A Slightly Evil Machine (2005)
multi-percussion solo
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Caleb Herron, percussion
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PROGRAM NOTE
A Slightly Evil Machine, scored for five non-pitched percussion instruments and lasting approximately eight minutes, was commissioned by The Society for Chromatic Art and percussionist Tony Oliver for premiere performance on June 6, 2006, in New York City. The work comprises five cycles of twenty-one motivically-related cells in a structural fast-slow-fast-slow-fast arrangement. Further, multiple "filters" are employed to produce smooth transitions between the individual cycles as event-density is increased or decreased gradually over time. The solo percussionist must navigate through near-constant variation of polyrhythmic background pulse to project the internal acceleration and/or deceleration of individual cells, and over the course of larger cycles.