RE/-SIGNED (2020)

For Percussion Solo with Electronics

Duration ca. 4:30

PROGRAM NOTES

Re/-signed is a piece that examines the capabilities of human versus mechanical performers, both within music and without. Almost all of the musical materials in the piece are based on chess statistics — specifically, statistics taken from the famous 1996-97 matches between Gary Kasparov and IBM’s “Deep Blue.” Deep Blue famously won the second of these encounters, and its victory is often pointed to as the moment when the abilities of chess computers officially overtook those of humans.

Re/-signed similarly features a competition, of sorts, between a human performer and a variety of electronic media. The piece is equipped with a variety of outcomes; not even the soloist knows, when they begin, whether they will “win” the game or not.

Commissioned by Lisa Pegher and ICEBERG New Music. Premiered by Lisa Pegher at Timucua Arts Foundation, Orlando, FL (October 2021).

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