Vulgaria began with no particular model to mimic. It was an attempt to use all I’ve learned in my composition lessons selectively to just make interesting music. Eventually it developed into a representation of a timeline, from the birth of something to its eventual end. This could represent a human life, an era, or mankind as a whole.

Though the piece is intended to be thought of as one continous stream, it can be broken down into 3 parts for string trio which are separated by sections of pre-recorded sounds played by a Max/MSP sampler which I designed. I chose a string trio as the primary ensemble because it seemed to be perfect for the kind of harmonic and timbral ideas I wanted to express, not to mention that I really enjoy writing for strings. The sampler (which features variable speed playback, dynamic panning, and sentence-like word structuring) creates a thick stationary texture and provides a minimalistic retreat from the busy trio.

click here for a RealAudio file of Vulgaria

Players featured on this recording:

Nikki Herrera - violin
Timothy Lee - violin
Jillian Park - cello
Paul Turowski - Max/MSP sampler

Click here for a PDF version of the title page, program notes, and technical notes
Click here for a PDF version of the score

Contact composer for the Max/MSP patch needed to perform this work