Matched Pairs

Written in 2020 for Daniel Hirshbein and Eric Bergemen. This is an aleatoric game-like piece, consisting of four simple scenarios based on interactions between instruments and live electronics. The scores have little or no indication of what the performers should play, and instead invites them to play in a way that best interacts with the electronics.

In each of the four pieces, the performers play into microphones and the computer tracks their pitch and amplitude data to control generated sound. Each piece was designed around sets of conditions that are as simple as possible. My goal was to create an improvisational dynamic that emerges from these simple materials so that all types of interactions in each piece – within the electronics, between the players, and between the players and electronics – are constantly in interdependent flux.

The title refers both to the way that pairs of microphones are sold as well as to a type of experimental design. In addition, the piece relates to my preoccupation with symmetry and the exhaustion of possibilities within defined parameters: there are two performers, two speakers, two modes of playing(short and long).