September 14, 2026
- Electroacoustic Music Macomb 2026 - curated by Dr. Hong-Da Chin
- Time: 7:30 PM - 8:30 PM
- Location: School of Music Recital Hall
- Description: This performance is free and open to the public.
PROGRAM
Driftless (2025) - James Romig
nor the moon by night (2026) - Jim Caldwell
Craig Hultgren, Cello
Striving for Air (2026) - Hong-Da Chin
Sin-eater for trombone and electronics (2018) - Aaron Hynds
Aaron Hynds, trombone
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Driftless, for solo cello, was written for Craig Hultgren and New Music Festival 2022 at Western Illinois University. The piece articulates a very slow 7:8:9 polyrhythm over the course of approximately ten minutes, radually revealing a collection of six pitch classes. Amplification and long reverb allow the cello to perform in counterpoint with itself, creating a halo of overlapping harmonies and timbres. The work's title refers to the Driftless Area, a region comprising parts of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin that was bypassed during the last ice age and is therefore topographically distinct from the flat landscape usually associated with the midwestern United States. Craig Hultgren, to whom the work is dedicated, makes his home on a farm in this beautiful land of steep hills, forested ridges, and sculpted river valleys.
nor the moon by night is from Psalm 121, the second item in a list of what shall not smite thee. The piece, while rhetorical—with statements, counter statements, repetitions, asides, shifts of mood, parallelisms, and so forth—is not narrative. Some passages may, however, have the character of a nocturne, and others may suggest resistance to smiting. The piece was written for Craig Hultgren.
Striving for Air explores the intangible nature of sound as it travels through space—carried, shaped, and ultimately dissolved by air itself. The work draws inspiration from the idea that air, though invisible, is essential to both life and music: it is the medium through which vibration becomes audible expression. The very few notes in Striving for Air signify the struggle to breathe within an increasingly fragile sonic space which is represented by the space between the sparse notes. The electronically processed sounds produced by the bass trombone extend its natural breath into an expanded sonic field, where acoustic and electronic elements merge to explore the fragile boundary between sound and air.
Sin-eating is a ritual that has its roots in the common practice of taking on the sins of a deceased or nearly deceased person through ritualized consumption. It was most commonly associated with Welsh funerary cultures, and although it is uncertain how common the ritual was, it was described numerous times throughout Welsh history and the broader history of the English isles. The dynamic of ritualized consumption is present in the conflict between the electronics and the trombone in this work--the composition starts with the trombone mimicking the electronics (a program written in Pure Data), which is then turned on its head as the electronics then mimic the trombone. The electronics "consume" the voice of the trombone and transform it into something very different by the end of the work.
- Related Web Site: WIU School of Music
- Contact Information:
Joanie Herbert
Phone: 309-298-1843
Email: JE-Herbert@wiu.edu - Source: School of Music
