SPLICE Institute 2022 Participant Concert 3 Program
Saturday July 2, 2022
4:00pm EDT
Multimedia Room, Western Michigan University
Livestream simulcast on SPLICE YouTube (unique link)
download program pdf (does not include notes/bios)
Shuyu Lin: When Dandelion Whistles (2022)
Savannah Gentry, flute
David Muller: In a Cathedral of Locusts (2022)
Thomas Rodriguez, clarinet
Qiujiang Levi Lu: Untitled Intimacy (2022)
Qiujiang Levi Lu, voice
Tanner Jones: puncture spills and viscera scrapes (2022)
Stephen Marotto, cello
Victoria R. Romano: Elephant House (2022)
Mickie Wadsworth, voice
James Tabata: Comforts (2022)
James Tabata, voice and taisho-koto
Xuesi Xu: Damaged Black Box (2022)
Stephen Marotto, cello
Badie Khaleghian: before I became aware of this moving of life (2022)
Wilson Poffenberger, saxophone
Animals and Synthesizers Workshop Participants :
Animals and Synthesizers Selections: Titles and Composers TBA (2022)
Notes
Shuyu Lin: When Dandelion WhistlesThe main inspiration is from the imagination of flying dandelion seeds. The sound played by flute is the main dandelion, triggering the electronic music, which is the flying dandelion seeds. The electronic music also includes two important elements: flipping paper and rain sound, metaphorizing the dandelion as not from the real world but a rainy scene in a book of tales.
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David Muller: In a Cathedral of Locusts
In a Cathedral of Locusts follows the cycle of cicadas and locusts, burrowing and waiting for years until they suddenly burst to life in huge swarms. My attempt was to create a sense of new life at the end of the piece, with the memory of meditation coming shortly thereafter, reflecting on the period of growth necessary to become a new person.
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Qiujiang Levi Lu: Untitled Intimacy
Untitled Intimacy is an improvised performance for voice and live electronics using Max/MSP and Twitch. This piece considers the value of the audio streaming system and the concept of sound localization.
Before the performance, audiences are advised to scan the QR code using their mobile devices to join the streaming room on Twitch, which is a popular A/V streaming software. No additional software installation is required, the QR code directs to the webpage instead of the software. During the performance, the audio plays back from the audience’s devices and the surround speakers. The audiences are encouraged to turn up the volume on their mobile devices. Please refresh the window if the rooms are not connected as the performer sets up before the performance.
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Victoria R. Romano Elephant House
This piece honors the historical house owned by “gothic nonsense” artist Edward Gorey (1925-2000), who inspired a generation of playful-macabre artists, among them Tim Burton, Neil Gaiman, and Lemony Snicket, with his morbid limericks and grotesque illustrations. Once his halcyon days as a young artist in New York City drew to a close, Gorey retired to Cape Cod and poured his soul into refurbishing a dilapidated house, where he lived and entertained guests for twenty years thereafter.
Very few musical epilogues exist for queer individuals which allow them to grow old and live fulfilling lives, and especially outside of the normative conception of what that means (namely, marriage and family). Gorey is often identified as vaguely queer; many biographers mischaracterize him as a flamboyant gay man, whereas those closest to him insist that he was, in fact, neither gay nor a man. Rather, he was a fabulous asexual, who never married, and yet had a splendid time into his older adult life. I wanted to bring forward and celebrate this often-overlooked arc in a queer artist’s narrative, savoring the longevity and quality of life that all queer folks deserve to hear represented.
I collected as many details about Gorey's domestic life as I could from biographies as well as an anthology of historical homes in Eastern Massachusetts. I even perused his own personal library, which is in Special Collections at San Diego State University. Special thanks to curator Linda Salem.
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James Tabata: Comforts
Comforts reflects on the need for, desire, and danger of complacency. In fear of failure and going against "natures design," one can find themselves going down the wrong path. Even worse, they are stuck circling the crossroad.
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Animals and Synthesizers Selections: Titles and Composers TBA
A selection of clips from the Animals and Synthesizers Workshop participants.
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