Move, for string quartet, piano, percussion and electronics

MOVE is a composition for string quartet, piano, percussion and electronics of approximately 15-16 minutes duration in three movements. The work incorporates electronic samples either synthesized electronically by the composer or recorded from acoustic instruments. The work aims to use electronic sounds as an expansion of the tonal palette of the chamber group (rather like an extended percussion setup) as opposed to a dominating sonic feature of the music. This is done by limiting the use of electronics to specific sections of the work, and by prioritizing blend and sonic coherence in the synthesized samples. The work uses fixed electronics in such a way that allows for tempo variations in the music. Generally, a difficulty arises in that fixed “tape” parts don’t allow tempo variations; while truly “live” software algorithms sacrifice rhythmic accuracy. Sample pads, such as the Roland SPD-SX, provide an elegant solution. The latency of such a device is close enough to zero that individual samples can be triggered in real time at a range of tempi. The percussion setup in this work (vibraphone and sample pad) allows one player to cover both parts, eliminating the need for an external musician to trigger the electronics. Compositionally, momentum is used as a constructing principle. The first movement makes prominent use of ostinato and shifting meter. The second is a set of variations on a repeated harmonic pattern, with a polymetric middle section. The third is a type of passacaglia, wherein the bassline is not introduced right away, but becomes more significant later in the movement. Given the importance of visual presentation in the Internet age, the final goal of the project was to shoot HD video of a studio performance of the work for publication online. The composer recorded audio and video in two separate sessions and edited the production using Logic X and Adobe Premiere Pro. The final video presentation can be seen at geoffsheil.com/move.

What's the Matter with Extended Techniques? Getting Beyond the Stigma in the Horn and Percussion Repertoire

For this project I prepared a series of recitals featuring music for horn and percussion, in which the horn part featured extended horn techniques. For this project, I considered anything beyond the open or muted horn an extended technique. These techniques range from the common hand-stopped note passages to complex new techniques involving half-valves, multi-phonics, and more, for new sounds desired by the composer. There are several pieces written for solo horn and percussion, with ensembles ranging from simple duets to solo horn with a full percussion ensemble. However, few include extended techniques for the horn. All of these select pieces are lesser known because of their difficulty, primarily because of the challenge of the extended techniques requested by the composer. In the introduction to this paper I give a brief background to the project, where the current repertoire stands, and my experiences with commissioning works for this genre. I then give a brief history and how-to on the more common extended techniques, which were found in almost every piece. I separated these techniques so that they could be referenced in the performance notes without being extremely repetitive in their description. Then follows the main performance notes of the repertoire chosen, which includes a brief description of the piece itself and a longer discussion for performers and composers who wish to learn more about these techniques. In this section my primary focus is the extended techniques used and I provide score samples with permission to further the education of the next musicians to tackle this genre. All works performed for this project were recorded and accompany this paper in the Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (DRUM). The following works were included in this project: o Howard J. Buss, Dreams from the Shadows (2015) o Howard J. Buss, Night Tide (1995) o George Crumb, An Idyll for the Misbegotten, trans. Robert Patterson (1986/1997) o Charles Fernandez, Metamorphosis: A Horn’s Life, “Prenatal and Toddler” (2016, unfinished) o Helen Gifford, Of Old Angkor (1995) o Douglas Hill, Thoughtful Wanderings… (1990) o Pierre-Yves Level, Duetto pour Cor en Fa et Percussion (1999) o David Macbride, Elegy for Horn and Timpani (2009) o Brian Prechtl, A Song of David (1995) o Verne Reynolds, HornVibes (1986) o Pablo Salazar, Cincontar (2016) o Mark Schultz, Dragons in the Sky (1989) o Faye-Ellen Silverman, Protected Sleep (2007) o Charles Taylor, Sonata for Horn and Marimba (1991) o Robert Wolk, Tessellations (2016) With this project, I intend to promote these pieces and the techniques used to encourage more works written in this style, and reveal to fellow horn players that the techniques should not prevent these great works from being performed. Due to the lack of repertoire, I successfully commissioned new pieces featuring extended techniques, which were featured in the final recital.

2016 Concerto Competition Woodwinds/Brass/Percussion/Harp November 21, 2016

Concert Program

UW Modern Music Ensemble presents Steve Reich An 80th Birthday Celebration with special guests UW Percussion Ensemble December 6, 2016

Concert Program

¡Latin jazz! : a syncretic journey from Spain, Cuba, the United States and back

The creative work, ¡Latin Jazz! is a 50 minute radio documentary to be broadcast on ABC Classic FM. It looks at the evolution of Latin jazz from Spain, Cuba and the United States. It examines the social effects on the style and specifically on the syncretic movement between the countries. The documentary traces my travel to Madrid, Spain and looks at Latin jazz through a deconstruction of the style, musical examples and interviews with prominent artists. Artists interviewed were Chano Domínguez, a Spanish flamenco jazz pianist, Bobby Martínez an American saxophonist, Alain Pérez a Cuban bassist and Pepe Rivero a Cuban pianist. The exegesis supports the radio documentary by examining the style in more depth, and is broken into three main sections. First it traces the historical relationship that occurred through the Ida y Vuelta (To and Fro), the similarities and influences through the habanera, the decíma and the religion of Santería. This is followed by specific musical elements within Latin jazz such as instrumentation, clave, harmony and improvisation, whilst the third section looks at the influences of the new syncretic movement back to Spain.

Health Assessment and Physical Examination

"This first Australia and New Zealand edition of the comprehensive Estes’ Health Assessment and Physical Examination is designed to teach students to assess a patient’s physical, psychological, cultural and emotional dimensions of health as a foundation of nursing care. The skills of interviewing, inspection, percussion, palpation, auscultation, and documentation are defined to help students to make clinical assessments and promote healthy patient outcomes. A strong emphasis on science encompasses all the technical aspects of anatomy, physiology and assessment, while highlighting clinically relevant information. Emphasis on caring is displayed through themes of assessment of the whole person, which also encourages nurses to think about care for themselves as well as patients."--publisher website

Tristate

"This work forms part of a much larger collaborative album project in progress between Tim Bruniges, Julian Knowles and David Trumpmanis which explores the intersections between traditional rock instrumentation and analogue and digital media. All of the creative team are performers, composers and producers. The material for the album was thus generated by a series of in studio improvisations and performances with each collaborator assuming a range of different and alternating roles – guitars, electronics, drums, percussion, bass, keyboards production. Thematically the work explores the intersection of instrumental (post) rock, ambient music, and historical electro-acoustic tape composition traditions. Over the past 10 years, musical practice has become increasingly hybrid, with the traditional boundaries between genre becoming progressively eroded. At the same time, digital tools have replaced many of the major analogue technologies that dominated music production and performance in the 20th century. The disappearance of analogue media in mainstream musical practice has had a profound effect on the sonic characteristics of contemporary music and the gestural basis for its production. Despite the increasing power of digital technologies, a small but dedicated group of practitioners has continued to prize and use analogue technology for its unique sounds and the non-linearity of the media, aestheticising its inherent limitations and flaws. At the most radical end of this spectrum lie glitch and lo-fi musical forms, seen in part as reactions to the clinical nature of digital media and the perceived lack of character associated with its transparency. Such developments have also problematised the traditional relationships between media and genre, where specific techniques and their associated sounds have become genre markers. Tristate is an investigation into this emerging set of dialogues between analogue and digital media across composition, production and performance. It employs analogue tape loops in performance, where a tape machine ‘performer’ records and hand manipulates loops of an electric guitar performer on ‘destroyed’ tape stock (intentionally damaged tape), processing the output of this analogue system in the digital domain with contemporary sound processors. In doing so it investigates how the most extreme sonic signatures of analogue media – tape dropout and noise – can be employed alongside contemporary digital sound gestures in both compositional and performance contexts and how the extremes of the two media signatures can brought together both compositionally and performatively. In respect of genre, the work established strategies for merging compositional techniques from the early musique concrete tradition of the 1940s with late 60s popular music experimentalism and the laptop glitch electronica movement of the early 2000s. Lastly, the work explores how analogue recording studio technologies can be used as performance tools, thus illuminating and foregrounding the performative/gestural dimensions of traditional analogue studio tools in use."

Too much knowledge for a nurse? Use of physical assessment by final-semester nursing students

There is debate around the scope of physical assessment skills that should be taught in undergraduate nursing programs. Yet this debate is largely uninformed by evidence on what is learned and practiced by nursing students. This study examined the pattern and correlates of physical assessment skill utilization by 208 graduating nursing students at an Australian university, including measures of knowledge, frequency of use and perceived barriers to physical assessment skills during clinical practice. Of the 126 skills surveyed, on average only five were used every time students practiced. Core skills reflected inspection or general observation of the patient; none involved complex palpation, percussion or auscultation. Skill utilization was also shaped by specialty area. Most skills (70%) were, on average, never performed or learned and students perceived nursing physical assessment was marginalized in both university and workplace contexts. Lack of confidence was thus a significant barrier to use of skills. Based on these findings we argue that the current debate must shift to how we might best support students to integrate comprehensive physical assessment into nursing practice.

Health Assessment and Physical Examination, 2nd Edition

Health Assessment and Physical Examination is designed to teach students to assess a patient’s physical, psychological, cultural and emotional dimensions of health as a foundation of nursing care. The skills of interviewing, inspection, percussion, palpation, auscultation, and documentation are refined to help students to make clinical judgements and promote healthy patient outcomes. A strong emphasis on science encompasses all the technical aspects of anatomy, physiology, and assessment, while highlighting clinically relevant information. Emphasis on caring is displayed through themes of assessment of the whole person, which also encourages nurses to think about care for themselves as well as patients.

Characteristic water contents of a fine-grained soil-water system

This paper critically appraises the limitations of the liquid-limit water content of clayey soils determined conventionally either by percussion cup or by the cone penetration method. It is shown that the conventional liquid limit and plastic limit are arbitrary, strength-based water contents and that they cannot represent the plasticity limits, and that the state of the soil-water system at the conventional liquid limit does not correspond to a stress-free reference state. The present investigation identifies three characteristic limiting water contents for a soil-water system which have well-defined, unique mechanisms controlling them, namely the free swell limit, settling limit and shrinkage limit. Simple procedures for the determination of the free swell limit and settling limit of natural soils are presented. The settling limit is shown to be the 'real liquid limit' of any clayey soil. With a number of experimental illustrations, it is clearly shown that the settling limit represents the maximum water-holding capacity of clayey soils and that it corresponds to the stress-free reference state.

Algunas consideraciones sobre la obra de Carmelo Saitta a partir del análisis de “2x4” para voz y un percusionista (1978)

Resumen: A través del análisis de 2x4 (1978), de Carmelo Saitta, se extraen conclusiones sobre algunos aspectos de su lenguaje musical, especialmente los vinculados con el uso de la percusión y el tratamiento de la voz.

Tambores e corpos sáficos: uma etnografia sobre corporalidades de mulheres com experiências afetivo-sexuais com mulheres da cidade de Fortaleza

O presente trabalho teve como objetivo central compreender como as expressões de gênero de mulheres com experiências afetivo-sexuais com mulheres estão associadas aos cuidados dedicados ao corpo, realizados em prol da saúde. As informações foram coletadas a partir de pesquisa de campo realizada durante quatro meses em espaços de sociabilidade das integrantes do Tambores de Safo, grupo de percussão composto por mulheres feministas, lésbicas e bissexuais que se autodefinem negras, residentes no município de Fortaleza, estado do Ceará. O foco de observação da pesquisa recaiu na performatividade e dispositivos performáticos de gênero apresentados pelas participantes nos ensaios e exibições do grupo. Também foram realizadas entrevistas informais visando explorar bem como articular as noções de saúde e expressões de gênero das mulheres. As análises dos dados etnográficos revelou a importância da ambiência dos espaços de circulação na organização dos arranjos estéticos do grupo. Refletiu-se acerca das coisas que compunham tais arranjos e que funcionaram em campo como dispositivos performáticos de gênero: os cabelos (dreadlock/black) e os objetos (alfaia e xequerê). Os usos do corpo na circulação pelos espaços, na interação com os sujeitos, na aprendizagem das performances do batucar possibilitaram à pesquisadora o conhecimento das corporalidades das mulheres do grupo, bem como das maneiras pelas quais as participantes davam a ver seus corpos e a compreensão das errâncias de gênero resultantes do estabelecimento de certos tipos de performances como estratégia protetiva para manutenção de uma vida menos afetada pela discriminação e mais saudável.

Métodos de avaliação da estabilidade implantar

Projeto de Pós-Graduação/Dissertação apresentado à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Medicina Dentária

Summer Sprite for Orchestra

Summer Sprite for Orchestra was completed in December, 2004. The piece originated from a singular encounter with little angels at Chang-Kyung Palace, which is the oldest and the most beautiful palace in Korea, and where the kings of the Chosun Dynasty (1393-1897) lived. This encounter was in the summer of 2002. I certainly could not prove that those angels I met were real. Possibly they were the reflection of drops of water after a sudden shower on that summer day. However, I definitely remember that short, unforgettable, and mysterious moment and the angels' beautiful dance-like celebration. Summer Sprite is based on these special memories and the encounter with the little angels that summer. Summer Sprite consists of 3 movements: "Greeting," "Encounter," and "Celebration." These follow the course of my encounter with the little angels. In Summer Sprite, I wished to describe the image of the angels as well as the progression of greeting, encounter, and celebration with them. The moods that follow in Summer Sprite are by turns lyrical, poetic, fantastic, mysterious, and dream-like. In each movement, I describe the meeting of angels and composer through the use of the soloists -- violin (sometimes viola) and cello. As suggested by the subtitle of the first movement, "Greeting" portrays the moment when a surprised I met the angels. It begins with tam-tam, marimba, harp, and piano and sets a mysterious and dark mood. The second movement, "Encounter," is shorter than the first movement. This movement provides a more tranquil mood as well as more unique timbres resulting from the use of mutes and special instruments (English horn, harp, crotales, suspended cymbal, and celesta). The delicate expression of the percussion is particularly important in establishing the static mood of this movement . The last movement, °?Celebration,°± is bright and energetic. It is also the longest. Here, I require the most delicate changes of dynamics and tempo, the most vigorous harmonies, and the fastest rhythmic figures, as well as the most independent, lyrical, and poetic melodies. For bright orchestral tone color, I used various kinds of percussion such as timpani, xylophone, marimba, vibraphone, cymbals, side drum, tambourine, triangle, and bass drum. This last movement is divided rondo-like into five sections: The first (mm.1-3), second (mm.4 - rehearsal number 1), third (rehearsal numbers 2-4), fourth (rehearsal numbers 5-7), and fifth, (rehearsal numbers 8 -18). To sum up, Summer Sprite describes an unforgettable and mysterious moment in a my life. My intention was to portray this through a concerto-like framework. A model for this would be Brahms°Ø °?Double Concerto°± in A minor, op.102, in which the solo cello stands for my angel and the solo violin (sometimes solo viola) for me.