10/05/2024
"White Pumice Fossilizing The Dusty Heat Trap" for Two Violas. Link to Full Score - PDF
https://soundmorphology.blogspot.com/2015/08/white-pumice-fossilizing-dusty-heat.html
The score for "White Pumice Fossilizing The Dusty Heat Trap" for two violas raises intriguing philosophical questions about representation, perception, and the intersection of visual and auditory experiences. Much like photorealism in visual art—where the goal is not to represent reality as it truly is but as it appears through the mechanical and detached lens of a camera—this score operates in a space where the notation is both an object to be interpreted and a symbolic construct. This duality, where notation serves as both image and instruction, challenges conventional notions of how music is represented and experienced.
In this sense, we can draw on the ideas of cognitive and perceptual philosophy, particularly those surrounding the nature of experience and the representation of reality. Much like a photorealistic painting, which strips away the subjective, painterly touch to present a hyper-objective view of the world, the score here juxtaposes granular traditional Western notation with photorealistic gestures that appear detached and cool. The smoothness and precision of the photorealist notation suggest a kind of objectivity, yet the very act of representation introduces subjectivity, since even the camera itself mediates reality. The notation, then, embodies a tension: between the deliberate, calculated structure of traditional musical notation and the seemingly effortless, mechanical exactness of the photorealistic notational forms.
From a performer’s perspective, this creates an oscillation between reading the notation as music and as a visual object. The notation becomes more than just instructions for performance; it becomes a kind of visual landscape, a picture that one interprets as much as performs. This resonates with the philosophical notion of "picture theory" as explored by Ludwig Wittgenstein—where language (or notation, in this case) is not merely a tool for description but also participates in the construction of reality. The notation in "White Pumice Fossilizing The Dusty Heat Trap" constructs a reality that is at once immediate and distant, recognizable yet abstract.
An interesting temporal discrepancy arises from the juxtaposition of photorealism and traditional notation. Photographs capture an instantaneous moment, a frozen slice of time. By contrast, traditional musical notation unfolds temporally, guiding the performer through a linear process. This dichotomy mirrors broader philosophical questions about time, experience, and representation: How do we reconcile the frozen moment with the flowing process? In this score, the performers must navigate between the static "image" presented by the photorealist elements and the dynamic, evolving nature of the granular Western notation. The result is a complex interplay between stasis and movement, between the photographic instant and the unfolding musical moment.
Furthermore, the score’s photorealist elements—depicting a neglected landscape filled with bright, often fluorescent marks—challenge initial perceptions. At first glance, the image seems washed-out, inert, almost lifeless. But on closer inspection, one sees that each mark, each grain or pixel, is vibrant and full of life, contributing to an underlying complexity that belies the initial impression of simplicity. In this sense, the score mirrors the cognitive process of perception itself: first impressions are often superficial, but with deeper engagement, layers of meaning and detail reveal themselves. This parallels the way in which we interpret the world, whether visually or musically, through both immediate perception and sustained attention.
The performers, in turn, embody this process of excavation and discovery. The score’s traditional granular notation—a series of minute, agitated brushstrokes—creates a dynamic, vibrant musical texture, akin to the lysergic maelstrom of color and motion found in the score’s photorealist imagery. The music is filled with specters, both luminous and sinister, conjured through the violas’ delicate bowing and harmonic techniques. The performers, like archaeologists, excavate the notation, revealing hidden depths and nuances that were not immediately apparent.
