Really Coming Down (2007)
for guitar and electronics [10:30]


Really Coming Down is a sort of double quodlibet, based on two disparate sources: a Tudor melody set to the anonymous English poem “Western Wind,” and Irma Thomas’ “It’s Raining,” a New Orleans R & B classic written and produced by Allen Toussaint. Fragments from both float by throughout the piece, whose four sections are given subtitles borrowed from the French marine barometer. Live electronic manipulations predominate in the second and third sections, while the outer sections feature many prerecorded sound files, mostly drawn from my own recorded improvisations on electric guitar, harmonica, mandolin, and Appalachian dulcimer.

 

Really Coming Down was premiered 30 June 2007 by Christelle Séry. It has also been recorded by Kobe Van Cauwenberghe and is available on his CD Give My Regards to 116th Street.