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Overthrow the Conductor

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Pierrot + Percussion
2023
11 min.

Bass Clarinet

Cello

Clarinet

Flute

Piano

Piccolo

Pitched Percussion

Unpitched Percussion

Violin

More Details

Program Notes
The original program note for Overthrow the Conductor was about hierarchy, power, empires, and revolutions. Since that first iteration, I have stopped thinking of the piece as any sort of grand statement—whether social, political, or musical—and started appreciating the joy it brought to both the ensemble and the audience in the first performance. The piece was also an exercise in weaving aleatory, harmonic tropes, and dialogue to make a complete musical structure that is simultaneously a narrative. Finally, the whole thing is hypocritical: the players are resisting the authority of the conductor and composer in a highly prescribed manner.
Recording Notes
Performed live on November 18, 2023 at Stull Recital Hall in Oberlin, Ohio, U.S.A.
Ensemble Name
Emily Nixon, flute & piccolo; Keyvar Smith-Herold, clarinet & bass clarinet; Emir Efe, violin; Stefan Westerberg, cello; Orson Abram, percussion; Immanuel Mykyta-Chomsky, piano; Jake Berran, conductor

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