Matt Sargent // Illuminations CD

This is a CD released by American New York composer/educator Matt Sargent from the Texas contemporary label Sawyer Editions in January 2024.

Contains 3 minimalist contemporary ~ drone songs. Digipak, shrink specification.

*If you would like a digital sound source, please feel free to contact us.

The following is a commentary by the writer himself.

"Illuminations is a collection of solo and chamber works written between 2016 and 2021 that have a common compositional language. Each work is composed as a software score, and the musical work is constructed in real time during performance. The notes are introduced to the performer on an animated staff and slowly appear and disappear. Using opacity dynamically, the musicians play the animated staff in a slow loop, each time Motifs and contrapuntal lines gradually appear and disappear.

The initial idea for these pieces came to me in 2016 while editing the recording of the piece ``Tide'' for 10 violins and 10 cellos. A large consort of stringed instruments produced a wash of overtones above the notated pitch. I created a software patch that isolates harmonics from the recording and adds new harmonies around them. At the time, I thought that this generator might become a third voice for Tide, illuminating the overtones within the texture during the music's formal moments. One afternoon I listened to the overtone harmonies of the Illumination Patch on its own and realized that it was more beautiful as a stand-alone composition. Tide's upper-class atmosphere blossomed into Illumination's musical language. "

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CD in cardstock sleeve. 

tracklist:

1. Fourth Illumination (2018) 20:47
2. Second Illumination (2017) 14:43
3. Sixth Illumination (2021) 20:46

Sawyer Editions:

"The Illuminations are a collection of solo and chamber works with a shared compositional language, written between 2016 and 2021. The pieces are composed as software scores, which build the musical work in real-time during each performance. Notes are introduced to the players on animated staves, slowly fading into view and then away again. Using opacity as dynamic, the musicians perform the animated staves as slow loops, with motives and contrapuntal lines gradually emerging and disappearing on each pass.

The initial idea for these pieces arrived as I was editing a recording of “Tide,” my piece for ten violins and ten cellos, in 2016. The large consort of strings produced washes of overtones above the notated pitches. I built a software patch that isolated overtones on the recording and added new harmonies around them. At the time, I thought that this generator might become a third voice within “Tide,” illuminating overtones within the texture at formal moments in the music. One afternoon, I listened to the overtone harmonizations of the Illumination patch on their own and realized that it was more beautiful as a separate composition. The upper air of Tide bloomed into the musical language of the Illuminations."

Artist: Matt Sargent

Label: Sawyer Editions