Travertine Hybrid #3

In the winter of 2011 I visited the Getty Center in Los Angeles. There, I recorded myself striking the surface of travertine limestone spread throughout the Getty campus, which produces an amazing hollow ringing sound. The following year I used analyses of this audio as the compositional basis for a series of pieces for solo string instruments. The two prior works in the series are for viola and cello solo respectively, while Travertine Hybrid #3 marks the first in this series for violin and is also the first to include electronics. Previously I cross-synthesized the partials of viola samples with partials of the travertine samples and produced hybrid spectra. The electronic accompaniment here includes this cross-synthesis, but also includes resonant filter techniques and generative score material.

—Louis Goldford, 2014