for International Contemporary Ensemble
bassoon, violin, cello, piano, and electronics
Performances:
- International Contemporary Ensemble, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 02/05/2015
Program Note:
dither began as an exercise in transforming two sounds made on a zither into each other: sliding along the strings and knocking on the body. These miniatures for bassoon, violin, cello, piano, and electronics emerged out of a series of improvisations and erasures that explore the sound world of a broken, out-of-tune autoharp. The title has a multiplicity of meanings. “Dither” means to tremble and quiver, often from being cold. Additionally, it means to act indecisively, wavering between choices. In the digital realm, “dithering” refers to the use of random noise to prevent digital artifacts in audio and color banding in images.