dtoub: Recent Episodes
dtoub
I'm a gynecologist and minimalist composer who gives away his music at http://dbtmusic.wordpress.com/. Some folks feel I'm overcharging them.
six is a purely focused music (minimalist) work for six instrumentalists. In the audio recording, I used six farfisa organs, but anything that fits the largely bass range works. six came out of working with loops in Reason 10 and that morphed into the full piece. It is up to the performers how many repeats to take, but each repeat should be played at least 10-30 times before moving on to the next measure. There is one dynamic (ppp) for the entire piece. About halfway through the work, the piece essentially goes backwards (retrograde). The loops generally contain some canonical writing, and in some lines the notes are inserted out of phase and thus lack the final notes in their sequence as they are beyond the loop point. Every realization of six will be different, since not only are the number of repetitions up to the group of performers but the colors of the specific instruments (and even whether or not they are the same instruments) will change a lot of the character of the sound and overall balance.
This is a brief work from 2009 for two percussionists performing several unpitched instruments of their own choosing. Each performer is, in effect, residing in his or her own rhythmic and temporal space, as the performers are usually in a 5:7 relationship metrically.
The performance is from the premiere on 7/1/21, at Maison de Lorette, Lyon, France by Duo Minimal (Maximilien Dazas and Adrien Pineau)
"days of rage" is derived from an improvisation dating to 8/20/21. While there is no specific intention behind the work, the title is certainly meant as sociopolitical as it is not currently possible to dissociate art from the current context of the times in which it is written. There are some small links to past works, including "streams of consciousness" and "duophony. "
consonance/dissidence is the sixth work I’ve written expressly for string quartet. While it is very much pattern-based and uses some canonical techniques at times, it also includes motifs that are gnarly, rhythmically and harmonically complex, and hark back to some of the early 12-tone works I composed in the 70’s and prior to 1982. It is also the first work I’ve ever composed to include quarter tones, although this is only used in a few measures around midway through the piece. The word “dissidence” is intentionally used, rather than “dissonance.”
gendarme de la libertad is a work for speaker and piano (or for speaking pianist) and utilizes a text that I've wanted to set for many years, but was not certain of the best approach until recently.
The text for the speaker is taken from the original Spanish words, as well as from an English translation, of the speech by Dr. Ernesto Guevara (Che) before the United Nations on 12/11/64. The words are applicable beyond their original intent and historical setting; they should be spoken plainly and the specified rhythms are intended more as a guide. Sadly, Che's words are as relevant today as they were in 1964, and also just as necessary.
"¿Cómo puede constituirse en gendarme de la libertad quien asesina a sus propios hijos y los discrimina diariamente por el color de la piel, quien deja en libertad a los asesinos de los negros, los protege además, y castiga a la población negra por exigir el respeto a sus legítimos derechos de hombres libres?"
"Those who kill their own children and discriminate daily against them because of the color of their skin; those who let the murderers of Blacks remain free, protecting them, and furthermore punishing the Black population because they demand their legitimate rights as free men — how can those who do this consider themselves guardians of freedom?"
from this sentence, two segments were constructed and are used as well:
"Those who/demand their legitimate rights as free men/consider themselves guardians of freedom"
"They demand their legitimate rights as free men"
gendarme de la libertad is dedicated to the pianist Stephane Ginsburgh. The audio file consists of the piano part I performed using Reason 10 while the speaker is Timothy A. Cronin. The words do not have to be recited strictly to the specified rhythm, but as mentioned, the rhythm serves as a guide. The intent is not for the words to be dramatized or sung (or declaimed via sprechstimme) but rather recited as in normal speech. The words themselves convey their meaning and do not need additional interpretation.