Compositions:
Chronological | By Instrumentation
Thingvellir
for solo trumpet with piano resonance
Performed by Chris Carrillo
Thingvellir is very old piece of mine - composed as an undergrad! Well, what the hell, why not. Definitely not reflective of my current sound, but it would definitely be weird if it STILL was... This was the initial inspiration for the ElectroMagnetically-Prepared Piano though. So I suppose if that thing is important at all, this is kind of a historical document? (at the risk of aggrandizement...) Anyway, here are the original program notes:
Though Thingvellir is not strictly speaking an electroacoustic composition, it does involve a rather unusual amplification setup. The solo trumpet is played into a microphone, which feeds a speaker placed under the soundboard of a grand piano. The piano itself is amplified, and the damper pedal remains down throughout the piece. Thus, notes played on the trumpet cause the piano strings corresponding to the fundamental as well as its overtones to ring sympathetically. This process, used mostly in the first half of the piece, is intended to create a sense of distance and open space. In the second half of the piece this space collapses into a tense dry rhythmic figure.
Performed by Chris Carillo