2022 . . . four sound sculptures for orchestra (15:30)
One feature of my modern-music and composition e-book Mapping the Music Universe is a set of composing experiments called MapLabs. Each provides lab instructions to gather material and make compositional choices, and each provides an example piece built step by step along the path of the lab instructions. The sample pieces for the first four MapLabs fit together here as the metaphorical elements, fire, air, water, and earth, of Aristotle’s concept of the world’s physical matter. My mostly abstract photo images provide a visual background for listening.
Where the amber atoms in the fire gleaming
Mingled their sarabande with the gymnopaedia. (Latour)
Fresh wind weds the land and water,
Sun warms bright sails and sailor.
Where tiny Otter Creek trickled out onto a more secluded sandy beach
Offering northward a spectacular view of Empire Bluff.
The Black Canyon of the Gunnison, named for the ever-present shadows
The narrow canyon’s steep, sheer, tall rock walls cast on the river flowing far below.
Aristotle’s Elements
These images are set in motion by the magic of various Ken Burns effects for a video version on the TClark Art Music YouTube channel.
In another arrangement transcribed for wind ensemble in 2023, the order is changed:
Thomas Clark - composer / digital artist 