Michael Cohen, Conductor; Michelle Ordorica, Concertmistress

Recorded at Seully Hall, The Boston Conservatory November 4, 2005

program notes:

In April of 2005, I began composing Electric "I", which was to be my Senior Orchestral Thesis at The Boston Conservatory. After having been exposed to so many different musical languages over four years, I knew that I wanted to write a piece that had something to do with confusion as to exactly what type of music I wanted to write, as well as a statement on where I was going musically at the time, as well as where I am going today. The piece is about conflicting emotions as to the was that I express my musical ideas, as well as my gradual movement towards the syntax of electronic music; I have been moving towards electronic music for quite a while, and although this piece is my first acoustic work to employ techniques that one may consider "electronic" consciously, I have subconsciously used many of these items in my music from the last several years: tangibly, these include pedals, twelve-note chords and beyond, glissandi, and the mathematic determination of rhythm in terms of (1) the linear, parabolic, or otherwise quickening or slowing of tempo and (2) the concentration of pitches in any given timeframe, as well as the change in this density over time. Of course, these examples are only results; the meaning is there in the music, and these only serve as aids with which the listener can identify. None of these techniques are specific to electronic music only, but many of them relate to an electronic "partner": pedals to static-waveform-generating oscillators, the changing of rhythm over time to envelope generators, and so on.     However, as I mentioned before, the piece is also about confusion; the switch from acoustic to electronic music is a difficult one, and it takes many years. The systems and languages used in electronic music take years to learn (such is the case with any useful tool!) In Electric "I", I have once again consciously employed a technique that I have used subconsciously in the past: in this case, juxtaposing sets of varying dissonances. In this particular piece, the twelve-note spectrum is divided into three tetrachords thusly:

These three tetrachords are progressively more dissonant, but they all share in common a direct relationship to the pedal G-sharp in that they are all invertible (these ideas are presented in Electric "I" in the first few measures – refer there to see them in practice).

Electric "I" is an orchestral work for two Flutes (one on Piccolo), two Oboes, two Clarinets in B-flat, two Bassoons, four Horns in F, two Trumpets in B-flat, three Trombones, Tuba, Harp, three Percussionists, and strings.