for Bassoon and Resonant Snare Drums, 2022 - open duration

for Cassandra Roache

This piece is almost completely improvised by the performer, save for an instruction and some poetry for the performer to interpret. The goal for this piece was to create an physical object that is compelling to interact with, and a musical structure that is interesting enough to improvise within; while still maintaining the imagery (the sound of the beach at night) that inspired me to write this piece. The lone instruction for this piece is “Complete a revolution around the cycle for every year that you have lived, and then one more, for now.” The cycle it refers to is the score, which is made up of five concentric rings, surrounded by poetry that describe how one may complete a revolution (in the non-political sense). The electronics for this piece use surface transducers, which are a type of speaker, placed on two snare drums to create the illusion of a wave machine.