excentric kinetics

for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano + fixed media (2025)
c. 6 minutes

“excentric kinetics” was written for the Collaborative Composition Initiative. It was premiered by the Unheard-Of//Ensemble in San Antonio, TX on August 8, 2025.

“excentric kinetics” draws its name from George Rickey's kinetic sculpture at the McNay Museum in San Antonio "Horizontal Column of Five Squares, Excentric II". The rectangular tablets featured in this artwork spin around and around one another asynchronously while the platform rotates the entire artwork around. This piece utilizes melody in the same way -- each instrument playing the same unwinding gestures, but never together. Dancing around one another, the tension of delay and separation between every moving line leads to satisfying moments of cohesion in rare instances.