Color in the Rocks (2011), for fixed electronics and any acoustic ensemble
"Color in the Rocks" is an artistic recreation of the process of an observer/listener becoming progressively more acquainted with his or her subject.
The title comes from a drawing by my mother of rocks along the shore of Lake Michigan. The drawing began as a basic landscape, with what at first appeared to be monochromatic gray rocks. As she drew, however, she noticed more and more subtle colors in those rocks, which slowly began to emerge in the drawing. The result was not at all realistic, but rather showed all those colors she saw - colors that were really there, but had been greatly exaggerated through artistic license.
This composition, then, attempts that same concept sonically: the more one listens to cars passing, the more pitch and even tonal relations will emerge from an otherwise "unmusical" sound source. What begins as raw, unaltered recordings are gradually processed and filtered until the result is an exaggerated, unrealistic artistic recreation of the original sounds.
The idea is that the more you listen to the sounds of cars (look at the rocks), the more pitch (color) you hear (see) in them.
-A.K. 12/5/2011
The title comes from a drawing by my mother of rocks along the shore of Lake Michigan. The drawing began as a basic landscape, with what at first appeared to be monochromatic gray rocks. As she drew, however, she noticed more and more subtle colors in those rocks, which slowly began to emerge in the drawing. The result was not at all realistic, but rather showed all those colors she saw - colors that were really there, but had been greatly exaggerated through artistic license.
This composition, then, attempts that same concept sonically: the more one listens to cars passing, the more pitch and even tonal relations will emerge from an otherwise "unmusical" sound source. What begins as raw, unaltered recordings are gradually processed and filtered until the result is an exaggerated, unrealistic artistic recreation of the original sounds.
The idea is that the more you listen to the sounds of cars (look at the rocks), the more pitch (color) you hear (see) in them.
-A.K. 12/5/2011
Rebekah Butler, violin; Matt Primm, viola; Will Huebler, cello;
Evan Runyon, double bass; Brian Simalchik, melodica;
Aaron Krerowicz and Jeff Smith, trombone
Evan Runyon, double bass; Brian Simalchik, melodica;
Aaron Krerowicz and Jeff Smith, trombone
