Inland Empire (2021)

Instrumentation: Tuba and Fixed Media

Difficulty: Advanced

Duration: 7’

Performance Materials (PDF score & mp3 Electronics Track): $15.00

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Commissioned by Caroline Earnhardt

Inland Empire is probably the most challenging piece I have written to date. Following the release of my first electroacoustic work Automata, for Clarinet and Fixed Media, I was approached by my U of A colleague Caroline Earnhardt to write something similar for tuba and electronics. In that regard, I consider this a kind of sister piece to Automata.

When Cari asked me to write something for this instrumentation, I had a brief(ish) moment of panic - how could I possibly approach this piece when I was still completely new to electroacoustic music and had a very limited history with writing for brass? On top of the stress of this, I was feeling a lot of internal pressure to experiment more with my music. All of these combined stresses manifested in a work that reflects my headspace at the time - clanging, (intentionally) disjointed, and for lack of a better description, just plain weird.

Some of it is dissonant and hazy with multiphonics disrupting the core of the sound, some of it is rhythmic and fun, and some of it is relaxed and groovy. At one point in the planning stages, Cari told me she owned tap-like shoes, so I decided to include sections of rhythmic foot tapping and tapping on the very resonant instrument. This odd little piece is my go-for-broke attempt at just fun experimentation, and I have to say I have quite the soft spot for it in my back catalogue.

The title Inland Empire refers metaphorically to the vast internal cityscape of the mind, and this is why I call it a sister piece to Automata - while the latter is a conversation between man and the mind of a computer, Inland Empire is a conversation between man and its own mind.