violin and electronics
7’00”
composed 2003
premiered October 23, 2003, by David Johnson (Bloomington, Indiana)
Composer’s Note
Lamentations might strike one as an unusual title for a work that is in part electronic, since a computer cannot feel emotion. It cannot show remorse, or regret. The lament falls to the live performer in this work—the violinist. One might think that the violinist would be better off lamenting in the warmer context of the string quartet, or perhaps better yet solo, undisturbed by all. After all, the violinist is likely to find no comfort from its electronic environment.
This sense of isolation is the very thing that the violinist is lamenting. The performer exists in organic solitude, enveloped by electronic sound. It is analogous to the current state of our world, where the individual voice is so easily lost admidst the sea of information available to us.
The tape part of Lamentations was created mostly through the electronic manipulation of recorded violin sounds. Many thanks to Michael Evans for lending his violin skills for recording and to David Johnson for premiering the work.