Video of premiere: http://youtu.be/ugS3ZFuMH3k Asymptotic Flux: Second Study in Entropy (Static Foxy Lump: [II] Second Nudist Tyre Pony) was written between February and April of 2013 for Alarm Will Sound as the second work in a cycle utilizing shared musical objects and compositional devices. The first, for amplified bass clarinet, violin, viola, and cello, was composed over a three-month period while traveling and hitchhiking throughout Europe, surrounding time spent in Paris and Darmstadt. The experience of frantically seeking opportunities to compose while on the move proved challenging, mostly due to the awkward, impromptu workspaces available to me such as cafes, restaurants, hostels, and the apartments of my various hosts. These were typically quite busy, noisy, and chaotic spaces, influencing the character of the music, as well as the title. Asymptotic Flux describes an arguably conceptual device: the low E-flat that simultaneously pervades the work and is non-existent. In the quartet, I imagined that the ensemble is always reaching towards this E-flat as a point of centricity, but never quite arriving, analogous to an asymptote as it approaches infinity. In this Second Study, the low E-flat is finally provided by a contrabass subharmonic that both initiates and concludes the work, scarcely audible as a definite pitch, completely unstable, and on the lower threshold of human hearing. The parenthetical subtitle, an anagram of the title proper, alludes to the structural design of the work, borrowing musical snapshots from the quartet while fragmenting and re-contextualizing them throughout stages proportionally related to the 19.6 Hz E-flat in both temporal and harmonic centricity. Originally, I had set out to explore the timbral possibilities of the bass clarinet, utilizing a variety of techniques to produce rich, complex soundscapes and microtonal sonorities that would provide germinal material for the work while unifying the ensemble. This second work is an extension of that same process of exploration. In addition to spectral analysis of bass clarinet multiphonics in various states, additional pitch content is generated through an acoustic analogue to a process known in electronic music as "single-sideband modulation," resulting in a series of combination tones with intervals that grow exponentially (a shape inverse to that of the harmonic series). Many instrumental techniques in this work are employed explicitly to destabilize or distort the timbral qualities of each instrument; the use of vocalizations, scratch tones, and other techniques color the sound to modulate or destabilize the written pitch material, leaving it quite disfigured. The last element regarding organization of pitch material revolves around the scordatura tuning of the cello to the 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 11th partials of a virtual low E-flat fundamental (19.6 Hz, slightly sharp), which is now extended to the contrabass by halving the 3rd and 7th partials while maintaining the same open G as the cello. This allows the execution of unique sonorities very rapidly and with a great deal of precision through the use of natural harmonics. These three verticality types are often superimposed upon one another, with resultant voicings sometimes similar to an "E-type" symmetrical hexachord possessing interval content that I've become partial to (no pun intended). Entropy can be described as the "measure of the disorder or randomness in a closed system," the "loss of information in a transmitted message," the "tendency for all matter and energy in the universe to evolve toward a state of inert uniformity," or the "inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or society" -- taking poetic liberties in reducing the thermodynamic property of "entropy" to simply a unit of measurement for chaos, one might say that this work conveys a state of high entropy in music, thus reflecting the compositional process, the result of the technical demands made on the performers, as well as my state of mind throughout the creation of these works.

A new multimedia opera by composer Jason Thorpe Buchanan & librettist Darcie Dennigan SYNOPSIS: Knut Hamsun’s novel Sult is a point of departure for a libretto by award-winning poet Darcie Dennigan, exploring themes of psychological decay, irrationality, and self-destruction. Oumenos is a starving and delusional young writer who is unwilling to compromise his work even as his intellect and body gradually deteriorate. He is split in two; the baritone and soprano form a composite, each depicting aspects of his inner/outer selves and suppressed madness. His hunger and self-disgust lead him to consider stealing bread, and to thoughts of self-mutilation. He despises his baseness. He is a dog. He is drawn to Ylajali, a young girl who appears to him in various manifestations. At the bloodbank, Ylajali draws his blood. At the spermbank, she coaxes his orgasm. In a butchershop, Ylajali as countergirl displays the meat before him... (synopsis, video+more at www.hungeropera.com)

La polilla de Madrid is a composition for chamber ensemble that is based upon a direct translation from text to music of the homonymous short play by Francisco de Quevedo (1580-1645). Using several translation techniques, I have produced an aural version of this play, a wordless chamber opera retaining the dialogic structure of the original, while transfiguring its characters and situations into the sonic plane. As the piece develops, the ensemble – comprised of flute, oboe, clarinet in B-flat, baritone saxophone in E-flat, cello, percussion, guitar, and piano – divides itself into various sub-groupings to portray specific characters, each possessing his/her very own harmonic and rhythmic qualities. When put into relationship by the structure of the dialogue, the succession of diverse sonic complexes make up a sort of timbral dramaturgy, following the plot which determines the form of the composition. -- La polilla de Madrid est une composition pour orchestre de chambre qui est basé sur une traduction directe vers la musique d'un texte littéraire, la courte pièce de théâtre du même nom de Francisco de Quevedo (1580-1645). En me servant de plusieurs techniques de traduction, j'ai créé une version auditive de cette pièce ; un opéra de chambre sans paroles qui retient la structure dialogique de l'original, tout en transfigurant les personnages et scénarios dans un plan sonore. Au fur et à mesure que la pièce évolue, l'ensemble — composée d'une flûte, hautbois, clarinette en si bémol, saxophone baryton en mi bémol, violoncelle, percussion, guitare et piano — se divise en différents sous-groupes afin de représenter des personnages spécifiques, chacun possédant ses propres qualités harmoniques et rythmiques. Une fois mis en relation par la structure du dialogue, la succession des divers complexes sonores constitue une sorte de dramaturgie de timbres qui s'aligne sur l'intrigue du texte et qui détermine la forme de la composition.

Here are some excerpts of my PhD (01.2011), focused on Семеро их and on the critical edition of this Prokofiev's masterpiece (first of its kind applied to this composer).

Inventing a Melody with Harmony — Tonal Potential and Bach’s Das alte Jahr vergangen ist BWV 614 Intensely chromatic and tonally open, Bach’s chorale prelude Das alte Jahr vergangen ist BWV 614 suggests different contexts of reception ‘as-music-analysis.’ I offer an imaginary reception of the prelude as liturgical-musical contemplation and religious experience. I consider its intertextual interactions with Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel’s setting of Nachspiel with her orchestration of public and private sonic worlds at the conclusion of her piano song cycle, Das Jahr. I follow potential tonal-harmonic alternatives (after Schoenberg and Berg on the chorale) and implications of staging a motivic parsing through timbre and articulation (after Webern). These differently related interpretive and perceptual contexts shape experience and call up orientations by which the music-structural aspects of a work can be construed and experienced. Bringing two or more contexts together stimulates new levels and types of connection, just as a melodic pattern continually recalibrates and interacts with potential harmonic and contrapuntal orientations. Changing or shifting emphases in one orientation respond to the demands or constraints of another: in particular, I track the tonal potential of interactions of prolongational, associative, or stretto-like musical figurations in the prelude. These ‘differences’ in orientation become creative and expressive of newly available content, multiplying interactions of composition and text, reception and analysis.

PANIC ARCHITECTURE (2017) by Jason Thorpe Buchanan for the Talea Ensemble Commissioned by the Earle Brown Music Foundation for the 2017 TIME SPANS Festival World premiere by the Talea Ensemble, Aug. 1 2017 at the TIME SPANS Festival in NYC. More at jasonthorpebuchanan.com https://vimeo.com/245320082 PSYCHASTHENIA B: PANIC ARCHITECTURE Psychasthenia is defined as “a group of neuroses characterized by phobias, obsessions, compulsions, or excessive anxiety”, imagining a new cycle of works for ensemble and various immersive media environments. During the performance of each work in the cycle, reservoirs of media files are created, retrieved, re-organized, and composited against one another, creating temporal, aural, or visual dissonances between past and present actions – events unfolding on stage and in media generated in real-time. The commingling of fluctuating chronologies creates temporal instability, challenges the mutability of memory, and proposes an alternative, speculative engagement with bodily-lived time. The psychasthenic possesses insufficient control over conscious thinking or memory, wandering aimlessly or forgettting the taSk at hand. Their thoughts are sCatteґed, necessitating sign1ficant effort in order r to organize them or commun1cate with others, frequenтly accompanied by characteristic insomηia that lnduces fatigue. Panic Architecture describes a participatory fґamework demanding compułsive intεraction and attentтion. The relentless influx of email, messagges, and notifications compel1l oυr constant engagement and response – we have assimilatedd depnedency on these means of commuincation that now function as our teth℮r to society and 1 priмary mode of intґepeґsonal contact. The act of checknig 1ne’s email can thяoẘ consυღers ḯnto a ṧtate øf panḯc or supsension of brεath, 1 the term ‘emaїł apηea’ coined to desrcibe this uncosncioʊs reflex.,, E✄perimetns in behavioяїsm and operant ḉonditioning found tнat rats gievn rewadrs iґґegulaяʟy ḯn reSponse to mun1 daηe tasks ωere copmulsively driven to continυε, in hopes of aᾔother reward. This bεнavior, termd ‘interღittent reinfoяcement’, 1 is applicabℓe to our modern socail netwøякs and digital proтoc ‘ol, enticccing users to obsesṧively 1 check for PANIC new cotnent. Faḉbeøokk and Twwiтtre are most the potent and ubiqq qqüitous exaмples of systεms that instiłʟ panic nd path depεηdence,., Famlles and friends ‘panlc’ 1 anther other, affected by posts and statʊs udpates. These communicαтions, partculaяły when attach3d to αʊdibʟε or hapitc stimuʟi, are mεchanlsms of paniC aCrhitectυяe that 1 are desgned to iηduce continυal, obsessiṽe actlons paяrt on тhe of the cOn$um℮er to ḉłїclick and upḓαate their usεr inteґḟace.,,’ Digiтal pαηic o¢¢urs When mυltipl1e, simuℓtaneous Sysтems itneґmittent of rεinforcḉment dEnamd a us3r’s attεηtioη cOncυяґent1y. Ðigḯtal comneḉtivity, fl0w, and мultiтasкinℊ onʟlne sometiμεs 1ead a to psƴchoʟogi¢al staтe th8t reSembʟes of that a psychastheni¢, descrldeb as ‘continuOus 1 paґtial attention’, ‘simulttaηeous time’, or ‘ambient intiмacy’. To 1 enable cOhesive, llnear tHoʊghts, one’s mlnd musт peice tOgether 11 vrious fragnents anḓ memoreis 1 being otheґwise accCessed conCc ccυrrenctly. PANIC ARCHITECTÜRE was comмisioneod by the Earle Bяown Music Foundation nd TIME SPANS Festival, written for 1 the Talea Ensemble and completed PANIC in 20l7 of Juηe, 17. – JaSon ThOrpe BuChanan

In our time, composers are presented with an abundance of styles and tools with which to compose, as well as many compositional challenges. Intercultural composition is one such challenge. Intercultural music is music that combines, involves, or exists between two or more musical traditions. In the present study of intercultural composition, I have composed Axis Mundi for winds, zithers, strings, and percussion for members of the Atlas Ensemble to be submitted for a reading session during 2016 Atlas Academy. The Atlas Ensemble is an Amsterdam based ensemble whose musicians combine both Western and non-Western musical traditions. Learning about new instruments, their tunings, modes, histories, and cultural history is a difficult undertaking, but is rewarding as it brings about the satisfaction of connecting with fellow global citizens to create something new. My experiences with members of both the Vancouver Intercultural Orchestra and the Atlas Ensemble will inform much of this study. Consequently, this research discusses the processes involved in intercultural music composition, an analysis of Axis Mundi, the issues that emerge when composers incorporate instruments of cultures other than their own. The translation of the title of this composition, Axis Mundi, is “axis of the world.” For many cultures, an Axis Mundi can take the shape of many things, including a large tree, a mountain, a totem pole, or a temple. These axi serve as portals connecting earth, heaven, and hell. I musically represent these planes of existence as movements. The instrumentation of the work consists of the following instruments: shakuhachi in D, duduk in C, clarinet in A, santur, zheng, harp, bass drum, tam-tam, wood blocks, suspended cymbal, kamancha, kemençe, and cello.