I spent my residency at Civitella Ranieri Center working on a solo accordion piece for a collaboration with choreographer/film-maker Victoria Marks. Our idea for the piece was that I would compose a 10-minute concert work, for which Vic would create a video “thought bubble,” which imagined the thoughts going through my mind as I’m performing the piece.
For the video, Vic has created images of my dancing across an enormous music staff, getting lost in a forest of notes, the audience falling asleep and my reactions to that (from frustration to anger), and my being tempted by food and various other forms of seduction, ending with a group of seedy agents fulfilling my delusions of grandeur (Vic’s vivid imagination; of course, I’m not in the least like that!). While at Civitella, I was able to complete the entire score for this new piece from scratch (working title Inside Score). The results are a moody piece in 6 six short sections, with wild stylistic contrasts, including Caribbean-like rolling rhythms, eastern-European doina, quasi-improvisations, Stravinskian bi-tonality, klezmer scales, and neo-Rennaissance court dance. I thank the Civitella Ranieri Center for the invaluable gifts of time and mental space. I had been attempting to work on this piece for six months before my arrival, without success, due to the constant demands of touring and having to make a living.