Instrumentation: viola and live electronics

Duration: ca. 6 minutes

Premiere: 11.17.2012, Rice University, Shepherd School of Music, Houston, TX, by Jarita Ng, viola and Daniel Knaggs, electronics.

Program Notes: Snowdrift developed as a sonic depiction of pileups of snow shaped by wind. Here I used pre-recorded sounds of the viola to play the role of the wind and to enhance the live viola playing. Throughout the piece can be heard icy figures (sul ponticello passages) and repeated patterns that pileup in intensity and volume.

Listen to Snowdrift below:

Sketches from Daniel’s first draft of “Snowdrift”: