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Tyler Taylor, Little Mercies for spatial String Quartet (2023)
18:20

Tyler Taylor, Little Mercies for spatial String Quartet (2023)

Little Mercies (2023) for spatial String Quartet commissioned by Jon P. Cherry in response to his exhibit of photos by the same title. The piece was performed at 21c Museum Hotel in Louisville, Ky. as part of the Louisville Photo Biennial. (This recording was taken in the space so you may hear ambient noises from the museum). Performers: Violin 1 - Heather Thomas, Violin 2 - Colleen Mahoney, Viola - Laura Vicic, Cello - Alan Ohkubo About the collection "Little Mercies": "The confluence of nationwide racial justice protests, economic hardship, and environmental destruction, all within the framework of a deathly and unrelenting global pandemic, reached and maintained profoundly palpable levels of reckoning in Kentucky. The Little Mercies is a state-as-subject portrait of our complicatedly beautiful, deeply resilient contemporary Old Kentucky Home, capturing the lived experience of Kentuckians. Whether documenting a disaster, or an individual’s success, Jon Cherry’s storytelling is one of shared humanity." About the quartet "Little Mercies": "Little Mercies is a response to an exhibit of photographs by the same name. The photos were taken by photojournalist Jon P. Cherry who commissioned the work to be performed in the exhibit. Jon and I agreed that the quartet should be composed in a way where people could be in the exhibit, walk around, and experience the photos and music simultaneously. The music responds to the exhibit as a whole focussing on ideas of pain, deep sadness, gritty anger, fleeting moments of hope, and cautious optimism. I am struck by the communities of people in the photos who repeatedly face adversity and devastation but are somehow still able to pick up the pieces and persist. The ending of the piece, tired and exhausted, is underpinned by a looming sense of uncertainty – nothing suggests that this pattern of devastation is ending anytime soon." As a native Kentuckian I am honored to take part in sharing the story of our beautiful but complex state.
Tyler Taylor "Urban Pastoral" for Natural horn in D and piano (2023)
07:51

Tyler Taylor "Urban Pastoral" for Natural horn in D and piano (2023)

Olivier Blakney - Natural Horn, James Coghlin - Piano Commissioned by Olivier Blakney and partially funded by the Meir Rimon Commissioning Assistance Program of the International Horn Society “Urban Pastoral” is a piece that addresses the idea of natural beauty in an urban environment. It focuses especially on the impression of an urban nightscape – the amber glow of street lamps filtered through trees; clouds dimly lit by light pollution from one side and by the moon from the other; fireflies glowing in a park; and drops of dew shimmering on glass. The horn has long been associated with the hunt - “alla caccia”- and the pastoral. The natural horn’s ability to showcase its easy and ready access to the upper partials of the overtones series deepens this association with nature – the overtones themselves seem to evoke a fundamental connection with the natural world as the series’ patterns resonate everywhere around us. The piece relies on this weighty association and sets it against the fixed, equal temperament of the piano. On its own, the natural horn is bound to a set of specific pitches from the overtone series. The movement of the performer’s right hand effects the timbre and pitch of the horn allowing them to play pitches outside of the series. However, the piano is able to access any pitch at anytime with the compromise that its intonation doesn’t match perfectly with the natural horn’s overtones series. The rub between these two temperaments serves as an analogy for the contradictory coexistence of the urban pastoral.

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