Teil I: Konstruktion (dedicated to John Cage) During the first movement the saxophonist and flutist assemble their instruments, and use parts of their instruments not normally used for sound production. The parts are continually live processed by the computer. The construction enables the musicians to perform the Tintinnabulation, and the Permutation.

discreet and discrete is a structured improvisation for flute, saxophone, and laptop. The instrumentalists are given material to explore through different sections of the piece, while the laptopist uses their sounds as source material to develop the overall contour of the work. It is intended to serve as a cause for musicians to join in creating a new performance each time it is played.

Commissioned by DuoInteraktiv, the genesis of A Thread Unwound began as an attempt to compose a partner piece to an earlier composition entitled Filament for flute and five crystal glasses. In A Thread Unwound, the five crystal glasses are replaced by an instrument created in Max/MSP that can produce a multitude of crystal glass pitches and sounds all triggered by a computer musician. Inspired by the improvisational scores of Pauline Oliveros, this piece is a structured improvisation where the acoustic and electronic instruments move through a variety of relational states.

I was listening to a radio program the other day. James Carville and Mary Matalin, a married couple who are both political consultants, were the guests. They started dating while trying to defeat each other professionally during the general election of 92′ (Carville worked for Clinton, Matalin for Bush) and got married in the Fall of ’93. The two have worked on opposite sides of the aisle for decades while supporting each other in marriage and raising two kids. Since I’m used to thinking of politics as an ongoing cynical and mean-spirited game their obvious warmth, good humor and love for one another during this interview was startling. This piece begins with the jagged, aggressive presentation of four phrases. At first both instruments present this material as a driving stream of independent fragments – moments of simultaneity, congruence or consonance emerge, but only briefly. After this the two instruments continually re-approach these phrases in new ways across a series of structural panels. There is a trajectory created by these shifts, in which the two instruments gradually converge rhythmically and harmonically into riff-like articulations of the four phrases in both parts. Within this developing trajectory there are two solos (flute, then sax) that introduce new “individualistic” material, unrelated to the four initial phrases. This material is then integrated into the developing trajectory of the “group” material, creating new textures that are sometimes combative and sometimes supportive. These textures and the changes they undergo mirror the willingness of couples in mature relationships to share a life, which is difficult and complex, and the act of attempting democracy which also is. Both are worth the attempt.