Luminescence

violin, bass clarinet, 2 electric guitars (one player) with electronics

Premiere by Shaun Lee-Chen, Ashley William Smith, and Jonathan Fitzgerald on October 4, 2021, at Callaway Auditorium

live video performance

Sample Score 1

Sample Score 2

The title track in three movements by Kington-Walberg is the only chamber piece on the [album]. Like Akrasia, the score calls for two guitars, one of which is placed flat and played with e-bows, glass rings, and a MAX patch, as well as violin, and bass clarinet prepared with paper. Inspired by underwater bioluminescence, Kington-Walberg writes cinematic, evocative textures that capture the wonder of the marine landscape. The opening movement, “Threads of Sunlight,” opens with luminous pitches and slow glissandi played on guitar with the e-bow before introducing delicate arpeggiated chords that usher in a final spry violin flourish. The bass clarinet plays a solo introduction in “Wine-Dark Depths,” with repeated low notes that gradually evolve into skittering gestures mixing key clicks with growling articulations. When the violin and guitar join, they develop a texture of swells that evoke hollow marine mammal calls and drier gestures that conjure images of crustaceans. As in the first movement, lush guitar arpeggios create an expansive contrast to the more timbrally based material. In the final movement, “Drifting Constellations,” fragile, droning textures allow individual pitches to emerge and recede. A looped siren-like swell gesture in the guitar processing lays an unsettling foundation for nervous figures in the violin and guitar.

– Review by Dan Lippel