Instrumentation
laptop ensemble
Duration
5:00
Year
2019
Program Notes
Vis Vitalis explores building up and dissipating electrical energy. In order to make sound in this piece, the performers must generate energy by rapidly moving a slider on their controller. The quicker the movement, the higher the resulting sound. The title is inspired by the opening lines from Walt Whitman’s “I Sing the Body Electric” which led me to think of the body’s nervous (electrical) system and is taken from the Latin for “vital force.” Vis Vitalis was composed for the Los Angeles Laptop Ensemble for theatrical performance at La Mama as part of Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019 under the direction of Brian Byungkoo Ahn and Martin Herman.
