"Blue Carpet Frenzy Pared From The Edges" (2011) For Three (3) String Quartets

"Blue Carpet Frenzy Pared From The Edges" (2011) 

For Three (3) String Quartets 

Bil Smith Composer

Commissioned for Three String Quartets

Listen on SoundCloud:

https://soundcloud.com/bil-smith/blue-carpet-frenzy-pared-from

Coming soon on Laboratorie New Music Editions...Two New Studio Recordings of this work.

"Withdrawal On Paths To Exceed". PDF Score Link.

"Withdrawal On Paths To Exceed"

For Oboe, Cello, Fender Rhodes Piano and Bass Trombone

Bil Smith Composer

2015-2016

Commissioned by SWF Corp.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByXT8veODB_TYldsYXBTTDhFdVE/view?usp=sharing

"Foreground"

Sketch of Designs for 10 Variant Congas (Foundation of a New Percussion Composition)

A Long Greedy Drink. Elliot Johns Composer

"A Long Greedy Drink"

for Quartet

Elliot Johns Composer

2016

On Key Ideation and Innovation in Compositional Tablature Notation...

I am currently working on a detailed paper regarding my 5900 + page score, "Partitions: Cambics Alive in Sensient Amplules", premiered by Renee Baker and the Chicago Modern Orchestra Project. I'll include the profoundly brilliant recording in my post when completed on Facebook, the blog, Sound Morphology and Medium. 

 Section of a single page from the score "Partitions: Cambics Alive in Sensient Amplules"

Single page from the score from "Partitions: Cambics Alive in Sensient Amplules"

Page from the "Performance Notes" of "Partitions: Cambics Alive in Sensient Amplules"

Single layer of 17 from a single page from the score from
"Partitions: Cambics Alive in Sensient Amplules"

Image from Layer 3/ Page 16 of Performance Notes.  Total of 17 layers.

As composers, we always seek to find that unique realization of our work. John Cage was frequently critical of performances of his work (albeit aleatoric/chance/indeterminate) simply because the performers (and in one case, the NY Philharmonic) did not read his instructions. While many find it ironic, he was incredibly specific and demanding of the performers.

















What so many performers/composers/critics do not grasp is that just because we utilize a different lexicon (musical language), does not suggest that we are not acutely aware of what is expected in the performance.

Image layer 12/ 39% Opacity of
Page 1390 of the Performance Notes

In Darmstadt in 2010, I watched Brian Ferneyhough drive performers to exceptional lengths to interpret his work precisely. Brian is a nice man, kind, exceptional thinker; yet incredibly in tune with what he composes and expects precision in the execution of his work. Brian stays within the five lines, but let's all understand what he does within those five lines (the staff) has never been approached prior to him. No one has written in the manner he does. He has integrated combinatorial mathematics, multivariate distributions, and variational inference into his compositional syntacticon...no, no one has attempted this before. He is a defining, disruptively inspiring innovator. He's what we define as a KIL...'Key Innovation Leader.'








Perhaps what he has done within the five lines is more defining than those of us who work outside the five lines. I suppose you all guess why I use Brian to make a point here. 

Final page of score part for Vibraphone (excerpt from my article forthcoming on 'Medium'

If we have a different language; a different expression of intent; something different than the stave/staff of those magnificent five lines, do not think we throw decisions and execution to the wind....quite the opposite.

Recording: “Eseltelle Genève” for 2 Orchestras. Bil Smith Composer

“Eseltelle Genève” for 2 Orchestras

On SoundCloud:

https://soundcloud.com/bil-smith/eseltelle-gene-ve-for-two-2

In this work the reduced orchestral landscapes demand the large ensembles (Orchestras) to achieve a result that lies at the higher end of acoustical preoccupation. As I am a‘soundcologist’ surrounded in an environment that is constantly accelerating in a perception of time, I advocate pausation…in the emptiness and silence we encounter ourselves …an absence of sound, and thought.

Bil Smith Composer