Still Life =
crystalline fractal music comes alive with song
for Soprano, Clarinets, and Drum Set
Still life (2023) Program Notes
Still Life, commissioned for the 2023 Faculty Forum at the Walden School Young Musicians Program, is built on a special number sequence I found on the brilliant webpage The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences. I anchored the music's rhythm, and thus phrase structure, to a fractal number sequence, forming unexpected, yet repetitive, grooves meant to reflect the complex, yet repetitive, patterns found in nature. Inspired by TAK Ensemble’s soprano Charlotte Mundy, who expressed interest in exploring vowels, I mapped timbre to the number sequence as well. The piece’s use of vocals stretches the concept of folk music as a human reflection on nature. Meanwhile, the fractal sequence provides a crystalline non-human form from which human life can breathe.
TAK Ensemble: Charlotte Mundy, Voice; Madison Greenstone, Clarinets; Ellery Trafford, Drum Set
Fractal Music
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When under a time crunch, I turn to the same number fractal, a beautiful creation of shifting proportions and repetitions. Each sequence of numbers becomes the building block for the next larger sequence, which becomes a building block for the next larger sequence. A cascade of progressively longer and more repetitive phrases results.
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I don’t believe in mapping math to music most of the time. Good math does not equal good music every time; however, I am very interested in finding the few mathematical concepts that can be heard. The key is mapping the numbers to the right elements of the music. In Still Life, I connected timbre (drum and vocal vowels) as well as rhythm (duration in eighth notes) to the number sequence.
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I chose this unusual ensemble in order to create significant timbral contrast so when everyone plays the same fractal-based sequence, three voices are heard, not one.