PortFOLIO

Tohu va-vohu (2023)

for orchestra and live electronics [6.5’]

Recording by the Rutgers Symphony Orchestra

Inspired by the Jewish mystical practice of Kabbalah and the text of the Zohar, I utilized numbers derived from Hebrew text (Gematria) from the words Tohu Va-Vohu, the words used to describe the universe before the creation myth. The electronics are produced via live performance on the Roli Seaboard and triggering of time stretched samples.

TURNPIKE (2022)

for two horns, live processing, fixed media, and film [20’]
music and video by Ethan Isaac

Commissioned by Richard Deane, Associate Principal Horn of the New York Philharmonic

Inspired by my time traveling on the New Jersey Turnpike during the pandemic, I set out to capture the many concepts that occurred to me during these drives. I collected an interview with my grandfather, whom I had been taking care of during that time. He worked as a transcontinental trucker for about 15 years, each trip began and ended right off of the Turnpike. Using Super8 film and digital sources I created a film to accompany the live performance of the work.

CREDITS
Jason Friedman, horn
Conor Williams, 8mm camera operator
Murat Çolak, audio mastering

IDEAL : REALITY, for drumset quartet (2022)

for drumset quartet [5’]

Presented as part of the So Percussion Summer Institute

This piece is the result of research I conducted regarding the relationship between rhythm and pitch, mostly through the works of Ben Johnston. During this process I came across an unusual discovery. When a perfectly tuned musical interval, a fifth specifically, was played and reduced to rhythmic units, it did not produce the ideal (3/2) rhythmic ratio that in an ideal world should appear. I transcribed this, universe grooving with itself, into notation and then imposed said linear rhythms onto the ideal (3/2) ratio creating many polyrhythmic relations. The electronics produce a justly tuned C major chord when the ensemble is loud enough, reflecting the original source of pitch. Emotionally, the piece displays the interference one can have when one's ideals face reality. There can be a great deal of strife, but in the end you have to reconcile your ideals with the reality's conditions.

Film by Four/Ten Media

NIMROD FRAGMENTS (2022)

for orchestra [9’]

Recording by the Rutgers Symphony Orchestra

My first full scale orchestra work, inspired by the “Nimrod” variation of Elgar’s Enigma Variations. Inspired by looping and improvisation, I created an especially long canon. The line is about 4 minutes in length, then begins again on another instrument. Most of the development occurs within the percussion and brass sections. Otherwise the goal was to write a very atmospheric work, inspired by my audio engineering experience, focusing on timbre.

Executive dysfunction (2022)

for percussion trio [6’]
music and text by Ethan Isaac

Presented at the So Percussion Summer Institute

As productivity increases, it seems that all society gets in return is more anxiety and suffering. We are experiencing unprecedented growth and the capitalist class demands more of us every year. This work intends to be a lens in which we can witness our suffering, in hope that we may reconsider how we spend our time.

Supplemental Materials

Chronicle in Stone (2022)
Fixed media work composed for Fall 2022 graduate seminar “Ends and Means in Composition” (Profs. Donnacha Dennehy and Natalie Joachim; Department of Music, Princeton University)

Imaginary Keyboards (2019)
Senior thesis project, Bard College (Adviors: Kyle Gann and Matt Sargent)

Album contains just intonation, electroacoustic art song, and other techniques.