Composer

"Composing emerged naturally for me as an outgrowth of developing a personal improvising language. Following that trajectory, I often hybridize my scores, incorporating improvising strategies within a broader notated context. I'm drawn aesthetically to the work of an older generation of visual artists (Polke, LeWitt, Smithson, Acconci), making spiritual and conceptual connections. Creative experiments are most often tested by my own ensemble projects (TILT Brass, 7X7 Trombone Band, Ne(x)tworks). In addition, I've received commissions from Roulette/Jerome Foundation, choreographer Yoshiko Chuma, Flexible Orchestra, and Composers Concordance/B3+ Brass Trio." cjm

Works

TILT Brass

Trombone Music

  • Bagatelle No.1

    Bagatelle No.1

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    trombone duo (not yet performed)

    Written in Boston, ca. 1998
  • Elements (for Tenney)

    Elements (for Tenney)

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    10 tenor trombone, 1 bass trb, Bflat clarinet, Eflat alto clarinet, violin, perc.

    Premiered by Flexible Orchestra, April 28th, 2006 at St. Peter's Church, NYC

    Commissioned by Downtown Ensemble/Flexible Orchestra



    Program Note (from April 2006 premiere):
    
Last May, I participated in a series of events focusing on James Tenney's music. We played and listened to a number of pieces from his remarkably wide ranging output, all of which had a profound impact on my musical thinking. Since that time, I've written a number of pieces that incorporate concepts absorbed from Tenney's work, albeit viewed through my perceptual lens. After recently (and finally) reading his seminal book Meta Hodos, which solidified some thinking I'd been doing on my own, I decided to thank him (as he's done for so many colleagues) with the piece on tonight's program. Also, meeting and playing with Daniel Goode during those May '05 performances played a key role in my involvement with the Flexible Orchestra, so honoring Tenney seemed appropriate.

    In Elements (for Tenney), a quintet of trombonists is "installed" outside the space prior to the performance. In varying locations, they execute material culled from my own recent compositions (fragments and complete "cells"), as well as miniature performances of Tenney's Swell Piece (for Alison Knowles).  Inside, obfuscated musical activity is taking place; nearly unheard sounds, yet the musicians exert physical and artistic energy in their creation. The quintessential "theme" introduces the present. Trombone duo and quartet iterations accrue as a sextet of players conjoin. The quintet enters (both physically and sonically) with revolving glissandi, insinuating its sound in alterity. The theme is exploded in degrees as the quintet traverses the perimeter, convolving further with the sextet's sonority. A group of "non-trombonists" appears gradually, while a soloist reaches from behind. Other's join, filling the space with small pieces of the harmonic puzzle.
     
    A new, vigorous rhythmic module (repetitive yet circular, harmonically elusive), and the full ensemble is set into motion. Several vertical, pyramidical iterations occur, sculptural manifestations freezing the pitch environment momentarily. Isomorphism sublimates into improvisation, setting up a layered metamorphic exploration of the work's past, present and future. Tenney's "available pitches" ultimately reassign our listening attention with glacial richness, pushing aside all that preceded them. The glorious gestalt embodied in the sound of trombones in consort.
  • Monuments

    Monuments

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    trombone and piano Incidental music for Monuments, a film by Redmond Entwistle.

    Premiere screening at Art In General, Jan. 21st, 2010
  • Phono-Markers: E-set No. 1 - CJM

    Phono-Markers: E-set No. 1 - CJM

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    E-set No. 1 is the initial piece from Phono-Markers, a folio of works for solo trombone. Like other recent works, Phono-Markers use cyclic data patterning to generate crystallographic forms. Phono-Markers are part of my on-going Smithson Project, a body of material for various sonic media inspired by the work, writings, and inspirations of visual artist Robert Smithson.
  • stuplimity No. 1

    stuplimity No. 1

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    trombone septet

    Premiered by 7X7 Trombone Band at City Center, Oct. 7th, 2005
    Commissioned by choreographer Yoshiko Chuma and the School of Hard Knocks

    Additional Performances:
    2005 River To River Festival (earlier version), June 2 & 3, 2005
    The Stone, NYC, June 1, 2007
  • stuplimity no.2 (music for Sundown)

    stuplimity no.2 (music for Sundown)

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    folio score for 5 or more trombones

    Premiered by 7X7 Trombone Band at Issue Project Room, July 29 & 30, 2006.

    Commissioned by Yoshiko Chuma, supported by Live Music for DanceAward.
  • stuplimity no.3

    stuplimity no.3

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    for solo trombone and live-electronics
    Premiered by the composer, Brooklyn Lyceum, March 21, 2007, during the 2007 MATA Festival

    Additional Performances:
    iQuit Music Series, Rogue Buddha Gallery, Minneapolis, May 17, 2007

    Program Note (from premiere):
    The third piece in my stuplimity series continues a process of exploring temporal and sonic perception, with the idiomatic and timbral qualities of trombone as the medium. no. 1 is for septet, no. 2 is for five or more (there is also a trio version of no.1). This solo iteration furthers the downward scaling process, but the addition of live-electronics (via MAX/MSP) creates a sort of parallel upscaling of sonic probabilities.

    I came across the title, a neologism combining stupefy and sublime, while reading an essay on Sol LeWitt's multiple media and format series Variations of Incomplete Open Cubes. Sianne Ngai, the literary theorist who coined the term, offers a definition: "...in experiencing the sublime one confronts the infinite and elemental; in stuplimity, one confronts the machine or system, the taxonomy or vast combinatory, of which one is a part." At the time, I was in the process of creating stuplimity no.1 for a collaboration with choreographer Yoshiko Chuma, who also commissioned no.2. Chuma utilizes several 7x7 foot metal-frame cubes in her work, and I was looking to LeWitt for some intertextual inspiration. The conceptual thread I'm following is heavily influenced by Variations: textural and thematic material recurs throughout, but in varying degrees of transformation and temporality. This performance is dedicated to Leroy Jenkins.

Mixed Ensembles

  • Conversions

    Conversions

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    improvising stratetgy for 2 or more performers
    for Ne(x)tworks

    Premiered on May 19th, 2005, ISSUE Project Room

    Additional Performances:
    Roulette Intermedium, December 8, 2006

    Program Note:
    Inspired by a work of Vito Acconci's from 1971, Conversions (2005) explores basic sonic transformation using simplified, binary relationships. While any musical parameter could theoretically be "problematized" into a binaristic transformation, only the ambiguous element of timbre has been addressed in performance. Ideally, a range of elements (duration, frequency, amplitude, etc.) could be run through the stark process of Conversions (either diachronically or synchronically). Beyond the basic unifying goal of continuous tranformation, each performance is intended to be a unique sonic environment for performer and audience alike.
  • quartet music

    quartet music

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    trumpet, French horn, bass trombone, Nord Lead synth, soundtrack

    part 1 premiered by B3+ & McIntyre, March 4, 2008, Settepani Restaurant, Harlem
    B3+ Brass Trio - David Taylor (bs trb), John Clark (hrn), and Franz Hackl (trp)
    Commissioned by Composers Concordance. 

    Premiere of complete set at ISSUE Project Room, March 28, 2009
    Josh Frank (trp), Mike Atkinson (hrn), Dave Nelson (bs trb), and composer (Nord)
  • Raster for quintet

    Raster for quintet

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    string quartet and piano
    for Ne(x)tworks

    Premiere at Chelsea Art Museum, May 3, 2008

    Additional Performances:
    (le) Poisson Rouge, April 1, 2009 (2009 MATA Festival)

    Program Note:
    Raster for quintet (2008-09) builds on conceptual aims I've been developing in my compositions for Ne(x)tworks and elsewhere. My goal in previous works has been to challenge listeners' aural memory and listening patterns by presenting thematic and rhythmic ideas in abstract contexts, and then recalling them in various guises and evolved iterations. In relation, Raster is much more direct. I've chosen fairly audible rhythmic and pitch constructs to address these earlier concerns. The players are given both precisely written and clearly delimited indeterminate tasks. Unlike much of my music, this material occurs within a pulsed environment, albeit of a constantly shifting character. Instead of removing isometric time to create a quasi-static listening space, Raster creates stasis by continually reshaping time as it occurs. I've also limited the pitch material to tightly controlled arrays ostensibly adding to the static-yet-evolving profile of the work. 
  • Sigmar [unknown source]

    Sigmar [unknown source]

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    string quartet, piano/synth, harp, glass, trumpet, trombone, electronics, multiple soundtracks
    for Ne(x)tworks

    Original version premiered at Issue Project Room, May 28, 2004
    Current version premiered at Roulette Intermedium, Dec. 8, 2006

    Program Note:

    "It is from zero, in zero, that the true movement of being begins."
    Kasimir Malevich

    Sigmar [unknown source] (2005/06) is inspired by the work of German visual artist Sigmar Polke. It utilizes several organizing principles. Based primarily in time increments, Sigmar obliquely incorporates appropriated bits of musical material (chordal statements from Stravinsky's Symphony In C, cells from Terry Riley's In C), as well as several pitch sets created for limited improvisation. Pre-recorded soundtracks are heard from various playback devices and locations throughout the space, acting as a canvas on which ensemble material is applied.
  • The Shape of Time (from Smithson Project)

    The Shape of Time (from Smithson Project)

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    The Shape of Time (from Smithson Project)
    I. synchrony
    II. vis a tergo
    III. diachrony

    string quartet, piano, voice, harp/baritone guitar, percussion and electronics

    The Shape of Time is a large ensemble work that is part of my on-going Smithson Project, a set of works for different sonic media inspired by the work, writings, and inspirations of visual artist Robert Smithson. The title is taken from Kubler's book of the same name, a work which heavily influenced Smithson. The Shape of TIme is in 3 continuous sections. 

    Premiere by Ne(x)tworks and JACK Quartet at The Kitchen, NYC
    December 16 & 17, 2011
  • VOIDS

    VOIDS

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    trumpet, trombone, and soundtrack (stereo)

    Premiered by Ne(x)tworks, June 6th, 2003 Chelsea Art Museum
    Brian McWhorter - trumpet, CJM - trombone

    Additional Performances:
    ISSUE Project Room, Oct. 12, 2006 (Peter Evans - trumpet)
    Roulette, December 8, 2006 (Nate Wooley - trumpet)

    Program Note:

    VOIDS (2003) 
    I. in 0
    
II. ²
    
III. L

    IV. mkg

    VOIDS (2003) is a work in four short movements for improvising trumpet and trombone duo with soundtrack. A very early piece in my compositional life, the score for VOIDS is primarily instructional. It premiered at Chelsea Art Museum in June 2003 during the creative music group Ne(x)tworks' debut concert. The work is a poetic musical response to the experience of existing on the streets of New York on 9/11/01. Each movement deals with a single physical "void": historical, forgotten, or little considered public spaces located in the constantly evolving phenomenological realm known as Manhattan Island.

Electronic & Installation

  • Alogon

    Alogon

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    Sound work (stereo & 6 channel versions) - 7:48 min.
    6-channel version premiered during 2010 MATA Festival at (le) Poisson Rouge's Gallery Bar, April 20, 2010

    Conceived originally for a six discreet channel playback, Alogon is a structuralist work for pure synthesizer tones. It's an attempt at a formal transliteration of visual artist Robert Smithson's work of the same title from 1966.
  • Kalimpong Khor

    Kalimpong Khor

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    Sound work (stereo & 6 channel versions) - 14:30 min.
    6-channel version premiered during 2010 MATA Festival at (le) Poisson Rouge's Gallery Bar, April 21, 2010

    Kalimpong Khor is a work of musique concrete created primarily using field recordings made in Kalimpong, West Bengal, India, including at Zang Dhok Palri Phodang, a Tibetan Buddhist Temple. Also heard are sounds made with a Nord Lead 2 synth.
  • silOM

    silOM

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    sound work (stereo, 8 & 16 channel versions), 20 - 40 minutes
    16-channel version premiered at ISSUE Project Room, Oct. 12, 2006

    Additional Presentations:
    Brooklyn Lyceum, March 31 - April 4, 2008 (2008 MATA Festival)

    silOM uses field recordings made in and around ISSUE Project Room’s Carroll Street silo space on the Gowanus Canal, creating a non-linear, quasi-narrative sound world that depicts the arrival, preparation, and presentation of a concert at this unusual location.

    More info on this project ⇒
  • Surfaces of Constant Time

    Surfaces of Constant Time

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    stereo soundtrack for digital video, 8:22 min.
    Video by José Alvarez

    Premiered at Ratio3 Gallery, San Francisco, Jan. 8, 2010

    Images 1 & 2 - Stills from Alvarez video
    Images 3 & 4 - Installation views from Ratio3 Gallery

     

Band Projects