Aeropittura (2017) for flute, viola, violoncello, and piano
8’
Winner of the 2018 Earplay Donald Aird Composers Competition; Honorable Mention, 2020 Red Note Composition Competition at Illinois State University; Honorable Mention, 2018 Lake George Music Festival Composition Competition.
In 2014 I attended an exhibition of Italian Futurist art at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. I was particularly inspired by the Aeropittura, or "aeropainting", on display. In the spirit of the Futurists’ celebration of technology, these paintings used the excitement and perspectives offered by powered flight as new subject matter for their works. When composing this work, I used one of the many manifestos churned out by the Futurists as a guide, but one for poetry: the Manifesto dell’Aeropoesia of Futurist founder F.T. Marinetti. In it, he lists 22 qualities that a successful "aeropoem" should have, of which I used several. It should be detached, light, and celestial; evoke clouds, fog, and other atmospheric phenomena; evoke the propeller's rotation and the throb of the motor; and generate surprise.