In Focus 4 by Various Artists

This work is freely inspired by the image and figure of the Greek Medusa. It wants to evocate the feelings that might be experienced inside Medusa's lair: the horror, the silence, the mystery and the anxious moments.

In this composition, the composer has recorded samples of different piano sound used to describe the lair of this mysterious creature. A variety of extended techniques are utilised like placing various objects inside the instrument, between and on the strings (paper, clips, marbles, pencils and more), to create an array of percussive and unexpected effects that we won’t normally hear.

In Greek mythology, Medusa was one of the most famous monster figures known as Gorgons. She was usually represented as a winged female creature with a head of hair of living snakes. Unlike the other Gorgons, she was sometimes represented as very beautiful. People who gazed into her eyes would turn to stone.

Whitman Songs Lyrics (Poems by Walt Whitman)

Bridalnight
One quivering jelly of love limpid transparent -

Limitless jets of love, hot and enormous

Arms of love strong as attraction reach as wide and large as air

Drunken and crazy with love, swing in its plumetless sea

Loveflesh swelling, aching white blood of love

Sun-Down Poem
You wayward, vain, blabbed, blushed, resented, was shallow,

Ambitious, curious, fearful, lied, greedy grudging, –

Wolf, snake, hog, wanting the covetous wish –

I too knew what it was to be these –

Twilight
The soft voluptuous shades,

The sun just gone, light dispelled

(I too will soon be gone, dispelled),

A haze – nirvana – rest and fade!

Calamus 33
No labor-saving machine,

Nor discovery I’ve made,

Nor will I leave much wealth:

Only these carols, vibrating, I leave,

For comrades and lovers.

Whitman Songs Program Notes
Gary Schmidgall edition of Walt Whitman's “Leaves of Grass” is comprised of poems in their first published form. Whitman edited his work for many decades after the initial composition and many describe this process as a devolution rather than an evolution. The poems chosen for “Whitman Songs” are honest, raw, and spoke to me: “Bridalnight” is vulgar yet incredibly vivid, “Sun-Down Poem” is filled with rage at someone that may be the self, “Twilight” imagines a particular way of passing away, and “Calamus 33” considers the merits of an artistic legacy.

Commissioned by OPG - Oberlin Percussion Group, the work is divided into three sections. With this work the composer explores percussion instrument.

In his own words: "Every percussion instrument is distinct, but the ones in miniature form especially intrigue me. They remind me of the toys that I cherish the most in my childhood, each of which makes a specific type of sound. Through a highly structured and imaginative organization, their playful and adorable sounds can be sublimated into fascinating and profound musical creations.

While its identity as an ensemble is preserved, Eastern Light further attempts to separately retain each of the sounds produced by the five instruments. Relying on an intervallic structure as its spine, this piece explores the different avenues and possibilities of woodwind sound. In doing so, however, emphasis is placed more on emotionally communicating with the listener than in pure experimentation.