GLiTCH
|
for Log Drums and Electronics (2021)
with optional synchronized DMX lighting Written for Casey Cangelosi Duration: 8 minutes |
Contact Eric if you are interested in
purchasing performance materials. |
Performance by Casey Cangelosi
Sample Pages
Program Note
GLiTCH is a piece about disruptions and tension. It begins with stable, consonant, and welcoming gestures, but these are gradually corrupted and interrupted by “glitches” that undermine the listener’s sense of stability and comfort. Rhythmic manipulation provides the primary means for disruption, but considerable tension also arises between harmonic consonance and dissonance as well as timbral relaxation and abrasiveness. The piece unfolds like a battle between the two opposing forces of stability and instability.
GLiTCH develops across six sections that are roughly palindromic in their sequence. The first section introduces the piece’s principal gestures, which then gradually become corrupted by increasingly unpredictable rhythmic glitches that truncate or prolong each gesture. Section two introduces a new groove driven by a steady bass ostinato, but this too is soon disrupted by a new, more dramatic glitch as a series of uneven mixed meter changes create interruptive counterpoint to the new groove. The tension arising from these two combative forces peaks in the third section, where the rhythmic and harmonic instability is cranked to the max in a forceful and dizzying array of highly varied syncopated gestures.
After the third section eventually collapses under the weight of its extreme tension, the fourth section treats us to respite and stability as the music gently coasts over a series of slowly shifting consonant harmonies that revisit and amplify the stability of the opening section. This stability is short lived though, as the fifth section bursts in with another surge of disruptive syncopations and gives way to the reappearance of the second section’s ostinato groove. The groove again battles its way through mixed meter interruptions to a climactic sixth and final section that revisits, elevates, and celebrates the piece’s opening gestures, but even this celebration can’t quite shake the glitches that have intruded from the very beginning.
The electronic accompaniment for GLiTCH is created from samples of hammered dulcimer, log drums, and piano strings played with sticks. The hammered dulcimer and log drum samples are also processed with a granular synthesizer to create the synthetic pulsating and rhythmic sounds that complement the acoustic samples at the forefront of the music’s texture.
GLiTCH develops across six sections that are roughly palindromic in their sequence. The first section introduces the piece’s principal gestures, which then gradually become corrupted by increasingly unpredictable rhythmic glitches that truncate or prolong each gesture. Section two introduces a new groove driven by a steady bass ostinato, but this too is soon disrupted by a new, more dramatic glitch as a series of uneven mixed meter changes create interruptive counterpoint to the new groove. The tension arising from these two combative forces peaks in the third section, where the rhythmic and harmonic instability is cranked to the max in a forceful and dizzying array of highly varied syncopated gestures.
After the third section eventually collapses under the weight of its extreme tension, the fourth section treats us to respite and stability as the music gently coasts over a series of slowly shifting consonant harmonies that revisit and amplify the stability of the opening section. This stability is short lived though, as the fifth section bursts in with another surge of disruptive syncopations and gives way to the reappearance of the second section’s ostinato groove. The groove again battles its way through mixed meter interruptions to a climactic sixth and final section that revisits, elevates, and celebrates the piece’s opening gestures, but even this celebration can’t quite shake the glitches that have intruded from the very beginning.
The electronic accompaniment for GLiTCH is created from samples of hammered dulcimer, log drums, and piano strings played with sticks. The hammered dulcimer and log drum samples are also processed with a granular synthesizer to create the synthetic pulsating and rhythmic sounds that complement the acoustic samples at the forefront of the music’s texture.