This Friday, May 15, at 2pm I’ll be presenting a live-streamed, 30 minute concert of solo violin music (with assorted accompaniment technologies) for the residents at Hillcrest in La Verne CA.
It was fun getting the basement set up for the show!
If you’re interested in listening in to the show, contact either myself or Loida Arriaga at Hillcrest and we’ll get you all set up.
Soprano Lauren Jorgenson and I got to get some rehearsal time in this morning, working on The Old Beggar-Woman from my upcoming Bros. Grimm Song Cycle ! Not too shabby so far…
The lesson here… when you see an old woman catch on fire, for god’s sake, put out the flames! ??
Sunday, April 7, 6pm (pre-concert AMA with the composers at 5:30pm)
Come enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of an intimate social chamber music event in our underground studio! Featuring all-original music from local composers Simeon Goode, Brian Bunker, and yours truly ?
We’ll be presenting music for small chamber groups including strings, piano, flute, electronics, voice, and more!
Seating is very limited, so RSVP today—show your ticket at the event and get your choice of free music download-card from my work!
I’m so thrilled and honored to be the violinist playing the music for each show with pianist Corey Hirsch! It’s a blast to play, and the students involved are all really great!
Today’s tune is another really special piece to me, with lots of good memories attached to it. ^_^
“Anima Mechanicae: Soul of the Machine” is a string quartet that I wrote in 2007, during my grad school days and toward the end of my utter obsession with Minimalism, specifically after the stylings of Philip Glass. Listening to the recording of it below, I’m sure you’ll be able to hear the similarities. :p
But this work has a story element to it, that’s near and dear to my heart. The Mechanical Star of the work is actually a character that makes her first appearance in the second book of my original Kesher Chronicles series, “Questions of Faith.”
This character, SARA (an advanced “Security Analysis and Records Archive’ malleable-Paradigm”) — over the course of the second and upcoming third books — becomes very involved in the lives of the humans around her and tries to orient herself within her constantly evolving thought-processes…
You can see why I included the following quote in the score to the quartet:
Dedicated to the computers and robots of the future, who long to dream as the humans do.
The structural details behind this almost-12 minute work include:
…moments of mechanical coldness [in the opening], gradually giving way to moments of tender and emotional beauty. Wallin Huff intentionally derived and fashioned her various rhythmic and tonal patterns throughout the work from strict mathematical relationships — to showcase that a mechanically constructed framework can give way to striking beauty on its surface, much in the way a computer program of the future might evolve into its abstract dream-state.
The sections of this single-movement work include: Mechanically, Quixotically, Pensively, With impish behavior, Tenderly, and Surreal.
I do have sketches and outlines for a multi-movement “sister” piece for quartet …something about Consciousness… :p It would be nice to complete that one someday soon… I’ll keep you posted! 🙂
“Anima Mechanicae: Soul of the Machine” can be performed by an advanced string quartet. Get the sheet music here! And stay tuned for our new work of next week…
Check out the awesome little concert I’ll be doing with pianist, Lydia Wu, Friday night, Jan 5, 2018! We’re so looking forward to playing this charming music for you… Featuring musical sweets from Fauré, Elgar, Amy Beach…and even Yours Truly… ?
