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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Friday, December 15, 2006
Finally....
I've been writing a bit slower these days - much slower than, say, 10 years ago. Maybe there are too many distractions - the Web, computer problems (we have 4 of 'em here, so things are always happening), owning house, and, of course, our daughter.
I think I'm approaching music differently these days. No, actually I know that's the case. When I was a student, I was following a model. Pieces fell into a neat pile, because I was using a venerable, all-purpose set of techniques. Once the mechanism was set in motion, basically the piece was completed. Not that I was into any sort of automated writing techniques, but many things were taken for granted.
Then, I began thinking about the nature of music. What is it that we're doing when we write? What are we expressing? Who are we really writing for?
You see, the problem with many composers of the modernist ilk is that they are 'expressing' the notes, and that's all(!) A Babbitt or Davidovsky piece is about the notes, and not much else. There isn't much in the way of extra-musical story, semiotic symbology, or any bit of external references. (With their disdain for repetition, there isn't much in the way of interal references either!)
Once I began examining my thought processes and re-evaluating myself, I began to shed the modernist trappings. Consequently, I noticed a few things about my compositional workings in the last few years:
1.) Each piece does not have a pre-determined 'mold' into which it is poured. Rather, it develops on it's own. (Surely, there are connections between pieces.)
2.) The starting point of each piece (that is, how I 'get into' the work itself) is different. Sometimes I first envision and write the end, sometimes the opening.
3.) I try to make each piece an adventure in some way, for me as a composer. What can I do that I've never done before? (There's a story about Miles Davis, with his mid-60's band. They had been working on some conceptual thing, I'm not sure what. They felt that they had reached a plateau on a particular night, and were backstage celebrating. Miles came in and realized what they were doing; after congratulating them on their great playing, he asked them what they were going to do to top that. The room fell silent as the young men pondered....)
4.) I now revise a lot more than before. Part of this was arrogance, and part of it was lazyness. Also, I've become more and more able to step outside of myself as a composer and listen to my piece as an audience member. What's wrong with the piece I'm hearing? How can I improve it?
As a result of all this, pieces take longer to develop. I'm perfectly fine with this.
So, today, I finished Spiral Jetty, the piece for Madeleine Shapiro's group ModernWorks! (Yes, I can appreciate the irony...) That is, it's been edited in Sibelius, I've extracted parts and sent them out to Staples for binding. (BTW, don't ever use the Staples on-line site for submitting documents. Not only does it not have all the options you get in the store, but it's slower than anything imaginable.) They'll be doing it in March in NYC, and a few other places as well. I'm excited about it.
(Okay, I've got to write the Max/MSP patches for it as well, but the piece is finished, at least for now. See #4 above, then read back to this point again.)
posted by Anthony Cornicello
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