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text-based scores for open instrumentation

The following are text-based scores that I've made for classes that I've taught at KMMC, for my ensemble Hundredfoot Road, for the South Asian Music Residency program, and for the heck of it.

I'm not necessarily trying to "revolutionize the world" with any of this stuff - text-scores are a really well established tradition at this point. But these have served me as composition etudes, platforms for [re]thinking, ways of incorporating new forms of theatricality, improvisation, collaborative listening, etc. As others have noted [Gavin Bryars, Kunsu Shim, etc], text scores offer a path into reflective sound making for people who have less training and capability in conventional music notation / performance. At KM they have served the purpose of allowing students to think compositionally, critically, playfully, artistically, while they are developing more "conventional" musical capabilities. They have served as a site for taking the development of oral practices and improvisation much more seriously than is often the case in a conservatory setting [outside of jazz or ethnomusicology departments]. In one case ["Chorus of Hauls"] they have been a means to introduce concepts like the sound installation into a setting where there aren't really art gallery spaces and financial resources for more formalized instantiations of the genre. 

They come from a place of purposeful naivety.

Let me know if you decide to do any of these with your students, or ensembles.

text scores 1
actions, situations, non-significations
x-logues 1
a way of waking up [composing through Cage]
a chorus of hauls
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  • home
  • about me
  • WORKS / MEDIA
    • text-based scores
    • solo >
      • vinayak variations
      • how to [amost] start a revolution
      • devil's bargain [solo violin version]
      • crisis music [baritone saxophone]
      • book of myths [piano + electronics]
      • punchlines, cliches, pericopes, proverbs, and other old saws
      • in measureless oceans of space [solo piano]
      • windowed forms [solo piano]
    • chamber >
      • the closed circle
      • for want of a nail
      • montgomery songs
      • all the borrowed future before us
      • go lightly [flute + viola]
      • awake|asleep [2 sopranos + piano]
      • chrysanthemums [string quartet]
      • drag [violin + prepared piano]
      • forseen fable [soprano + violin + prepared piano]
      • mackerel sky [saxophone quartet]
      • ocean [baritone voice + piano]
      • ogni suono come un essere vivente [2 alto saxophones]
      • permanent emotions [violin + prepared piano]
      • with more eyes than the stars [amplified toy piano + amplified prepared piano + 2 multi-percussionists]
    • large ensemble >
      • Selling Greenland [Large open ensemble]
      • broken images [chamber orchestra]
      • flowergazers [soprano + 7 players]
      • gravity and grace [orchestra]
      • o unspeakable madness of our age [counter tenor + baritone + 7 players]
    • electronic >
      • EX / INTER / CHANGE
      • in the offing [fixed media version]
      • house of the future
  • BANTER
  • Writings
  • Teaching