Wednesday, June 29, 2022

As A Post-Conceptual Composer...



As a post-conceptual composer I have no control over the way a listener will perceive my work. 

Anything that calls attention to and interests the listener lends understanding to the composition or at least positions it in a paradoxical situation (such as logic vs. illogic). Some of my ideas are logical in conception and realization. Some emphasize the physical aspects of the listener engendering a (potentially false) belief that the composer is in favor of avoiding subjectivity. And yet, other ideas can obviate the necessity of a belief entirely.







Like good movie making, post-conceptual composition is good only when the “after idea” is good. Consider the story of an editor. He has escaped into some other era where writers work feverishly to develop a cure for the total work. In fact, it is intuitive. It is involved with all types of mental processes. And it is purposeful.




A Short Drama For Oboe. (An Epicedium)


"A Preface To Brain Ferneyhough's String Quartet No. 6"
 (To be performed immediately prior to the performance)


Wednesday, June 22, 2022

"Out of the Remnants of Their Allotment". The Full (PDF) Score. For Three Flugelhorns and Three Cellos.



"Out of the Remnants of Their Allotment".  

Bil Smith Composer















The Full Score.  

For Three Flugelhorns and Three Cellos.

There are Laws of Randomness...





Randomness has been a big process in music, but randomness means laws. It’s a way of calculating.​There are laws of randomness...calculations of randomness. 

And so it’s just a particular form of the occurrence of physical laws. It’s a way of anticipating, and it is completely normal. 

In certain compositional structures, if you break laws which are fundamentally random, you can’t find yourself again in randomness.  
It is not the same incident. 






"Surflex" For E Flat Trumpet


"Surflex" 

For E Flat Trumpet

Bil Smith 

A Vignette

Commissioned by Bechtel 

""Eventual Confidence"
 for Solo Guitar


Sunday, June 19, 2022

"Mimetized Disasters, Dan Quayle And His Evangelist Wife In A Hotel Room". The Score and Transparencies

"Mimetized Disasters, Dan Quayle And His Evangelist Wife In A Hotel Room". Page One



"Mimetized Disasters, Dan Quayle And His Evangelist Wife In A Hotel Room". 

Instrumentation:

Euphonium

Piccolo Saxophone
(Eppelsheim - Soprillo)

Contraforte
(Eppelsheim-Wolf)

Dynoresonant 
B Flat Trumpet

The Score and Transparencies

Bil Smith Composer

A Commission from Time Warner

"Mimetized Disasters..." explores a rhythm that abandons counting, that engages with speed and duration as primary rather than secondary occurrences, and that emerges through the interface between movement and resistance and from models of force, viscosity, and friction. 

In this work, I examine some of the limitations of existing rhythmic notation and, using examples from non-geometrical’ notational approaches. I had been struggling for some time with concerns about an increasing prevalence of notational grids, and
in particular the overwhelming dominance of the horizontal and the vertical in the notation of rhythm


Hyper- Appropriation:

The (The) inevitable violation.  A perfect conversion of the objective sum and a precise allusion.

















Transparency One



Transparency Two