Rituals and Tendencies

Much of my recent compositional work has been inspired by elements of ritual in music -- music associated with ceremonies, celebrations, rites of passage and other communal events, as well as music related to routine human activities, quirky personal habits and the vocalizations that accompany repetitive physical actions. Rituals, in all their forms, define us and our beliefs, since they make up so much of our daily lives. We express ourselves through the rituals we perform. Rituals and Tendencies, for sixteen singers, depicts, juxtaposes and combines various types of rituals -- ancient and modern, personal and communal, solemn and joyful, real and imaginary -- using nonsensical text. In some miniatures, the text is based on phonemes and abstract vocal sounds, while in others the text recombines and plays with syllables taken from French and English.