Images in Homage

Each of the miniatures in this suite have been written in homage to a composer or musician who has had a profound impact on my music. Through these homages, I’m exploring the foundation of my own artistic development by identifying the roots of my compositional techniques and tendencies. None of the miniatures attempts to mimic the work of the dedicatee; instead, they explore the musical ideas that are suggested to me by that musician’s work. This may be better understood as building upon the music of others by responding to that music with music. Moreover, each miniature is based on an image that I relate with the dedicatee or their music.

The musicians to which these pieces pay homage constitute a broad range of musical styles. One of the central challenges in this project lies in the unification of these many divergent ascetic sensibilities into a single, coherent, suite of miniatures. I intend to write several more of these miniatures in the future for the final version of the suite, which will be in “pop album” form: sixteen miniatures ranging from two to five minutes each, amounting to roughly one hour of music. However, as my own tastes change and the list of possible dedicatees expands, I may end up adding miniatures to this suite indefinitely.

This set of miniatures currently includes six homages in the following order:

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - John Cage Mobile - Brian Cherney Carnival - Tom Waits Evening, McDonald Lake - La Monte Young Spiral - Pierre Mercure Small Stream Close-up - Salvatore Sciarrino