Composer Anthony Cornicello (born in Brooklyn, New York, 1964) writes music that blurs distinctions between performers and electronics, timbre and harmony, composition and improvisation, and explores the boundaries of what may be considered post-classical concert music. His music is vibrant and visceral, full of rhythmic energy and harmonic sophistication, and his forays into live electronics have led to exciting combinations of instruments and processed sound. Cornicello’s background as a jazz pianist is evident not only in the rhythmic activity of his music, but also in his constant investigation of the rich sonorities available from a variety of instruments.
He has been commissioned to write music for the Scorchio Electric String Quartet, ModernWorks! (funding from Meet the Composer/ Commissioning Music USA), the Auros Group for New Music, the Prism Saxophone Quartet, the New York New Music Ensemble, David Holzman, the Group for Contemporary Music, and the InterEnsemble of Padova, Italy. His work has also been featured on the Guggenheim Museum’s “Works and Process” series. Cornicello’s works have also been performed by the Chicago Civic Symphony, Parnassus, ALEA III, Composers Concordance, Madeleine Shapiro, Robert Black, among many other outstanding groups and solo performers. His music has been presented as part of the Darmstadt International Festival of New Music as well as the June in Buffalo Festival.
Cornicello’s Second String Quartet has been recorded by the Atlantic String Quartet; the Second Sonata for Piano by David Holzman (Centaur). More recently, his Post-Modern Waltz was recorded by Eric Moe for Albany Records. A portrait CD of Cornicello’s works is scheduled for 2006 release on Albany Records.
As a performer, he has conducted or played piano in his own works on numerous occasions. While a graduate student at Rutgers, he formed and directed the Janus Ensemble, a group dedicated to contemporary music. More recently, Cornicello has begun performing on the laptop, using a variety of interfaces and the Max/MSP program. Those performances, mostly with EEE!, have had a notable impact on his music, as EEE!’s music ranges from hip-hop to experimental noise. EEE! is based at Eastern Connecticut State University, where Cornicello is an Associate Professor and Director of the Electronic Music Lab.
Cornicello received the Ph.D. from Brandeis University, where he studied with David Rakowski, Eric Chasalow, and Martin Boykan. His teachers also include Charles Wuorinen, Gérard Grisey, and Richard Beirach.
His current fields of interest include developing unusual interfaces for live computer music performances, as well as continuing to investigate resonance and spatialization. His recent and current projects (mostly for string instruments and electronics) have been exploring the latter two, and the series of experimental works ReZenant Garden, performed by EEE! have operated on all three areas of interest. Future projects will include works for instrumental groups or soloists and electronics, as well as turntablists.
Cornicello's works are published by C.F. Peters Corporation and APNM, and he is a member of BMI.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Janus-faced
It's at this time of the year that many of us look back at the previous year(s) and take inventory. Maybe even look ahead. Hence, the Janus title. I've always liked the idea of Janus, looking in two directions at once. Back when I was at Rutgers in the late 80s, I formed a new music ensemble called the Janus Ensemble. We did concerts of 'older' contemporary music (Ives, for instance) mixed in with very recent works, often music by the groups members. But I digress...
So this year has been busy, although not too productive on a musical front. As for pieces, I wrote a large work for string quartet and electronics, called Cascade Experiment. (The title comes from a book by my friend and poet Alice Fulton.) That was a half-hour piece, performed a few times by the Scorchio Electric String Quartet. That piece is now in serious revisions (as opposed to humorous?), and hopefully it will get performed again this coming year, in its new version.
I did a lot of revisions. I redid the Max/MSP patches for another piece, "...turns and turns into the night". That piece is for voice, chamber ensemble, and electronics, and this times uses the poetry of Alice Fulton. That piece was first done in 2001, and performed more recently at the University of North Texas. It's a big piece, about a half-hour as well. In the new version, the 2nd movement (titled "==") is now a rap. I still might do some more work to it before Peters prints up the official copies.
And, I'm still revising I'll have an Electric Mahabharata, Please - at least the electronics. My goal is to work on the pitch following software, so that the cellist (it's for cello and electronics) can just play, and the computer will follow. Originally, I had it set up so that the cellist had to hit a foot-switch. The foot-switches are getting hard to find, plus it's a little odd for the cellist to do that in a natural way. One cellist was so nervous about it, and was wacking the swtich like he was Tony Williams playing the hi-hat. Right now, I get to sit there hitting the spacebar for each patch change.
Other things from this year: I've digitized almost all of my CD collection, so that it's all on the iPod, or my hard-drive. On a related note, I'm selling all my CDs here, on Amazon. I've only got around 60 listed right now, I'll be adding more as we go on. Nothing personal about selling these things, I'm just getting sick of having all these jewel cases sitting around. I'll miss some liner notes, of course.
So, what's coming up?
- A two-piano piece, based on Mozart themes. I was asked by a fellow professor at ECSU to write a piece for an upcoming Mozart 250 birth-year celebration. It's a short piece for 2 pianos, no electronics (yikes!). I've never done anything like this before, use someone else's material. The working title is Mozart Remixed, so it's not a theme and variations. So far, I'm using really iconic material, like the C major Sonata, the Queen of the Night aria, and portions of the Requiem.
- A piece for Robert Black: bass and electronics (ah, back on safe ground). He's doing it this Spring, so it's going to have to be written real soon.
- The piece for ModernWorks!, for violin, violoncello, accordion, and electronics. It's a Meet the Composer commission, which is exciting. They want it for next season (2006-7), so I have some time. Of course, I'm still learning about the accordion. I'll be working with Bill Schimmel on this.
On a personal note:
Last year, Sophia was gaining confidence walking, and just starting to say a few recognizable words. This year, she's running all over the place, talking up a storm. It's fun watching kids learn - she's quite good at nouns, has a basic idea of verbs, but really doesn't know what to do with adjectives. Of course, that will change in a month or so...
Well, that's the news from West Hartford.
posted by Anthony Cornicello
|
| |
