Chain of Circumstances

Complete Work Title: 

Chain of Circumstances


Performance Medium: 

Screendance (video with stereo audio)


Duration: 

10:00 / 12:45


Dedication: 

To Richard Shuster and Jordan Fuchs.


Date Composed: 

September - October 2020


Performance Information: 
  • Multiple versions of this screendance are available, in durations of 10:00 and 12:45, both of which include versions with or without computer music.
  • This work may also be presented in a live version for solo or duo piano, with optional dancer and/or interactive computer music.

Additional Information: 
  • Selected work, Empirica by MID SIDE Aps Call for Works, December 2022.
  • Featured work, 2022 Fulbright Reunion Art Exhibition.
  • Official selection, FilmFest by Rogue Dancer: Dance NOIR Edition, November 2021.
  • Selected by the International Confederation of Electroacoustic Music (CIME/ICME) for presentation on Tempo Reale Lampi di Rete—online audiovisual marathon, March 2022.

Performance/Broadcast History: 
  • 9 November 2023; State University of Paraná (Curtitiba, Brazil) — 6th edition of the International Symposium of New Music (SiMN 2023)
  • 27 October 2023; University of North Georgia (Dahlonega, GA) — 7th annual Research on Contemporary Composition conference
  • 4 June 2023; Society of Composers, Inc. 2023 Online National Conference
  • 20 April 2023; "A Night of Visual Music" at the Community Arts Workshop (Santa Barbara, CA)
  • 13 January 2023; Visual Music Series, University of California, Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara, CA)
  • 30 December 2022; Teatro del Fuoco (Foggia, Italy) — Resilience Festival of New Arts
  • 10 March 2022; Tempo Reale Lampi di Rete (Florence, IT) — online audiovisual marathon, sponsored by the International Confederation of Electroacoustic Music, CIME/ICME
  • 5 March 2022; Washington State University (Pullman, WA) and live-streamed — 2022 Contemporary Art Music Festival.
  • 20 November 2021; University of California, Riverside (online exhibition) — AudioVisual Frontiers Virtual Exhibition
  • 19 November through December 5 2021; screening for FilmFest by Rogue Dancer: Dance NOIR Edition (Raleigh, NC; online festival).
  • 7 November 2020; Sonic Murals Festival, University of North Texas (Denton, TX) and live-streamed [premiere]

Program Notes: 

Chain of Circumstances, originally intended for live performance with piano, solo dancer, and interactive computer music, was reconceived as a screendance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Featured on this realization are pianist Richard Shuster and dancer/choreographer Jordan Fuchs, with lighting design by Dayna Ballenger and videography by Danielle Willis. The original version of this work explored aspects of recombinance, modularity, and non-linear musical structures, and was conceived as a series of disparate, distinctive, and relatively static musical states. In this screendance version, the pianist’s choices regarding the assemblage of musical modules served as an impetus for the dancer’s semi-improvised choreography, which in turn was filmed, then recontextualized and compiled into the present video by the composer. Chain of Circumstances was supported by a grant from Texas Woman’s University, and was composed in February-March 2020 for pianist Richard Shuster and dancer/choreographer Jordan Fuchs. This screendance version was completed in October 2020.