for flute, clarinet, 'cello
piano & percussion
Night, like velvet: in twelve letters [ 2013 ]
for flute, clarinet, violin, 'cello
piano & percussion
PIERROT ENSEMBLE|
PORTFOLIO
Chasing Light [ 2015 - ]
for flute, clarinet, violin, 'cello
piano & percussion
ABOUT
Chasing Light is a multi-movement work for Pierrot Ensemble inspired by photography. In photography light is always one of the principle subjects, highlighting or diminishing the other focal points within the frame. This work aims to depict light as the main subject captured in different environments, each in a separate movement. The work, which began being composed in 2015 is still being constructed, although works, as they have been completed by the composer, have been conducted by her and performed by her ensemble in New York. The current movements completed to date include the following:
No. I. Abandoned Places
No. 2. Under the Railway
No. 3. Silhouette
No. 4. Shadow Play
No. 5. Daybreak
No. 6. Lanterns
Night, like velvet: in twelve letters [ 2013 ]
a multi-movement work
for chamber ensemble
ABOUT
Night, like velvet: in twelve letters is an interdisciplinary work in twelve movements. George began the project in January 2013, constraining herself to write one movement during each month throughout the year. Each movement was written as a musical letter to someone in George’s life. The instrumentation takes into account the makeup of her ensemble (the Curiosity Cabinet), the dedicatee(s) of each movement, and her desire to include differentiated timbral combinations throughout the cycle. Mirroring the non-linear nature of memory, Night’s monthly letters can be performed in various orders, each of which brings out different structural and expressive relationships. Thus, though a full performance of the work could imply a linear narrative, the cycle remains multivalent, providing a range of affective suggestions.A selection of poetry or prose from Sylvia Plath or Ted Hughes accompanies each movement.
Though George chose texts from different periods of each writer’s life—some when they were romantically involved and some not—she maintains a thematic focus on displacements of time, fragmentation rather than cohesion, and the alternately amorous and strained meanderings of communication between lovers. In the composer’s full score (which is excessively colorful due to her penchant for highlighting meter changes), as well as in each instrumentalist’s part, lines or words of the
selected texts are correlated with specific musical moments. In a sense, these texts are a silent continuo part being juxtaposed with the music, but they are only “heard” through realization by the reader/listener.Evoking the productive tension between process and product, George’s Night is a fragmented yet loosely programmatic reflection of creative life of its composer and nostalgic mediation on the passing time.
movements for PIERROT ENSEMBLE
In Green Water
for flute, clarinet, violin, 'cello,
percussion & piano
a Stiffening Wound & the Pit of Red
for flute, bass clarinet, violin, 'cello,
percussion & piano