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This page contains postings on compositions, performances and press.
The composition created by 125 composers (I was one) in honor of John Cage was premiered on August 21, 2013 at the Gallery of Contemporary Art in Leipzig.
Press announcement... "Party Pieces is the worlds largest collective composition. 125 artists wrote one piece of music dedicated to John Cage falling on the one year lasting CAGE100 festival. The exhibition shows the original handwritten scores of the following composers..."
Some new video of excerpts of recent improvisation-based pieces for Radio Drum and robotic percussion:
Up until recent times, it was common for soloists to improvise or compose new cadenzas. Somehow, with the stratification and separation of roles (composer versus performer, classical player vs. improvisor), this approach has been neglected. Such"tampering" is considered off limits, even sacrilegious.
Yet, the music of the past is not a sacred relic, but a living organism. In that spirit, I've composed a new cadenza for the Mozart G Major violin concerto.
Spent four days last weekend working with Andrew Schloss at the Universal Audio studio on a new duo quasi-improvised piece. The focus of the current effort is to combine acoustic sound, both performed directly and remotely via robotic actuators, with electronic processing of that sound. The new work is being presented at the ICIT “New Directions” Symposium at the University of California at Irvine, which is being held between March 1st and March 3rd, 2013.
The piece uses the "NotomotoN," an instrument designed by Ajay Kapur consisting of an Indian two-headed drum with ten remotely-controllable beaters. (The name of this instrument is a palindrome; I am not sure of the correct pronunciation, though I like "no-TOM-o-ton," i.e. rhyming with "automaton."
Here is a review of the CD "Wildlife, and other works combining instruments and computers," from Computer Music Journal, Volume 36, Number 3, Fall 2012.
David A. Jaffe: Wildlife
Reviewed by Ross Feller
Gambler, Ohio, USA
David A. Jaffe's Wildlife is a compact disc you will want to listen to repeatedly. It offers four works that successfully combine live instruments and the computer to create a fascinating, kaleidoscopic mixture of virtual, and real, materials and sounds. Jaffe is a prolific composer who has written orchestra, chorus, and chamber pieces, as well many electroacoustic pieces, including the well-known Silicon Valley Breakdown, composed in 1982. His approach to composition owes debts to innovative American composers such as Henry Brant, Carl Ruggles, and Charles Ives. Jaffe is also a skilled mandolinist and violinist, and often performs in his own compositions. He is a triple threat as composer, performer, and computer programmer.