Methods of Exhaustion Nos. 1-2 (2009)

The title of this piece refers both to the physical demands of performance (particularly the second movement) and to the mathematically exhaustive way in which the material unfolds.

In the first movement, each note on the keyboard is "activated" starting with every octave C and continuing on through the series of fifths (all the G's, all the D's, etc.). The electronic component consists of sine tones that reinforce the sustaining piano notes, eventually building up to an 88-note cluster. In the second half of the piece the pianist "shuts off" the sustaining notes in the same order that they were activated.

The second movement is a 8-part unison canon at decreasing time intervals. In the first half the melody descends to a middle C in successively smaller pitch intervals and with successively shorter rhythms. In the second half the process is reversed: the melody starts on a middle C and descends with successively larger pitch intervals and successively longer rhythms. As in a traditional canon, the voices begin and end independently.

duration: 8:00 | pdf

Methods of Exhaustion No. 1 (midi) | mp3

Methods of Exhaustion No. 2 (midi) | mp3