Details:

Duration: 10 mins
Instrumentation: amplified trumpet, live processing and Two Channel Fixed Media*
Premiere: December 3rd, 2022 at WCNY Performance Studio in Syracuse, NY
Commission Info: Written for Andy Kozar.
This project was made possible with the funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor's Office and the New York State Legislature and administered by CNY Arts.

Program Notes:

Written for amplified trumpet, live processing, and 2 channel fixed media, Convenient bits of unupholstered furniture is a work that attempts to find beauty in extremes. The title of the work comes from a 1929 Boston Post review of a Henry Cowell concert, in which the reviewer, Warren Storey Smith, suggests, rather sardonically, that… “Many of the sounds which Mr. Cowell achieved last evening might be duplicated with a tack hammer and any convenient bit of unupholstered furniture.” I believe he meant it as a criticism, I accepted it as a challenge.

This project was made possible with the funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor's Office and the New York State Legislature and administered by CNY Arts.

Note about the cover image: The image is a cropped version of Alfred Stieglitz’s The Hand of Man. The MET Museum’s description of the Stieglitz’s photograph serves as a guiding force for Convenient bits of unupholstered furniture as well: 

“The title alludes to this modern transformation of the landscape and also perhaps to photography itself as a mechanical process. Stieglitz believed that a mechanical instrument such as the camera could be transformed into a tool for creating art when guided by the hand and sensibility of an artist.”

Audio:

Score:

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