These past 13 months have been difficult, to say the least, and have reaffirmed more than ever that music is a social activity best experienced in a room with fellow human beings. However, these hardships have created new opportunities for collaboration across great distances and I am grateful for the many remote projects I have been able to realize over the past year.
Sanguine is a new solo I wrote for Los Angeles-based cellist Ashley Walters through the nief-norf 1:1 program. Though we weren’t able to gather in-person in Tennessee last summer, Ashley and I workshopped Sanguine over a series of Zoom rehearsals last fall and we are excited to present it to you on April 9 at 6 p.m. central time. The live-stream premiere can be viewed above or on the nief-norf YouTube page. Say hello in the chat when you tune in!
Sanguine is written in just intonation and uses pitches from the natural harmonic series to create pure sonorities and unexpected microtonal dissonances. It is inspired by fiddling and folk idioms as well as the music of just-intonation pioneers like Ben Johnston and James Tenney. At its core, Sanguine embraces the humanity and embodiment that is central to music-making, even when that requires Zoom rehearsals and great distances. Like the blood in our veins, music cannot exist without bodies to play and ears to hear, and Sanguine celebrates this physicality.
The program also features new works by my other nief-norf composition fellows Azariah Felton, Huijuan Ling, Alex Shanafelt, and Jimmy Levi.
Zoom rehearsal: Not as fun as the real thing, but it works in a pinch.
