Crossings

Nicky Hind

Year

2000


Instrumentation

guitar - live electronics


Genre

Guitar with Electronics


Premiere

Palo Alto, Campbell Recital Hall, Stanford University, March 2001: Cem Duruöz, guitar


Publisher

Manuscript


Equipment

Echo processing and real-time sampler required.


Source

composer homepage; Cem Duruöz website;


Details

Crossings was composed as a companion to Ripples, (also for solo guitar with electronics). Like Ripples, Crossings uses a rhythmically timed echo effect, which enhances the textural density of a solo melodic line. Unlike Ripples, Crossings also uses a live sampling technique – in which a series of patterns are captured into a recorded loop and repeated back – enabling the soloist to play an additional melodic layer while the sampled pattern continues.

Aside from the crossing of harmonic and melodic lines existing on the musical level, the title is also inspired by a book I had recently read, Crossings: A White Man's Journey into Black America, by Walt Harrington. The book describes one man's sadness and occasional hope concerning the condition of race relations in contemporary America as he travels through a number of states meeting a variety of black people. While my own research has not been nearly so extensive, I nevertheless share many of the author's feelings, and the subject was on my mind while creating this piece.

Also intersecting with my work on this piece was the very sad and sudden passing of my father. Only a few days before I had been discussing the composition with him over the phone, as I wondered about some additional material with a distinctive mood, and whether or not to incorporate it. This additional material (now the coda section) later seemed like a musical premonition of my sadness over this untimely loss. And with its incorporation came the realization that the title, Crossings, would take on an additional meaning: a crossing over from life into death.

Crossings is dedicated to my father, a pianist and composer himself – Mr. Gerald Hind.

- Nicky Hind (from: composer homepage)