PROGRAM NOTES

Omnivorous Furniture exists at the junction between a world of morphing electronic beats and the rich and varied textures of a chamber orchestra. The work is organized around several “omnivorous moments,” when material previously perceived as background — the wallpaper or “furniture” surrounding the foreground material — ultimately consumes the entire texture. The fleeting pentatonic tune that opens the work, for example, is chased by a variety of staccato, pointillistic gestures that point the listener’s attention away from any sustained notes. But these sustained notes in the orchestra begin to fuse together rapidly in the moments preceding the first climax, creating a sonic wall which shatters the beats that have dominated the first quarter of the piece.

The orchestral interlude that then ensues is a feature that reappears with greater significance. Indeed, the form of the work is quite simple: progressively longer orchestral interludes interrupt progressively shorter beat sections. Superimposed over this is the gradual elongation of the opening motive, from its bouncy and capricious first moments to its long, lyrical flowering in the work’s core.

This melody, having reached its expressive peak during the orchestra’s longest escape from the electronica beats, then begins to dissolve. Pulled lower and lower by sliding pitch, it collapses into the work’s final ambient space in a kind of chemical meltdown of pitch and texture. Flowering imperceptibly from this surreal ambient landscape, a reincarnation of the work’s opening material swiftly brings us to the end.

PERFORMANCE NOTES

All that is needed is a laptop, two speakers, placed on the left and right sides of the stage, and a few onstage monitors. Included with the rental of the materials is a download link for a simple software sampler that triggers the sounds from the laptop (an additional percussionist or an assistant conductor simply hits laptop keys at rehearsal numbers). The electronic component is simple, inexpensive, and designed to work within a compressed orchestral rehearsal period, and a ‘live’ version of the electronic part can be realized when the composer is present.