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.
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Monday, November 06, 2006
"The Gloved One" on Sequenza21 11/20 concert in NYC
No, not Michael Jackson.
Since I started writing, I've had two basic strands of music: one that was more or less traditional (i.e., pieces written in traditional notation, using a linear narrative that can be reproduced each time the piece is played) and one which is experimental. Over the years, my definitions of each have changed: my 'traditional' music grew increasingly complex (and unplayable!) in the early 1990s, and then slowly moved to simpler harmonic and rhythmic structures. The traditional music eventually embraced electronics as a part of almost every situation, so that now I feel at home writing for the computer as an instrument. Some pieces even take on experimental qualities, incorporating improvisation and extended instrumental techniques.
Meanwhile, my experimental side has continued to develop. More recently, I've begun working with a series of works I like to think of as conceptual. These pieces do not have a traditional score to follow - actually, they are complete improvisations. They don't have a pre-set duration, nor do they have a pre-determined path through a series of vignettes. They're not entirely reproducable from performance to performance. And one more detail: generally, the pieces do not make use of any standard musical instrument.
The Gloved One was one of two installments composed in 2006 for the latter series of works. The title refers to the singular P5 glove worn by the performer (me, in this case!) that controls most of the sound elements in the piece. The gloves function as a 3-dimensional control interface that can manipulate a number of sound-shaping parameters simultaneously; it is fed into a Max/MSP patch, and used to control the mix, speed, filter cutoffs, looping points, and a host of other settings.
I think any set of sounds can be used for this piece. It's possible to collect a bunch of random clips, or maybe go to a specific environment (subway stations, piers, the woods, ski slopes)and gather sounds. Of course, then, the piece truly becomes a shell. For the current round of performances, though, I've been using sounds that focus on Miles Davis (both speaking and playing) and Jimi Hendrix (a singing clip, and some guitar playing). I've chosen those two because of a fascinating rumor that i've heard, that Miles actually wanted Jimi in his band in the late 60s/early 70s. (Okay, I think everyone wanted Jimi in their band at that time.) Of course, the two never got together, but it leaves me wondering what would have happened. The clip I have of Miles talking (in that often-imitated scratchy voice) has him denying that rumor, but it still intrigues me. The clips are combined in a number of ways, really for their sonic qualities more than for their musical content.
The Gloved One is a visually stimulating piece as well as a sonic experience. As a performer, it's a blast to discover how your gestures are instantly transformed into a vast array of sounds. The performance is somewhat unpredictable, in that I really have no idea exactly how the piece will sound on November 20, 2006, and how that will differ from the rehearsal I'll have in my studio on November 19. And that is one of the joys (if not tenets) of experimental music - you write a piece in which you are not fully aware of the outcome!
posted by Anthony Cornicello
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