Pulpo

I wrote Pulpo for the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition’s Tapas concert. In Spanish cuisine, pulpo (octopus) is a staple tapa, traditionally served with red wine. My piece for four performers possessing a collective eight hands, however, is an homage to the living, intelligent, sea-dwelling mollusk.
While the octopus has many traits to inspire a musical composition, this piece centers on the octopus’s dexterity with its eight arms, and on its ability to change color and texture. To represent the former, I focused on each player’s ability to separate physical elements in the control of their instrument: embouchure, fingering, bow, air pressure, right and left hand. The latter is inspired by late 19th-century triadic transformations (aka Neo-Riemannian), which toggle between major and minor triads in a non-functional harmonic soundscape. The piece opens with one unusual Neo-Riemannian transformation called a Slide, a reference to the octopus’ slithering on the sea floor, and throughout the piece are scattered P-L-P moments, a nod to the Spanish name.