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about the music

things that flow was commissioned by the Music and Theater Arts Department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the inauguration of a harpsichord by Eric Herz.

Christopher Adler:

"In setting out to compose this piece, my two initial ideas were to create a continuous sound from flowing from beginning to end, in contrast to the harpsichord's usual bright sound and rapid decay, and to have some kind of systematic organization of musical material in operation throughout, as would befit a piece written for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"The piece is based on a single pentatonic 16-note melody, stated at the outset, which is cyclically repeated from beginning to end. Whenever the melody is stated in a different pentatonic mode, the pitches are transformed according to a regular system of permutations on the space of available modes. The result is a gradually shifting melodic shape as the original tune travels through the space of modes.

"The cyclic repetition of a basic, underlying melody reflects my experiences with Southeast Asian musics and is also reminiscent of Baroque variation cycles for keyboard. These cycles, the always-changing pitch transformations and musical textures of the piece are reflected in the title, taken from a film about a young Buddhist who is taught to always 'follow things that flow.'"

about the composer		back to top

Christopher Adler's (b. 1972) work emerges from an exchange between composition, improvisation, mathematics, and the traditional music of Thailand and Laos. He is internationally recognized as a composer and performer of new and traditional music for khaen, a free-reed mouth organ from Laos and northeast Thailand. Adler's music is influenced by experimental and minimalist music of the United States, including the early works of Philip Glass and Steve Reich, later works of Morton Feldman and John Cage, and the ambient works of Alvin Lucier. He has also been influenced by the recent interactions of popular and classical genres by such composers as Louis Andriessen, Michael Gordon, and Evan Ziporyn.

Adler was born in Mountain View, California, and grew up in California and Washington, DC. He studied composition and mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, and composition at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. His teachers included Scott Lindroth, Stephen Jaffe, Sidney Corbett, Evan Ziporyn, and for studies of Thai music, Panya Roongruang. Adler currently teaches composition, sound art, theory, computer music, and world music at the University of San Diego; he has also taught at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, and was a visiting professor at Mahasarakham University in Thailand.

Adler's music has been performed across the US by ensembles including NOISE, pulsoptional, red fish blue fish, Seattle Creative Orchestra, Silk Road Ensemble, and many solo artists. A CD of Adler's music, Epilogue for a Dark Day, is available on the Tzadik label, and his retrospective analysis of ten years of cross-cultural composition was recently published in Arcana II: Musicians on Music (Hips Road). Adler has performed his own khaen compositions and traditional repertoire at the Bang on a Can Marathon, Carnegie Hall, Cultural Center of Chicago, Music at the Anthology, The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, and many universities across the US and Thailand. He promotes the instrument through the commissioning of new works, recently premiering a work by Sidney Marquez Boquiren and recording a work by David Loeb for the Vienna Modern Masters label.

Adler is pianist and composer-in-residence with the San Diego New Music resident ensemble NOISE, and recently co-founded the soundON Festival of Modern Music, four days of performances and workshops in June 2007 centered around the work of emerging composers. He performs improvised music on piano in a duo with woodwind player Alan Lechusza and trio with drummer Vikas Srivastava. In addition, he collaborates on khaen with Marcelo Radulovich, Charles Curtis, and Scott Walton as the improvising acoustic ensemble Gunther's Grass. Adler has conducted large improvising ensemble projects by Alan Lechusza and Nathan Hubbard, and performed with a wide range of improvising musicians. Recordings of these projects are available on the Accretions, Artship, Nine Winds, and pfMENTUM labels.

related websites
http://www.christopheradler.com