Patrick Grant - MP3s
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Works are in alphbetical order
cLAVE mOLINO (2003) excerpts
The theme of this year's Watermill Center Summer Benefit was "Molino Cubano" meaning Cuban Mill. For a second year Robert Wilson asked me to create some original music for the benefit to be used in juxtaposition with a creation of one of the Center's artists-in-residence, under his direction. This year he wanted percussion-instruments-only for an installation in the Knee Space, itself a missing central building that will eventually connect the two wings of the Center, through which all the guests would enter the benefit. The visual part of the installation was created by the Cuban artist Tania Bruguera and was called "Dated Flesh." It consisted of live nudes covered in dripping milk standing on shelves built high into the walls of the space. I created a piece of music (played by the excellent John Ferrari) that I called "cLAVE mOLINO", a half hour multi-tracked meditation on abstracted Cuban clave rhythms that were subjected to the textural processes of my musical architecture. The installation was proclaimed a "standout piece" of the evening by John Rockwell in the New York Times. CD page1. Clave A - 120 BPM 3'08"
2. Clave D - 90 BPM 3'07"DEDICATION MUSIC for SACRED SISTER (2003) excerpts
This music came from a CD I made recently for the launch of a project between the German photographer Bettina WitteVeen and Robert Wilson called "Sacred Sister." It consistes of twenty-four sections: 12 ambient gamelan movements alternating with 12 rhythmic dance-like ones. Of these 12 dance-like movements there are 3 cycles of 4 themes: Abstract 1, Tingklik (a bamboo instrument tuned in slendro), Abstract 2, and Kebyar (the lighting quick modern style of gamelan found in Bali). CD page
1. Abstract 2B - 2'56"
2. Kebyar 3C - 3'19"
Everything Distinct: Everything the Same (1994) 12'18"
3 keyboards and 3 percussion
FIELDS AMAZE (2000) 8'35"
This piece began as an experiment in using the gamelan's pelog tuning (plus one slendro note) and seeing, by finding as many more or less 'consonant' triads and tonal centers as I could, how one could convincingly modulate between them. While not remarkable from a Western point of view, gamelan music (as a tradition) is not known to modulate as such and this seemed to me to be an interesting way to use as a point of entry in writing a new piece. It's also the first time I really took advantage of the tuning functions of my keyboard and was able to tune it to the gamelan. Rhythmically, much is owed to the Afro-Cubano tradition and structurally it could be said to be modeled on many a first movement from the clavier concerti of the Baroque and Classical eras. CD page
FR ACT U RED FICTIONS (2003) 9'43"
This is a pentatonic piece (a stack of 5 purely tuned fifths: Gb-Db-Ab-Eb-Bb) that explores contracting and expanding meters. The count is very simple: the measures start out in 9/4, and are played nine times, then in 8/4 for eight times, and so on down to 1/4, in which it is followed by a single pulse of rest which represents zero. The count then continues 8 to zero, 7 to zero, etc. until we hit the center of the piece at which point the process is reversed. Please, there's no prize for following along, just get lost in the colorful grooves. CD pageGENOME: The Autobiography of a Species (2003) excerpts
In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the discovery of DNA and the double helix, sTRANGE mUSIC presents a live recording of "GENOME: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Movements." Composed and directed by Patrick Grant, it is based on the book by award winning science author Matt Ridley. This recording is taken from two performances on February 27 and 28 (the latter date being the actual anniversary of the discovery) at the ANNINA NOSEI GALLERY in New York City. The structure of the piece is in 23 parts in that each section represents a chromosome in the human genome. This musical work takes the title of each of its parts after Ridley's naming of chapters in his book where he emphasizes a particular characteristic of each one in order to create a narrative. They are: Life, Species, History, Fate, Environment, Intelligence, Instinct, X and Y Conflict, Self-Interest, Disease, Stress, Personality, Self-Assembly, Pre-History, Immortality, Sex, Memory, Death, Cures, Prevention, Politics, Eugenics, and Free Will. The music is performed by Grant's own ensemble, Patrick Grant Group, where he was joined by Kathleen Supové and Jed Distler on keyboards, John Ferrari on percussion, and with vocal samples courtesy of composer Lisa Bielawa. CD page1. Species 3'21"
2. Sex 2'52"
3. Death 3'13"
4. Cures 4'19"
5. Free Will 4'07
IMAGINARY HORROR FILM (1998/2001)
This thirteen section piece is in manys ways my own paean to all of the truly awful horror films I watched (and thoroughly enjoyed) when I was a kid. At the same it is also a deconstruction of serialist compositional technique (which can said to be a horror in itself). However, all such sections have been written to create a bizarre sense of tonality (and that's a big Luigi "No-No" by twelve-tone standards). In this sense I am indeed a serial killer but, to my ears, I much prefer this twisted take on tonality and all of the genre-hopping it makes possible: harmonically and stylistically. For those of you who keep track of such things, the tuning is not the equal temperment of most 20th century composers but in Werckmeister III, the well-tempered tuning (as opposed to equal) that Bach used. This way, each chord has its own flavor, however subtle, that sets it apart from all others and only adds to the slighty disturbed quality of this piece. CD page
1. Imaginary Horror Film - Part One 8'48"
2. Imaginary Horror Film - Part Two 7'45
mUSIC for the QUAI BRANLY* (2002) 8'17"
This music was composed on a commission from the musée du Quai Branly as the audio component of a touring exhibition/installation. This exhibit is being made to generate interest and support for the musée du Quai Branly which is scheduled to open in 2004. The exhibition will be installed initially at the Louvre, the musée de l'Homme, and the musée national des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie in Paris, France. There they will be on display simultaneously during the summer of 2002 before they depart Paris for other museums throughout France and Europe. To order see a photo of the current state of the museum's construction, click here. CD page
Purple Elegy (2002) 6'23"
3 keyboards
Quasi Passacaglia (2002) 3'53"
organ solo
Relative Segments (1997)
flute, clarinet, viola, cello, 2 pianos and e. piano
Attack 3'40"
Decay 4'33"
Sustain 3'08"
Release 2'35"Five Songs from "THE RULES OF CIVILITY" (1747-2004) 6'02"
This is a section from a scene of a chamber opera based upon text by George Washington who, as a teen, wrote 110 "Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation." The scoring is for 13 period instruments from the 18th century and reflects the highly baroque and antiquated nature of, these often hilarious, rules. These particular five songs are all of the ones that deal with how to eat at the table and, in the opera, are used as a dark counterpoint to a staging that depicts the horrors of war by Hanon Reznikov of the Living Theatre. The singers are Joanie Fritz Zosike, mezzo-soprano, and Robert Hieger, tenor.
Not commercially available
Some ASSEMBLY - Demo Version (2003) 8'44"
Now, normally I don't let out demos of pieces but, I thought that until we get an acoustic version recorded in winter 2004 that it might be interesting to let you hear a preview and get an idea of how I work. This piece was commissioned by the Cadillac String Association in Michigan where it was premiered at a summer arts festival and that's exactly how it sounds: summery and festive, no apologies. Although an electronic version is represented here (and I always have a demo like this for new pieces, whether for my group or another), it gives a pretty good idea of the true scoring for string orchestra, violin and cello soli, amplified pizzicato bass, piano four-hands, and six percussion. It is an arch form, ABCBA with a coda, D.
Not commercially available
A Visible Track of Turbulence (1996) 9'23"
flute, clarinet, piano