Kunikluk

for piccolo, bass clarinet, violin, cello, piano and percussion (1999)
with noise generators and optional video
duration is 10′

Kunikluk for ensemble, noise generators and video takes its title from an Inupiat Eskimo word meaning “a horizon line obscured by blowing snow and ice”. The musical form and texture follow the the northern Alaskan landscape shown in the film. The tundra and permafrost-covered environment above the Arctic Circle is flat and stark. Snow blowing across it creates a thin granular mist obscuring the line of the horizon. Temperature and light fluctuations are extreme. Kunikluk explores this ecological texture as a musical system. Microlevel timbral complexity is juxtaposed with slowly evolving formal trajectories, polarizing the musical material on the two extremes and minimizing mid-level gestural motion. A noise generator part plays during the performance and the musicians play physical noise instruments such as sand blocks and vocalizations.

video still 

score excerpt