Southern Specter

2018
flute, violin, viola, cello, piano + amplification/reverb and video
ca. 12'
Commissioned by Musiqa New Music Collective for Loop38
List of Performances
…the eerie drama of Timothy Roy's score - as performed by the accomplished musicians of Loop38 - delved deeper, seeming to animate filmmaker Richard Johnson's shifting rumination on Spanish moss. The ghostly apparitions of Johnson's film, sometimes seen in microscopic close-up and at others in a morphing kaleidoscope, came fascinatingly alive as Roy's complex score seemed to propel Johnson's images." — Houston Chronicle (Click here for full review)
One of the most striking and defining visuals of the United States Deep South is that of the southern live oak tree (Quercus virginiana) shrouded in Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides). A tangled and bluish-grey flowering plant, Spanish moss can be seen draped from the sprawling, gnarled branches of oaks throughout the region, hanging ghost-like across its swampy landscape. Southern Specter adopts this poetic image as its subject and is comprised of two different kinds of music. The first is both representational and external, in that it seeks to be a musical embodiment of a moss-covered tree, depicting the delicate moss swaying in a gentle breeze and the tree’s appearance under various gradations of sunlight. The second kind of music is expressive and internal, seeking to convey the various thoughts and feelings one might have upon viewing such an image. Having grown up on the Gulf Coast of Texas, I could not help but channel my own emotional experiences which have ranged from serenity, solemnness, and nostalgia to gloom and ominousness. Richard Johnson’s accompanying film plays with analogous concerns on the visual front: perspective, representation versus abstraction, light and shadow, and ambiguity.

Special thanks to Jungle Gardens of Avery Island, Louisiana, for film footage and inspiration.
Performances
  • Musiqa New Music Collective — Midtown Arts and Theater Center, Houston, TX. March 3, 2018