Graphic Scores I + II: CERN

Back in the summer of 2011, I debuted this graphic score with the quartet version of Live Like a King. I just wanted to do something outside of what I originally had in mind, so I decided to draw up a series of graphic scores that can be applied to that ensemble (though not exclusively). I was mainly inspired and intrigued by the graphic scores of Anthony Braxton, Morton Feldman, and Karlheinz Stockhausen, and since I had certain images in my head that I wanted to attempt to translate to music, it gave me an excuse to want to go forth with the idea.

During a period of writer's block between the summers of 2009 and 2010, several bouts of sleeplessness brought upon ten graphic scores. The first four were inspired by a situation that scientist at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland faced while conducting an experiment attempting to recreate the conditions of the Big Bang using the Large Hadron Collider. This experiment received some criticism and speculation, mainly the concern of producing catastrophic results, such as a black hole that can potentially swallow the Earth. With this in mind, and a little imagination, the graphic scores tell a story about an "experiment gone wrong", and the only people who could reconstruct a new Earth and civilization from scratch, though a little too late to warn those on Earth, are ancient astronauts from a distant galaxy.

CERN I

CERN II

"CERN II" features pre-recorded guitar drones I created, as well as snippets of a radio broadcast discussing the LHC experiment.