for solo organ (2023) 12′
- Premiered => Randall Harlow Faculty Organ Recital - Jebe Hall; 3.28.2024.
Program Notes:
MacDougal Street (2023), for solo organ, was composed for Randall Harlow and takes inspiration from a work of the same title by Jack Kerouac from his Book of Blues collection. The piece traces a skittering path through several of the images present in Kerouac’s work – the Street, the Sky, and the Scene. A contrasting thread based on several turns of phrase is also at work in the piece – no poems here, no sound, and no time. Further, sonifications of Kerouac’s often used reference of imagelessness are used as points of punctuation.
MacDougal Street is a continuation of the composer’s work into computer-assisted algorithmic composition and the use of simultaneous compositional methodologies within a work. The piece makes use of several approaches to isorhythm, rhythm fractioning (Schillinger), set theory, interval cycles, serial processes (rotation), and sonification. The piece was composed with the aid of the software Supercollider and Max.