Ting-Ying Chang-Chien, Viola; Evan Antonellis, Electronics

program notes:

Environment/Four: De-composition is my attempt to "de-compose" a work, rather than compose one. To compose means to put things together, and it also usually means to put things together in a particular order. This piece is a "de-composition", meaning that it has been created by subtractive methods: that is, starting with all the material and chipping away to create an object. In this case, the sound of the viola is the raw material and the electronics break the sound down via filters and spectrum analysis. Also, in terms of analysis, this work is a "de-composition" because of its use of analysis – analysis meaning to break things down; in other words: the opposite of composition.

To write music with a fourth-dimensional compositional field involves creating in a way in which processes are applied to the entire work, rather than there being discrete developmental and recapitulatory sections where different processes are prevalent. In this way, Environment/Four: De-composition is a piece created by this method, just like twisting an entire block of clay multiple times in different directions and with different amounts of force. It is by this method of "twistifying" that this piece has been created.