By James Dever jamesdever Bandcamp tylerdever Bandcamp jamesdevermusic SoundCloud jamzdenver Twitter.
Released 6/6/2016.
Duration: 10:05.

Listen on SoundCloud or YouTube.

Read artist commentary.

Contributors:

• Jeff Perry (performance)
• Breana Meyers (performance)

Artist commentary:

James Dever: (SoundCloud description)

Sand Molding was composed in late 2015 and premiered at the University of Northern Colorado in April of 2016. The premiere performance was by Jeff Perry and Breana Meyers.

Sand Molding explores the process of, well, using sand to mold iron and steel. Throughout the composition, the sounds of metal overtake the sounds of wood as the natural becomes the artificial.

The piece is written in seven sections that repeat in one large arc. Each section continues to become more aleatoric until the mid point is reached before the piece wraps back to the beginning.

James Dever: (YouTube description, excerpt)

Premiere performance from my senior recital on April 28th, 2016 at UNC's Frasier Hall. Two wonderful colleagues from my percussion studio, doctoral candidates Jeff Perry and Breana Meyers, wonderfully realized this piece!

Sand Molding was born from my increasing love for aleatoric music in my final undergrad year of studying composition. The piece explores aleatoric passages but is definitely not fully free form. The middle third of the piece becomes the most chance dependent before moving back into more traditional notation.

As a percussionist, I've always been very much in love with all of the timbres and effects we create within multi percussion pieces. I had an idea floating around for years of having a wooden vs metallic battle between two percussionists and this project seemed like the perfect time to explore that concept.

I was also very interested in mathematically assisted compositions by Iannis Xenakis which definitely played a role in the formulation of this piece. I began with a number sequence that I randomly created and explored that in as many different ways as I could throughout the composition.

The other concept I've always found fascinating is a much older form of music: crab canon. The idea that if the piece was reversed, it would still be performed the same way creating a musical palindrome. I also found a way of encompassing that form into this composition by having the wooden percussionist rule the first half of the piece, meet in the middle with the metal percussionist, and be taken over by the metal by the end, arriving back where the piece began.

I hope you dig it as much as I do!