Four Little Boxes (2023)
for electric guitar + live electronics
Composed for Dan Lippel in 2023, this short work contains four miniatures, which largely center around harmonics, altered by feedback processes in Ableton Live to emphasize slight differences in intonation between various natural harmonics on the guitar.
full score
full recording: Dan Lippel, guitar
Drunken Hiccups (2019)
for violin + electronics, ca. 10'00"
Composed for Miranda Cuckson in 2019, this piece is based on a recording made by American fiddle legend Tommy Jarrell of a tune he calls The Drunken Hiccups. My work of the same name focusses on several key features of the Appalachian fiddling style, such as slides, scratches, and squeals, which are presented here as fragmented and isolated musical events. These events use The Drunken Hiccups, as a scaffold, and retain varying degrees of the original pitch, and rhythmic materials in their unorthodox exploration of these various idiomatic techniques.
full recording: Miranda Cuckson, violin
score sample
To inquire about full score please submit a request on the Contact page
The Imaginary Concerto (2018)
for piano + electronics, ca. 12'00"
Written for Mari Kawamura in 2018, The Imaginary Concerto is a work for piano and electronics which takes the performer on a journey through a series of surreal imagined landscapes, and musical situations. Quoting extensively from various areas of the piano repertoire, as well as from Francis Couperin’s L’Art de Toucher le Clavecin, the work takes a playful and personality-driven look at the nature of virtuosity. Throughout the work, the personalities of the composer, pianist, and quoted materials often interact in surprising ways, addressing in particular the virtuosity of flexibility and range, while creating a diverse and chaotic environment.
full recording: Mari Kawamura, piano, glockenspiel, triangle, recorder, kazoo, and voice
score sample
To inquire about full scores please submit a request on the Contact page
Songs from Patmos: Music for the End of the World (2019)
for speaking multi-instrumentalist + electronics
In a cave, on a rock, off the coast of second-century Anatolia, John saw a vision of the end of days and penned his Apokalypsis. While this text sat for centuries on the fringes of the Christian canon, today many of its vivid images have entered the western popular consciousness through songs, visual art, and literature of various kinds. From the great pit of scorpion-tailed locusts, to the Beast and his pals running amok across the face of the Earth, Songs from Patmos, sets excerpts from Revelation as a series of chaotic vignettes, which explore the book’s dense layers of references, as well as its possible relevance to our modern world, and aspects of the human experience at large.
excerpts: Joseph Bourdeau, performer
recorded live @ UC San Diego Experimental Theatre, April 14th, 2019
Jabberwocky (2012, (rev.'16)
for speaking timpanist, ca. 7'00"
Written in 2012 as a study on characterization and text setting Jabberwocky explores a wide range of emotional and musical possibilities while creating a volatile and cartoonish atmosphere. The work draws its text from a variety of sources from literary classics to Saturday morning cartoons and stand-up comedy.
This range of influences allows the performer to embody a number of personalities, creating a fractured musical landscape, which must be navigated with the apparent ease of a conversation.
score sample
To inquire about full scores please submit a form on the Contact page
full recording: John McGovern, timpani
A Song Over Time (2015)
for snare drum + electronics, ca. 7'00"
Written for Michael Garcia in 2015, A Song Over Time is a short piece for snare drum and fixed media which explores the way similar motives can develop and coalesce over time. The work begins with timbrally oriented, non-rhythmic music, before moving through more percussive, idiomatic styles. This process is, in ways similar to the ways in which stories or songs can become cemented and more clearly defined over time. ​
full recording: Michael Garcia, percussion
To inquire about score please submit a form on the Contact page
Crosswords (2020)
for flute + percussion
Created by Teresa Díaz and Joseph Bourdeau, this piece uses crossword puzzle clues as a basis for live improvisation.
full recording: Teresa Díaz de Cossio Sánchez, flute, voice + perc.
Joseph Bourdeau, recorder, voice + perc.
recorded live @ UC San Diego Experimental Theatre; March 8th, 2020
Escalator to Nowhere (2014)
guitar solo, ca. 4'00"
It's gotta go somewhere eventually...right?
full score
full recording: Joseph Bourdeau, guitar​
recorded live @ Barness Recital Hall, University of South Florida;
2015