Trajectories
duration: 12:00
instrumentation: Soprano (+Celtic Harp), Baritone (+Percussion), Soprano/Tenor Sax, Violin, Contrabass
premiere: December 12, 2013 // Aurora Gallery, Queens, NY
premiere performer: thingNY (Gelsey Bell, Paul Pinto, Erin Rogers, Jeff Young, Andrew Livingston)
publisher: A-Town Publications (ASCAP) © 2013
Trajectories was made possible (in part) by the Queens Council on the Arts with funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
Featured performance: thingNY // 2015 Ecstatic Festival // Merkin Concert Hall, NYC
Studio recording + limited edition Vinyl LP + full score available from Bandcamp
Program Note:
Trajectories is an ongoing set of short pieces written for the members of thingNY, highlighting their instruments, their voices, and their ability to freely improvise on demand. Each piece is based on a separate path or trajectory of arguable priority, performed continuously. Almost undetected, luxury permeates the texture of the opening movement – a soothing harp, Hawaiian vacations, bags of money. The strictly metered second movement contrasts vertical lines in one instrumental group with horizontal lines in another, giving a sense of irregular forward motion. Movement three shallowly attempts to simplify the equation: love vs. money, with Family encompassing the final breath of the piece. The text in Trajectories in often hidden and disguised, resulting in an instrumental/vocal texture where a general mood prevails, supported by the periodic cutting-through of words. —Erin Rogers (2018)