ALCÁZAR III (1972)
– Peter Tod Lewis (1932-1982)
Peter Tod Lewis sat down in a Spanish garden and listened. He heard bird songs, cries of children in the distance, and even further away the sound of cars and trains passing. He wanted to recreate this sonic landscape, and in order to do so scored the piece as a maze, as shown below. Players enter at the bottom right and work their way through until they reach the center. As indicated in the score:
“Start at the beginning, go to the end, and then stop.”
- The Red Queen to Alice
Electric Birdsong (2025)
– Jared Worman (b. 1999)
Inspired by the implied communication between aviation obstruction lights, I wanted to write something that captured this unintentional display. Similar to Lewis, I knew I wouldn’t be able to accomplish this through standard notation. Like the lights, each player is set to their own tempo and plays brief motives with no relation to the others. Every performance is unique and any melodic material that arises is purely coincidental, though greatly admired.
SOUNDS FROM THE GARDEN
Makayla Aguilar
Eva Ayala
Heri Ayma
Brandon Bayer
Gabriel Campa
Brianna Castilla
Ada Cruz Hernandez
Karyl De Guzman
Caroline Foster
Sarah Hamm
The Ensemble
Kenedy Lerma
Francheska Lugo
Francis Maille-Romero
Logan Odom
Jordan Rodriguez
Raymon Saldaña
Milena Sousa
Jared Worman
Jayden Zunker-Treviño
There are many people I would like to thank for making this performance possible. First I would like to thank the members of the ensemble, without them this music literally would not exist, I am incredibly grateful to all of you. I would also like to thank Dr. Sarah Wildey for being the organizer and approver of the recital and helping to make sure everything got done in order for this recital to take place. Thank you to my partner, Jordan, for travelling with me to the lights which inspired ELECTRIC BIRDSONG so I could truly realize the work and for motivating me to follow my passion for writing. Thank you to my family for providing me the resources and support to find such a love for music. Thank you to the UTSA music faculty and staff which make performing in this space possible. And thank you to those who came to experience a snippet of the sounds in my head. More than for my own enjoyment, I love to write for those who love to listen.
