Compositions by Arun Chandra

Concert of June 1, 2022

  1. Seven Jewish Children [6:04] (2014) (text by Caryl Churchill)

    Performed by: Gwenyth Allison, Red Binns, Zoe Cordova, Marissa Cummings, Veronica Harris, Andrew Irish, Steven Jordan, Lain Kent, Scott Larson,
    Devlan Ostrum, Keaton Pfeifle, Elizabeth Smith, Jared Vasquez,
    Zahra Vivero

  2. To Be Yourself — Change! [8:31] (2011)

    Ben Kapp (cello), Ben Michaelis (guitar), Arun Chandra (toy piano)

  3. An Untitled Poem in 16 Stanzae by Keith Moore [14:12] (2010)

    Emma Jones, Logan Lasswell, Shannon Kerrigan, Callum McKean, Ben Michaelis, Ben Kapp

  4. Three Songs on poems by Bertolt Brecht

    Kate Arvin (voice), Jared Vasquez (voice and electric guitar), Ben Kapp (voice and piano)

    1. Song of the Water-seller in the Rain
    2. Song of Smoke
    3. Song of the Eighth Elephant
  5. I Pity the Garden [9:01] (2018)

    Emma Jones, Logan Lasswell, Shannon Kerrigan, Steve Jordon, Callum McKean, Ben Michaelis, Justin Vinson, Ben Kapp

    Sound check recording

Other Compositions

The Dance of the Unhappily Obedient (2019) [11:00]

Mixdown to stereo from 140 independent channels.

Written for the 2019 Spatial Music Workshop at Virginia Tech.

I Pity the Garden (2018) [8:30]

for eight voices. Poem by Forugh Farrokhzad.

Performers: Ariel Birks, Jane Rogers, Shirley Urman, Hathor Vergotis, Taylor Gibbs, Oliver Cramer, Callum McKean, Elliot Kennedy, Ben Michaelis, Ben Kapp (March 6, 2019)

Score: I Pity the Garden

A Refugee in the Mediterranean (2017) [30:00]

Written for the 2017 Unity Gain festival at the Portland Community College, to celebrate the installation of their 32-channel high-density speaker array.
Mixed down for 8-independent channels – 8 channel .wav file (~1.3GB)
MP3 files (each ~14Mb)
16-bit, 44.1kHz mono WAV files (each ~151 Mb)

Country Mouth and City Mouth (2015) (9:00)

for 8-channels
mixdown to stereo

An experiment in using only additive synthesis for composition.

An Untitled Poem in 16 Stanzae by Keith Moore

(13:30) (playback: 1993, vocal score: 2012) [137mb]
for six voices and two-channel playback.
Voice: Keith Moore

Performed by: Ariel Birks, Jane Rogers, Taylor Gibbs, Psyrus Bruni, Otto Kildegaard, Ben Michaelis

tape part alone: Wave file

Sounds synthesized by wigout, a program for creating waveform transformations.

Performed at the 2010 ICMC in New York, NY.

Score: “An Untitled Poem in Sixteen-Stanzae by Keith Moore” for six voices and 2-channel playback

Landscape score for Kate

Seven poems by David Wolach

(10:30) (2011) [25mb] (mp3)

Voices: Benjamin Michaelis, Ben Kapp, Elizabeth Williamson, Molly McDermott, Clayton Norman

Stereo mixdown of 8 channel composition

drift, sentence — burst

(11:13) (2005) [114mb] (mp3) (wav)

Sunday Drives

(8:40) (2003) [88mb] (mp3) (wav)
after a poem by Mary Margaret Fondriest
voice: Mary Margaret Fondriest

An Appropriate Response (JDAM)

[9:59] (2002) (101Mb) (mp3) (wav)
For four voices and 2-channel playback
performed by Mary Margaret Fondriest, Kelly Cullom, Anthony Cobb and Mark Zanter

on the tip of my tongue

(11:30) (2006) [27mb]
2 channel mixdown of a 6 channel composition.
voices: Kate Arvin and Todd Kimmich
mp3

Crocker

(8:18) (1997)[84mb] (mp3) (wav)
for 3 percussionists and 2-channel playback
after a poem by Chris Mann
voice: Chris Mann
Commissioned by the Percussion Group Cincinnati.
Performed at:

  • 1998 SEAMUS conference at Dartmouth College (Percussion Group Cincinnati)
  • 2002 ICMC in Gothenburg, Sweden (Gothenburg Percussion)
  • 2015 SinusTone Festival, Berlin (BerlinPianoPercussion)

Performance by the Percussion Group Cincinnati

Tape part only [84mb]
Performance by the BerlinPianoPercussion Ensemble, October 30, 2015 [85mb]

Score: Crocker

Mann in the Middle

(1:08) (1997) [12mb] (mp3) (wav)
voice: Chris Mann
Written for the Frog Peak Collaboration Project

The gift of gab

(6:48) (1997) [69mb] (mp3) (wav)

Performed at the 1998 SEAMUS conference (San Jose)

smear pulse no sneer

(9:45) (1994) [99mb] (mp3) (wav)

First attempt at using my synthesis algorithm pulse.
Performed in the 1995 spring tour of the Performers Workshop Ensemble.

A Bit, A Curve, Alas, A Wave!

(8:20) (1993) [85mb] (mp3) (wav)

Sounds synthesized using my program triktraks.

Performed at the 1993 American Society for Cybernetics conference (Chicago)

We Wear the Mask

(6:44) (1992) [68mb] (mp3) (wav)
after a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar
voices: Michael Hamman, Ann Dwyer, Gottfried Meyer-Kress

Sounds synthesized by using chaotic algorithms as described by the mathematician Gottfried Meyer-Kress

Lament

(5:56) (1992) [61mb] (mp3) (wav)
after a poem by Alice Thorner
voice: Arun Chandra
Performed at the 1993 ICMC conference in Tokyo, Japan.

to get to the other side

(5:15) (1991) [53mb] (mp3) (wav)
voices: Joe Grohens, Kimberly Michael, Renice and Jolie Wernette,
Phil Johnson, Scott Midler and Andre Kuzniarek.

Sounds created with Mathematica 2.0

Blood on my Thumb

(6:42) (1991) [68mb] (mp3) (wav)
texts by George Jackson and Raymond Chandler
voices: Joe Grohens, Phil Johnson, Scott Midler, Andre Kuzniarek, and others.


Exploration of frequency modulation, implemented with Mathematica 2.0

Musical Scores (PDF files)

3 Compositions by Herbert Brün

“Infraudibles with Quintet (live)” by Herbert Brün (mp3)

“More Dust with Percussion”  by Herbert Brün (mp3)

“i toLD YOu so!” by Herbert Brün (mp3)