Instrumentation: Amplified flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and interactive electronics (Max-MSP5 or higher)
Duration: 11:00
Commission: Da Capo Chamber Players, with funding from the Virginia Commission for the Arts
Premiere: 6/2/09
Da Capo Chamber Players
Merkin Hall, New York, NY
Program Note:
Spring Tides, scored for amplified Pierrot Ensemble (fl, cl, vln, vc, pno) and interactive electronics, was inspired by the pull of the moon and sun on the flow of the tides, highest when the moon and sun are directly lined up with the earth. The very highest, or spring tides, occur when the moon is either full or new, and the gravitational pull of moon and the sun are combined. In Spring Tides this process animates the pull between acoustic and electronic sound, between controlled improvisation and exactly specified elements, between slow and surging motion, and between shifting fields of timbre and pitch. Spring Tides was commissioned by and is dedicated to Da Capo Chamber Players. It was made possible in part by an award from the Virginia Commission for the Arts. I would like to thank my colleague Ted Coffey and net artist/composer Peter Traub for their kind assistance with Max-MSP programming. –JS
Press Quote:
“The ensemble closed the program with Judith Shatin’s Spring Tides (2009), a rich evocation of the power of nature, with technical effects (creating wind sounds by blowing almost tonelessly into a flute and clarinet) giving way to lush textures that blended instruments with their distant-sounding electronic echoes.”
–The New York Times