palette (…or palate)
Piece Information
Instrumentation: string quartet
Duration: ~ 8 minutes
Date: © 2017
In this set of miniatures I wanted to explore ways that timbre can develop over time and I therefore used some of my favorite flavors and olfactory experiences as a source of inspiration for each piece. In no particular order these were: coffee, lemon, salt, jalapeño, gin martinis, and oysters. This is not the order that they’re presented in the score; I think the matter of which miniature matches which subject was far more important to the compositional process, insofar that it was, than it will be to the listener’s or performer’s experience.
Program note:
Many times when I’m trying to describe a flavor or a scent, I often find myself doing so in terms of timbre, frequency response, or reverberance. This is probably just because I learned to mix rock bands before I learned to mix salad dressing, but either way, these little soliloquies tend to earn some weird looks from friends. My wife is the only other person I know who does this.
More about this Piece :
Performances:
2017, the Juilliard School
2024, New York Composers Circle
Scores and parts available for purchase
See the Contact page.