(semi)concerto
for violin and electronics
for Kate Dreyfuss

program note:

(semi)concerto is an expression of recycling, absurdity, lineage, and accessibility. As a way of creating a new electronic orchestra, I borrowed (or maybe, stole) recordings of Beethoven’s Symphony no. 8 and Rossini’s Guillaume Tell. These recordings are both open source, using the Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 license, allowing the material to be reworked and reused. My own work carries the same license, allowing others to rework and reuse (semi)concerto, creating a kind of accessible, open source creative scholarship.

This work moves at times into absurdity. I found it hard to avoid this, partly because of the singular source of the electronics. The orchestral recordings were not malleable sources, they resisted subtle changes to their material, so I often would turn to breaking, fragmenting, stretching, or melting the material in more drastic ways to create a new orchestral accompaniment from the old recordings.

This steering into the absurd is influenced by the Danish composer Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, who was no stranger to absurdity in his own work, writing for car horns and cello, or quoting melon-hawking street vendors yelling “shut up” in a choral composition. Studying Gudmundsen-Holmgreen’s work showed me a path to embracing absurdity, a path that he in turn found through Beckett’s plays.

The violinist embraces the mood of the moment, taking things at face value without wavering. When the work skirts into those absurd moments, the performer joins in, contributing to the silliness of the moment without breaking character.

Above all, this is an expression of not taking yourself too seriously.