with tender majesty, for alto, harmonizer, and electric bass

The most fundamental question that underlies all my pursuits, whether they be technical or artistic, is exploring how technology will shape the way art is made. Just a hundred years ago, for example, many of the now essential tools of modern music-making, like the DAW, the recording studio, and the sampler, simply did not exist, and their introduction profoundly shaped the creative processes of many artists since.

with tender majesty is one such experiment in updating old forms with modern technologies. I initially pitched the piece as a sort of “art song of the future” - a fusion of old with new via the use of electronics, which here take the form of a harmonizer and electric bass. This piece started as a purely acoustic duet so I could perform with a dear friend, but during the course of its composition I found myself adding more and more electronic elements until it arrived in its current form.

The text is a contrapuntal poem, assembled from a number of works by Emily Dickinson. I was uninterested with the literal meaning of the texts at the time of their composition, and instead wanted to, much like the musical content itself, develop a new language of expression while also maintaining some tether to the past.

Eliza Kravitz - alto voice

Antonis Christou - electric bass