The Fall: A multi-media work for three chamber ensembles, three conductors, and large-screen video

This dissertation is a culmination of my work incorporating moving images into a musical context. Since this is a multi-media composition for three ensembles and video, my musical concerns were focused on properly integrating the music with a visual component. Likewise, the video footage and editing were created with a musical sensibility meant to promote interaction with the music. The music and video were created alongside one another. The result is a work where the individual character of the music is not subservient to the video. Rather, the video metaphorically becomes the fourth ensemble, becoming both dependant on and a part of the musical dynamic.; The three ensembles are physically separated around the hall to counterbalance the potentially overwhelming presence of a video screen intended to be larger-than-life. This limits the influence of the video screen, rendering it only one of four areas of activity that surround the audience.; This piece is in two parts. The first establishes three relationships based on time between the video and the music: rhythmic synchronization, periodicity, and evolution. Rhythmic synchronization creates immediate relationships between the two, periodicity extends and reiterates these relationships, and evolution structures the entire composition by transforming and redefining these relationships.; The music is structured to take advantage of oppositions between the three ensembles, where each ensemble nurtures its own musical identity. Instrumental differences create distinct musical purposes for each ensemble, and they are enhanced through harmonic and textural individuality.; The beginning of Part two develops the metaphor of the video as a fourth 'voice' of the musical texture, by periodically introducing a moving image in silence as a substitute for a musical phrase. By the end of part two, the musical oppositions between the ensembles have collapsed and been transferred to the video, musically unifying the three ensembles underneath a climatic video passage that ends the piece in silence.