- August 2010
DISQUIET: Electronics + String Quartet = “Glitch”
If merely the list of ingredients entices you, then know in advance that “Glitch” by Daniel Wohl does not fall short, does not disappoint, and if anything is more than the sum of its equally spare and excellent parts. Those ingredients are the musical elements “string quartet” and “electronics,” plus the tantalizing “and” placed in between them, all of which is wrapped in that succinct title, which promises all manner of lovely brokenness. The promise is delivered, and Wohl has made three of the piece’s four movements available for free download.
The highlight may be the piece’s final movement, in which slowly bowed violin plays against Morse-Code-on-Quaaludes beeping, the two strains drawing together into a sluice of stuttered eloquence
This gives way to a Michael Nyman–esque bounty of bright-skies melodicism, heard against a persistent — ingratiatingly grating? — industrial pulse.
Seated Ovation: One bit, two bit, red bit, blue bit
In two movements excerpted from Glitch, Daniel Wohl’s work for string quartet and electronics, a group of freelancers (Modney and Springer from Violin Phase, joined by Victor Lowrie and Rose Bellini) capturing Wohl’s careful balance of acoustic and electronic with impeccable blend. The strings slide around with tiny glissandos over the electronics’ regular pulse; melodic snippets slowly coalesce into a drone, followed by an explosion of Xenakis-like effects. It ends brightly ecstatic, with each instrument shivering to form a radiant, un-inflected major key, supported by shimmering electronics.
- July 2010
Orpheus Orchestra commission down to 30 composers. 60 emerging composers from across the country and abroad were originally chosen to compete for a Carnegie Hall commission to be premiered in its 2011- 2012 season, in honor of its upcoming 40th anniversary. Take a look at Project 440, on WQXR’s website, and leave me a comment!
- June 2010
Orpheus Orchestra selected 60 emerging composers from across the country and abroad to compete for a Carnegie Hall commission to be premiered in its 2011- 2012 season, in honor of its upcoming 40th anniversary. Take a look at Project 440, on WQXR’s website, and vote for the composer who you want to see win the commission.
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- May 2010
“Disposable”, a short film by Alexis Gambis which features “Glitch” (for amplified string quartet and electronics) is selected for the Brooklyn International Film Festival!
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- April 2010:
“Glitch” wins an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award.
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- April 2010:
Steve Smith- NY Times
“…stutters, pops, crackles and further sonic detritus — inspired fragmentary lines and noisy abrasions … over recorded string sounds played from a laptop. Mr. Wohl’s ingenuity was evident.”
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The final piece, Wohl’s four movement Glitch, sets the string quartet against the inadequacies of technology, represented by the glitchy, woozy electronic track. The music is dense with ideas and emotional expression. The writing clothes the strings in activity, gestural ornaments … and while this could be fussy in other hands, Wohl always has something forceful and concrete to convey; the activity keeps the ear poised and interested, the idea sucker-punches you. The intensity is built on such simple structures as two bar phrases, contrapuntal lines and straight four-four time. There’s lots of Arvo Pärt inside the music, which contribute to the exhilarating sense of clarity and focus.
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SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL CONCERT REVIEW:
“Glitches are inherent to all recorded audio mediums,” writes Daniel Wohl about Glitch. “They are happy accidents, flaws that take on special meaning or interest.” In the work’s four sections, Wohl combines altered recordings of string playing with imaginative effects for the live players. The first is tense and wiry, with a soulful undercurrent, but ultimately harrowing, while the second is marked by a super-agitated cello. The third uses what sounds like a scratchy cinema soundtrack, and in the fourth, the tape delivers an alarm that resembles Morse code, before the strings enter, adding extra layers.
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Some fun previews of the MATA festival including entries by Missy Mazzoli, Lisa Coons, Nathan Davis and myself on NEWMUSICBOX.com
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“Glitch” to be aired on Q2, WNYC and WQXR’s new online streaming music station through a live broadcasts of the 2010 MATA festival, held at Le Poisson Rouge on April 20th 2010
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New commission from the Albany Symphony for their American Music Festival
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“Glitch” to be published in San Francisco based literary journal “Paul Revere’s Horse”
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“Glitch” selected for the 2010 MATA festival, held at Le Poisson Rouge in April 2010
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Indiana State university Contemporary Music Festival selects “+ou-” as a Music Now competition winner
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Music IX/ Eighth Blackbird Competition selected “+ou-” for their second prize
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ASCAP Plus Award 2009
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ASCAP selects +ou- for an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Award
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Carlsbad Music Festival / Calder Quartet 2009 commission competition winner
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ASCAP PLUS award 2008
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New York Youth Symphony commissions a new piece to be premiered at Carnegie’s Weil Recital Hall
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“Helium” selected as alternate for the Minnesota Orchestra Readings
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“Helium” for orchestra wins an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Award
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Society for New Music, Brian M. Israeli Prize Honorable Mention
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Meet the Composer Grant to work with he Nucleus Ensemble
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Brooklyn Arts Council Grant for a new piece for TRANSIT
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Named winner of the Definiens Project C3 Competition
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“Monde Angulaire” receives an honorable Mention ASCAP Morton Gould Composition Award
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ASCAP Fellowship to attend the Bang on a Can Summer Institute
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