I will feature some of my musical compositions here in a sort of “anthropological” context. This page uses the title of my piece “Torrid Bloom” because, for a while, it will be the only piece “studied” here. I’ll add more works later and probably change the page’s title to “Compositions” or something equally rapturous.
Torrid Bloom has been performed several times – by amateurs, semi- professionals, professionals, and dance companies (so far, always with prerecorded soundtrack).
This is Terri Reardon at the 1997 Chicago “Around the Coyote” as part of a performance by her own Kinetic Delta Cor dance troupe. Her realization is the only documented one which follows my own performance concept and fumbling and sketchy “choreography.” As the original 1997 soundtrack on this video is unlistenable, this video uses my archived studio audio master, thus the inevitable sync problems.
A chamber orchestra score is available. Performance difficulty is intermediate, with two flashy glockenspiel parts (the score requires the two glocks and vibraphone to be physically separated on stage for spatial effects). The text is spoken by the dancer, and was inspired by four poems from “The Policeman’s Beard is Half-Constructed” (Warner Books, used by permission from William Chamberlain).
I began making music in 1992, and by the mid 90s I became interested in making live performances with my group, Ensemble Mobius Midicus, that prominently featured the voice, both in singing (with or without words) and in narration. These were both free and structured improvs, as well as some through-composed works using graphic and traditional notation. A few of these pieces featured both a narrator and vocalist, and these were among my fondest memories with that group. Performers usually included Carol Genetti (vocals) and Terri Reardon (narrator), with my friend and group co-founder, Jeremy Ruthrauff.
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