My title, Simplicity out of Complexity out of Simplicity, names a compositional goal that I admire. Beginning with simple elements of sound, composers can use their expertise to craft compositional systems that may be enormously complex and far beyond the comprehension of most listeners. But by the end, I think it is a magical thing if it comes around to become perceptually simple again: a musical organism with processes, gestures, and gestalts that are readily appreciated and comprehended even by listeners who do not know anything about the underlying system.

Shadow Prism was my first piece for guitar, and at the time I had very limited experience with the instrument. I could play some basic chords, and that was about it. I felt like I barely knew what I was doing when I was composing it, but to my surprise it has become one of my most successful pieces. The score is now published by les Productions d’Oz, recordings appear on two albums by different guitarists, and it has been performed dozens of times by many different guitarists around the world.

Seven Beginnings (2019), for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, two violins, viola, and cello, was composed as a deliverable of my ACTOR postdoc. The piece builds upon the trend of speech transcription in recent music, with a focus on spectral transcription and cross-modal composition. But far from being a technical étude, it is a very personal piece with a very specific motivation behind its materials and methods.