Mixtures~Crossfades~Foci (2013) for two guitars

This is the final piece of a series of chamber works that I have been composing as part of a larger multi-media project (or 'opera') entitled California Tableaux.  The piece presents different kinds of music that sound singularly, coexist, or blend. You will hear music that sounds like blues, jazz, and folk, however these 'musics' are sometimes mixed and deconstructed in a way that makes them sound radically different. For example, one of the central 'licks' of the piece comes from a Chilean folk song, “Jugete de Amor” that perhaps was sung by a sailor (bemoaning his lover's toying with his heart) while leaving port from Chile on the way to the California Gold Rush in the 1850s.  Sometimes this lick is turned into a groove. Other times, the lick serves as the punctuation of a section consisting of other music.  At the end, the lick is 're'-contextualized in the original song, yet sounding as if two dobro guitar players were hocketing the melody back and forth.