About the Pieces

“Refractions” is a collection of three pieces for solo instruments and fixed electronic media. The first piece is for amplified clarinet and fixed electronic media, the second is for electric guitar and fixed electronic media, and the third is for amplified high voice (soprano or tenor) and fixed electronic media.

In “Refractions”, I chose to integrate two musical eras and practices separated by hundreds of years: medieval chant and contemporary electroacoustic music. I use compositional techniques from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, specifically the borrowing of a chant melody, which is used as a cantus firmus. Throughout the three pieces I use the medieval antiphon and psalm Vota Mea Domino Reddam as a binding element. The chant is presented in all three pieces in its original, paraphrased and transformed versions, working parallel to the morphological transformations in the electronic media.  I also bring together a multiplicity of modern musical idioms important to shaping me as a musician: contemporary western classical repertoire, rock, jazz, and folk music from Latin America.

By incorporating elements from diverse musical cultures and time periods, “Refractions” creates a unique and personal sound world, which aims to the musical future by being rooted in the distant musical past.

For me, electroacoustic music is the extreme representation of post-modernity because of its eclecticism and diversity. As arguably the newest musical genre, electroacoustic music is a true product of our times. Never before have we been able to work so closely with sound. Through the use of electroacoustic media we are able to affect an infinite amount of the parameters of sound and transform them in countless ways. This newfound capacity is certainly appealing for the composer and unquestionably offers tremendous possibilities for invention and innovation.

On the other hand, the chant repertoire of the Middle Ages provides the foundation, either directly or indirectly, for all western classical music. In chant, we find the birth of the western repertoire: it is the seed from where the music of the great masters from Machaut to Stravinsky to Davidovsky flourished.

There are many unanswered questions as to how chant was performed, and there is truly no way of knowing this with certainty. The best we can do is to use our imagination and historical knowledge to recreate the sounds of that distant past. In “Refractions,” I use this uncertainty to my advantage, allowing myself to transform the chant in a personal artistic way, with more concern for creating a new sound than for recreating an old one. The chant becomes both a point of departure and a means to bind together the three pieces in the collection.

I find interesting and unexpected connections between electroacoustic music and the music from the Middle Ages. One correlation is the concern for acoustical space and how it affects sound. During the Middle Ages, the great cathedrals were built to amplify and project the sound of music. It is thus impossible to separate the sound of chant from the acoustical properties of these great cathedrals. The same principle applies in electroacoustic music: the resources for development and transformation are not solely pitch, duration, and intensity, but also space, timbre, and acoustical properties. The technology of the Middle Ages was used to create architectural monuments that would affect sound, while in the twenty-first century a different technology has been developed for the same purpose: the speakers, amplifiers and computers allow us to transform sound and the space where sound occurs and to use these in artistic creation.

Another connection can be made between chant and the soundbite, or musical sample. Composers from the Middle Ages “borrowed” chants and chansons written by other composers and used them as bases for their compositions. As this practice of borrowing became more common, composers began transforming the chants, placing them in different registers, and having them appear in inversion or retrograde. The chant, however, remained as the principal building block upon which music was constructed. As the number of polyphonic voices expanded during the Renaissance, the chant provided harmonic and structural foundations. In electroacoustic music, it is the soundbite that functions as this building block. Soundbites are also “borrowed,” captured by a digital recorder either in the studio or in the natural world, then altered and multiplied to create new sounds and sound masses.

In the first movement of “Refraction I” for solo clarinet and fixed electronic media, the clarinet plays the chant Vota Mea Domino Reddam is played in free rhythm. The chant is interrupted by virtuoso musical commentary. In true Renaissance fashion, in the middle section of the first movement, the clarinet chant is multiplied and played at different speeds, a mensuration technique, which creates a mass of polyphony. The sounds of the multiple clarinets have been independently manipulated electronically, in order to further distinguish the independence of the voices. At times the clarinet chant appears in true retrograde, with a complete reversal not only of the pitches but also of the sound wave.

In “Refraction II” for electric guitar and fixed electronic media, the borrowed chant appears in natural harmonics. The chant melody has been slightly modified in order to accommodate the natural harmonics produced by the guitar. The piece is a virtuoso display of technique and sound effects idiomatic only to the electric guitar. Numerous references to popular styles, such as blues, jazz and rock appear throughout the movement. At the end, the chant returns in inversion and in counterpoint against a rhapsodic electric guitar part, which is playing a written-out improvisation.

“Refraction III: Vota Mea Domino Reddam,” for voice and fixed electronic media, and can be sung by either a soprano or a tenor. Here the borrowed chant is paraphrased, modified, and developed in the voice part. The rhythms used are influenced by indigenous music from Latin America, while the electronic media creates an atmosphere or ambiance that emphasizes the mystical quality of the chant.

The original Latin Chant used throughout the work, Vota Mea Domino Reddam, is an antiphon for Monday at Vespers, which is alternated with Psalm 115 (116:10-19) and appears in the Liber Usualis. The text reads as follows:

Antiphon: I will pay my bows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people.

Psalm: 1. I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted:

2. I said in my haste, all men are liars.

3. What shall render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?

4. I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord.

5. I will pay my bows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people.

6. Oh Lord, truly I am thy servant ; I am thy servant and the son of thine handmaid.

7. Thou hast loosed my bonds: I will offer to the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord.

8. I will pay my bows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people.