Audubon Sketches was composed for the American Wild Ensemble and their core instrumentation of flute, clarinet, horn, violin, viola, cello, and percussion, together with field recordings I made in a variety of outdoor environments. The work is guided by graphic and proportional notation, allowing the musical material to unfold with a different sense of pacing and detail in each performance. It is an open-duration piece that gradually unfolds over six movements and reflects the expansiveness of the outdoor listening experience.
Throughout the piece, the musicians perform not only on their primary instruments but also on a range of auxiliary and found objects. Some are familiar—melodicas, woodblocks, flowerpots, shakers—while others are drawn from the natural landscapes where the musicians live: stones, branches, pinecones. These materials lend a tactile presence and invite a kind of listening that is attentive to nuance and environment.
The six movements loosely trace the arc of a day. the small hours evokes pre-dawn stillness with cricket and katydid textures sounded on rocks; cicada song moves into late morning, with melodicas taking on the insect calls; diverging paths opens afternoon with a slowly evolving harmonic space; switchbacks relaxes into a gentle late afternoon plucked ensemble with birdsong; sound signals turns toward dusk and the distant wail of loons; and trailhead approaches night with the sense of an arriving rainstorm.