Scott Fields Ensemble
Sand
Sand is a Fields composition for 20 instrumentalists, three singers, and conductor. It combines three areas in which he has often worked: modularity, manipulation of text, and integration of composition and improvisation.Like Fields’ previous modular works, Sand is constructed of units whose interrelationships vary from weak to strong. In performance a conductor spontaneously selects, combines, sequences, and layers modules. Sand also includes improvisational elements within structures and “orga…
From the diary of Dog Drexel
"The Diary of Dog Drexel" is a suite of five movements, each of which programmatically portrays an emotional state from the diary. One of the ideas behind "Dog" was to thoroughly blend improvised and composed elements. In the first four movements'Conflicted, Pissed, Bummed, and Agitated'there are at almost all times at least one thread of composition and another of improvisation. The balance between the elements shifts steadily. Muddying the waters further is that many of the extended techniques…