Automatica (recollection)

Kyle Bartlett

In Automatica (recollection) I experimented with a new work method, trying to capture the immediacy of the creative impulse. Taking a cue from the forward-moving work process of calligraphy or watercolor, each piece was more or less through-composed in one sitting. The seven pieces presented here are chosen from a month-long series of daily experimentations. “Automatica” refers to how I was willing to work without a detailed pre-compositional plan. I felt like I was composing, instead of from my pre-frontal cortex, from some more primitive, intuitive part of my brain. “recollection” refers to the particular variation on “chou he” that I came upon for this project: I listened several times to Wang Lu’s beautiful solo flute piece, “A Distant World,” without referring to the score or taking notes. Then when I sat down compose, I used whatever elements of the piece I remembered to make my new compositions. In a sense her musical ideas have be “re-collected” into this new trio form.