Without! (2025)
for Orchestra and CPU
Program Notes:
CPU: MC Maguire
(Can be performed as a stand-alone recording or Orchestra and CPU)
‘Without’ is a 25 minute work for orchestra and CPU. It is based on the song ‘Without You’ by the pop artist Halsey. From this song I will gleam various harmonic, melodic, and motivic fragments to construct a giant orchestral/electronic mural.
While Halsey’s song is centred around the idea of loss of a lover, my new piece will revolve around the idea of loss in general (thus the title ‘without’). Besides the loss of loved ones, there is also the loss of justice, or dignity, or one’s’ health, one’s wealth, one’s faith, or loss of a rational construct to in order to continue. Consequently the piece will be in a constant state of subtracting musical elements creating a kind of teetering empty shell, which is similar to the core feeling of grief. Around all grief swirls the winds of chaotic instability, while deep inside. our loss is singular inertia of abject depression. All these feelings can be touched upon by the judicious manipulation and extraction of musical material.
