Counterpoint I is a transcription of an electronic work I completed for an electronic music class during my time at FSU. The work was meant to be for fixed media and was completed entirely within Logic. Part of this final project was to present the final piece to the class, where one of my classmates suggested I arrange it for clarinet ensemble. This is ironic, because the piece was originally based on Steve Reich’s A New York Counterpoint, and definitely draws a lot of inspiration from that work.

The piece is process music at it’s core, stacking layers of ostinati that build and develop over time. Each layer is comprised of different polymetric layers that create complex cross rhythms and conflicting emphases within the same 16th note grid. Much of the music is written with repeat bars that have a specific number of repetitions, which represents a complete cycle of where each of the cells present within the repeat bars line back up (e.g. D has cells of one measure, two measures, and four measures, thus the pattern repeats every four bars so that all cells start together at the beginning of each repetition).