The Complexity of Distance (2020)
for solo electric guitar
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PROGRAM NOTE
The Complexity of Distance, commissioned by Mike Scheidt, is scored for solo electric guitar using distortion and compression effects. Though it is possible to perform the work on an instrument with a traditional (E-Standard) tuning, the work is primarily intended for A-Standard tuning — which expands the low register of the instrument by a perfect fifth and results in significant alteration to the instrument's attack, sustain, and timbre. The score includes traditional musical notation (in E-Standard, scordatura) and also a bespoke chord-symbol system that will allow a guitarist to choose the most convenient and efficient way to realize the composition.
Three simultaneously-unfolding strands of evenly-spaced rhythmic pulses span the entire composition. Each pulse is articulated by a chord. The first strand alternates between chords with roots of A and C (sounding D and F when employing A-standard tuning) at a rhythmic interval of 13 quarter notes. The second strand alternates between chords with roots of F and G (sounding Bb and C) at a rhythmic interval of 14 quarter notes. The third strand alternates between chords with roots of D and E (sounding G and A) at a rhythmic interval of 15 quarter notes. At points where pulses from different strands coincide, select pitches from the two chords are combined, and a single note from the resulting hybrid chord is frequently (though not always) sustained into the next chord that sounds (regardless of its strand affiliation). Similarly, a single note is often sustained from the first chord to the second chord when pulses occur on immediately-adjacent beats.
Beginning and ending with a unison pulse in all three strands, the 13:14:15 ratio takes 2,730 beats to resolve itself. At a metronome tempo of 48, the cyclic process lasts nearly an hour.
Three simultaneously-unfolding strands of evenly-spaced rhythmic pulses span the entire composition. Each pulse is articulated by a chord. The first strand alternates between chords with roots of A and C (sounding D and F when employing A-standard tuning) at a rhythmic interval of 13 quarter notes. The second strand alternates between chords with roots of F and G (sounding Bb and C) at a rhythmic interval of 14 quarter notes. The third strand alternates between chords with roots of D and E (sounding G and A) at a rhythmic interval of 15 quarter notes. At points where pulses from different strands coincide, select pitches from the two chords are combined, and a single note from the resulting hybrid chord is frequently (though not always) sustained into the next chord that sounds (regardless of its strand affiliation). Similarly, a single note is often sustained from the first chord to the second chord when pulses occur on immediately-adjacent beats.
Beginning and ending with a unison pulse in all three strands, the 13:14:15 ratio takes 2,730 beats to resolve itself. At a metronome tempo of 48, the cyclic process lasts nearly an hour.