She is currently studying composition with Ramin Roshandel, and has also taken lessons with Jeremy Maas and Christine Burke.

 

for saxophone and bassoon

1. for saxophone
2. for bassoon

Abstract #2 has been written for either any possible instrument which has five different registers or human voice. In this piece [exactly like traditional notation], the horizontal axis represents time (5-second blocks) and the vertical axis is pitch in five different registers. Dynamics have been shown as boxes and each box has a different spectrum of Gray (pale grey to black). Each spectrum is basically the maximum possible dynamic the performer can get to. In other words, if the spectrum is dark black, the performer is allowed to make a dynamic change from the quietest sounds to possible loudest ones. White is reserved for silence.

 

for solo violin

The Hermit (composed 2014) is a solo piece for violin that reflects a Hermit that has no human contact and does not know societal norms except for a small amount he learned when young. As a result, he has developed his own musical norms, and his performance reflects his wariness of people today.