Umbra (2016-17) for flute, voice, guitar, and percussion

Umbra, for flute, voice, guitar, and percussion, was written for and premiered by the Fonema Consort on May 17, 2017 at Northwestern University.

The piece explores the acoustic properties of phonemes related to words such as “darkness” and “shadows,” and my goal was to explore the various densities of shadows through register and orchestration. From the start of the piece to the end, their is a gradual trajectory downwards in register, as the shadows grow heavier, thicker, more resonant. I tried to orchestrate every sound around a vocal utterance, where every instrument is an extension of the voice, like a surreal hybrid. Each performer was given a vocal part that complemented their instrumental role in the piece. This served as a constant reminder of the voice and its abstraction through translation into acoustic matter. While the words have been distorted beyond semantic recognition, their expressivity was preserved, living on as pure, visceral emotion.