music

PROGRAM NOTE
I typically write music with fairly involved programmatic intentions along with forms that echo or amplify
them. However, I also enjoy music that simply unfolds a process or a ‘conceit’. Fabrication 22: Smoke is a component part of a larger 32-movement cycle for various ensembles ranging from solos and duos to works for orchestra. These Fabrications explore more mechanical approaches to generating music. Each has a subtitle; a synonym of ‘fabrication’ which says something about the piece itself.



Fabrication 22: Smoke is a response to Tisch (table) – the first work acknowledged in Gerhard Richter's catalogue raisonné. I saw it first at Harvard's Fogg Museum many years ago and it has continued to nag at me. Here's what the artist has to say about his painting:

"The photo for Table came, I think, from an Italian design magazine called Domus. I painted it, but was dissatisfied with the result and pasted parts of it over with newspaper. One can still see by the imprint where the newspaper was stuck to the freshly painted canvas. I was dissatisfied because there was too much paint on the canvas and became less happy with it, so I overpainted it. Then suddenly it acquired a quality which appealed to me and I felt it should be left that way, without knowing why."

My piece, as does Richter's painting, consists of two types of activity; the "ground" – in Richter's case the straightforward painting of the table, in Fabrication 22: Smoke the 'ground' consists of lightweight lounge music. These Lounge sections are 'overpainted ' with solo Scribbles which sit on top of each disrupting the surface while always keeping a sonic distance.

see also Fabrications