Distillations

for Electric Guitar-Computer-Amplifier

Notes from the composer

In 2004, I composed a work called Meta-Programming and the Imprint Theory.
It was, in many ways, a return to an earlier style of composing for me, a style driven by extra-musical content and concepts. MPIT followed a narrative involving the experience of an initiatory path, and its relation to the many cyclic processes we experience in life. It focused on several archetypal symbols, and I developed a system of correlations between certain harmonic formulae, melodic gestures, sounds/timbres and these archetypal symbols. In MPIT, this correlation of symbolism was treated very systematically.

When I had finished composing MPIT, I found that I was not quite through with the system I had developed, and I decided that explore it further. The first result was a triptych of concert pieces that explored different aspects of the system: Distillations for electric guitar and computer, Local Group vs. The Virgo Supercluster for orchestra, and Song & Dance for Alto Saxophone and Piano.

Distillations presents elements of the MPIT narrative, but in a non-linear, montage fashion characteristic of a dream. It uses much of the same musical material, but it is less rigorously systematic in its approach.

In 2006, Distillations became the core of my solo guitar-computer-amplifier performance
piece called The Distillations Set.

Performance History

Premiered April 12, 2005. University of Denver faculty recital.

Brandon Vaccaro, guitar.

October 12, 2005.
Pendulum New Music Series

Brandon Vaccaro, guitar.

September 10, 2006.
Creative Music Works’ “Up Close and Avant” Series.

Brandon Vaccaro, guitar.

June 24, 2007.
Soundscapes Presented by Mystery Cabal series.

Brandon Vaccaro, guitar.