tuesday, april 4th @ 8 P.m.
rogers memorial chapel
tulane university
New orleans, LA

Join the Versipel Collective for an exciting, hybrid evening featuring works performed by the Collective with special guest NOLA improvisers Alexandria Smith and Byron Asher. The concert features works by composers on the edge of composition and improvisation such as “Artificial Life” by George Lewis,”Heart of Tones” by Pauline Oliveros, “O Yer” by Hakki Cengiz Eren, and “Hymn for the Arc Harvester” by Philip Schuessler as well as a work by Alexandria Smith for biofeedback instrument.

Program Notes:

Artificial Life (2007)

This work is a situational-form musical composition designed for medium-to-large ensembles. The work presents a model of group improvisation as an emergent phenomenon arising from negotiation and local intelligence. – GL

Heart of Tones (1999)

Written for trombone and oscillators or trombone and ensemble, this work exaggerates the power of music to alter the perception of time to an almost absurd degree. Once a drone is established, the trombone and other instruments microscopically deviates from the pitch at a glacial pace. Through this process, one moment is magnified and stretched until the passage of time becomes variable for both the performers and the audience. -J. Murphy McCaleb

O Yer (2017)

Hakki Cengez Eren’s music is influenced by mysticism, psychoacoustics, microtonality, electroacousic music and Turkish folk music. In O Yer, a work chosen from Versipel New Music’s Call for Scores, Eren explores extremely delicate fluctuations in timbre and texture by building slow, quiet counterpoint in color among the four instruments. -PS

Hymn for the Arc Harvester (2019)

This work uses unspecified pitch in its entirety. The music is notated on single-line staves.The work evokes a rigorous metrical vitality in which all instruments explore pitch freely within a steadfastly unison rhythmic space.

The title is a reference to an ancient, mythological creature who aided farmers in their annual harvest through its natural metamorphoses into various forms which brought about changes in weather patterns. -PS