(dis)Integrations

for cello and piano (2004)
with computer sound
duration is c. 13′

(dis)Integrations was commissioned by the Kulturboro der Stadt, Augsburg for the Augsburg Mozart Festival. The premiere was given by Carsten Schmidt and Jim Wilson as part of this festival in Germany. The piece is based on a short sketch by Mozart for keyboard and cello, his only such composition. In (dis)Integrations this fragment from the past is fractured and projected towards micro and macro temporal levels.  All of the electronic material was generated from an audio recording of the Mozart fragment played by Jim and Carsten. The harmonic system and resulting melody in the piece was generated by filtering Mozart’s material through a spectral harmonic resonance, revealing an interesting substructure to the work.

Conceptually, the piece explores how fragments of past time can influence the present. The reconstructed Mozart fragment is disintegrated into shards and micro-audible bits even as it is expanded into form and a tonal substructure.  The (dis)Integration concept plays out in the instrumentation as well; the piano (a hammered string instrument) and the cello (a bowed string instrument) are merged, each instrument taking on the articulatory properties of the other in the orchestration and electroacoustics.

 score excerpt