Echeia (2016)
Instrumentation: String Quartet
Electronics: Yes
Duration: 20'
Commissioned by the Südwestrundfunk (SWR) for the Donaueschinger Musiktage 2016 and the Calder Quartet. Composed in residence at Camargo Foundation.
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NOTES: Echeia (for string quartet and live filtering) is inspired by the resonances of spaces, from amphora to amphitheaters, and is realized by the musicians through the mutual assistance of modern technology and ancient acoustic practices. The expressive use of acoustic space is an essential element of my music, and I have long been fascinated by the use of Helmholtz resonators to alter room acoustics. In his treatise "De architectura", the Roman architect Vitruvius describes in detail the Greek technique of placing specifically tuned bronze vessels amongst the audience in amphitheaters to enhance the fundamental and overtones of the voice. A related practice flourished in European churches of the medieval period in which clay pots were installed in the vaults and walls to attenuate the reverberation of certain frequencies. Recent scholarship informed my own explorations of vase acoustics and the exaggerated transference of those characteristics to the amplification and diffusion of instruments. I have attempted to re-imagine the effect of resonant amphora for an age in which electronic amplification and the projection of a sound away from its source are taken for granted. Beginning with the premise that the instruments and the room are related resonant vessels, the instruments extend this potential beyond the limits of their volume of air through the use of virtual resonators made from a combination of microphones, filters, and monitors. Bowing on the wooden bouts produces white noise that is gradually filtered to reveal pitch material that is explored later when bowing the strings, much in the way that a seashell focuses ambient noise toward its resonant frequencies. These ersatz resonators later spatialize the quartet by filtering frequencies and spectra in discrete channels through an array of speakers placed among the audience. This expands the capacity of the performers to play the room, as an extension of their instruments, and eventually to tune to it according to the ratios of the Greek "Perfect Immutable System". The sound sources are arranged based on principles from Vitruvius to physically distribute the harmonic structure throughout the sphere of the audience. Approximately 20 minutes in duration, the string quartet was commissioned by the Donaueschingen Musiktage for the Calder Quartet, for premiere in October, 2016, and was composed during a fellowship at the Camargo Foundation.