Impositions and Consequences (2006) for 2 vocalists and 5 instrumentalists

Impositions and Consequences is a collection of 11 vignettes.  Each of them explore ways in which seemingly disparate musical styles or genres can intermingle, coexist or blend into something altogether different.  Of late I have been consumed with how my musical influences and the stylistic categories they inhabit interact or ‘impose’ on each other their respective, most salient qualities (according to my mind’s ear) during the creative process.  Using a whole-half octatonic collection of pitches as a harmonic basis, I have developed three distinct realms that inhabit what most listeners might hear as “heavy-metal,” “jazz fusion,” and “opera.”  To ensure these realms’ distinctiveness, I have manipulated the octatonic collection for each realm by adding noise elements, quarter tone inflections, bent pitches, or in the case of the “jazz fusion” realm, I limited the octatonic collection to the bass line and opened the harmonic soundscape above it to more intuitive chordal sonorities.  Additionally, each realm embodies a variety of different meters, grooves, and tempos.  Metaphorically speaking, these short musical realizations for me are the provocative consequences of imposing two or three musical realms upon one another.