Description
Synchromisms and Nocturnes written for Chroma Trio and ensembleNEWSRQ was composed between January and May of 2021. The work is in seven continuous movements that have interrelating ideas, gestures, and motives. The work is semi-programmatic as the main movements, Synchromisms I, II and III and Nocturnes I and II get their names from two American artistic movements from the beginning of the 20th Century. The Synchromisms are informed by the synchromist paintings and ideas of MacDonald-Wright and Russel. The concept of these works juxtaposed bright and neutral tones in a completely abstract form.The works have sharp lines and shapes that create a variety of moods and intensities. MacDonald-Writght’s “Synchromy No. 3”, which is on display at the Brooklyn Museum in NewYork was the work I took my main inspiration. Nocturnes I and II are informed by the American Post-Impressionist works of James Abbott McNeill Whistler. These paintings are extremely murky with dark tones. The dark tones that are accented with touches of gold or white that blur the context of the paintings. These works were the early stages of abstraction that would influence schools of thought, such as the Synchromists and the Abstract Expressionist. Nocturnes I and II are works that float and suspend time in an attempt to focus in on the colors and murkiness of the Whistler paintings. Whistler’s “Nocturne in Gold and Black” was the main painting I thought of while writing Nocturnes I and II.