Gizmo
for flute, viola, and piano (2017) | Premiere: Musicians of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Associate Composer Program
Gizmo was premiered and recorded in the spring of 2017 in Los Angeles, by musicians of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Associate Composer Program.
The flute and viola are contrasted with the piano in exploring the dynamic and dramatic possibilities of the ensemble. Renaissance mensural technique–prevalent in the fifteenth century cyclic polyphonic masses of Ockeghem and Dufay–is juxtaposed with the twentieth century minimalism of Reich and Glass in the first movement. The second movement uses aleatoricism to set minimalism and atonal expressionism in dialogue with one another. The third and final movement explores the sonic similarities of the instruments in a limited pitch collection through an expressionist idiom.