Canned (2018)

Program Notes:

Canned is a piece which was inspired by my time at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art during the 2016 Bang on a Can Summer Festival. The clock tower at the complex seemed to toll at random times and with repetitions that did not correspond to the hours they were supposed to represent. Additionally, the bell tolling seemed to be a distorted recording of a bell or perhaps an electronic imitation of one. The days at MASS MoCA where long and intense – the bizarre-sounding, random bell tolls became disorientating points of reference that perforated the days with comically false information.

Initially, the piano takes on the role of an actual bell while the trombone takes on the characteristics of the imitation bell. These roles are switched through the course of the piece as the trombone’s tone becomes less abstracted and more pure while the piano’s tone becomes less pure and more abstracted. Short “interludes” perforate this process representing the disorienting effect of the tolling bells.

With special thanks to Bruce Vieweg, Alex van Duuren, Monica Stensland, and Kieran Welch for their generous support of this collaborative effort.