Cosmographia (2018) for chamber ensemble
(fl/cl/2perc/harp/vc/cb)
10’
Winner of the 2019 League of Composers/ISCM Steven R. Gerber Composition Prize
Performed by Ensemble Dal Niente, 1 November 2018, Davis, CA.
Cond. by Christian Baldini.
My initial sketches for this work meditated on the idea of musical "maps" in various forms, such as mapping characteristics of one melody or harmony onto another. This led to experiments with what I thought of as "navigational performance maps." Since the piece was initially intended to be performed without a conductor, separate players would take turns leading the rest of the group forward as the work progressed, coloring the journey with their own idiosyncrasies. I tried (and mostly failed) to avoid recapitulation in the work; i.e., instead of an A-B-A, form, to instead use A-B-C-D-E- (and on), so that it ends in a different place than it began. The title comes from Martin Waldseemüller's 1507 map Universalis Cosmographia.
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