Cooped! (2025)
for Orchestra and CPU
Program Notes:
Vocals: MC Maguire
CPU: MC Maguire
(Can be performed as a stand-alone recording or Orchestra and CPU)
‘Cooped’ is a 27min. orchestral/CPU piece based on the Post Malone hit, ‘Cooped Up’. The song title refers to the Covid lockdowns and their eventual relaxation. The structure behind ‘Cooped’ extends the metaphor further, based on the fact that for every action (pressure), there is an equal, but opposite reaction (release). In musical terms, this often revolves around the compression and expansion of the rhythms, and harmonic rhythm. Here, this is realized by ‘strettoizing’ and augmenting the song’s 4 note (F,G,D,E) bass line, until by the end of the work, the note value has shrunk from 4 measures to a 1/128 note value.
The work’s surface structure consists of four continuous movements (variations), while embedded in the last three movements are six song-like ‘vignettes’ using melodic fragments from the Post Malone Song. The movements and songs are often dominated by the expanding and shrinking of the F,G,D,E ursatz, symbolizing one’s battle with corporeal restraints and our occasional liberations.
Playlist influencers; (in no order) Max Cooper, Amon Tobin, Tigran Hamaysan, Alfred Schnittke, Georg Friedrich Haas, Valentin Silvestrov’s 5th Symphony, and Chris Rouse’s Gorgon.
