Float/Shake (2023) ~10’

piano trio [violin, cello, piano]

Written for the Loretto Project at the Loretto Motherhouse in Kentucky for the Longleash Piano Trio.

"Float/Shake" takes inspiration from the expressive world of the Gaga movement language, encouraging performers to delve into their inner sensations and emotions. In collaboration with the Longleash Trio, I envisioned how specific Gaga instructions, such as limbs tied to helium balloons or the imagery of limbs as seaweed, could be musically expressed by the violin, cello, and piano. Working with the trio, we experimented with how these sensations could translate into musical expressions. "Float/Shake" also incorporates choreographic concepts as performers employ glass bottle neck guitar slides, creating both a visual and auditory effect. The composition unfolds in two distinct sections, one characterized by rhythmic intensity and the other by ethereal suspension.