Braid

Braid intertwines three channels of communication: music, speech and song. As part of the music channel, the performer is required to not only play in the normal manner but to employ several special effects such as whistle tones, key slaps, fluttertonguing, colored noise and multiphonics. As part of the vocal channel, the performer is required to sing, hum speak and whisper. The form and aural fabric is a result of the progressive interweaving of these strands into a mosaic design followed by their subsequent unraveling.

The overall pitch organization consists of one large set based on three different octotonic scales starting on G, B and Eb. These transposition levels and the scales themselves are all symmetrical. During the course of the composition all the characteristic intervals within these scales are unfolded and presented as small motivic-rhythmic cells that are essentially cannibalized subsets of the main set. The projection of these cells into larger and larger musical gestures is accomplished by using the procedures of reiteration, inversion, transposition, expansion, contraction and mirroring.