Flesh of My Flesh

duration (14')

orchestration

Violin (w/effects),vla,vc,cb (acoustic and electric w/effects),electric guitar (w/effects),perc

movements

I.the flesh is torn asunder
II.a blood splattered haze
III.trepidation
IV.catharsis
V.unification of the body
VI.reeducation
VII.waking screams
VIII.proclivity

Listen (mp3)

I.the flesh is torn asunder

Postmodernism was a movement in architecture that rejected the modernist, avant-garde, passion for the new. Modernism is here understood in art and architecture as the project of rejecting tradition in favor of going \"where no man has gone before\" or better: to create forms for no other purpose than novelty. Modernism was an exploration of possibilities and a perpetual search for uniqueness and its cognate—individuality. Modernism’s valorization of the new was rejected by architectural postmodernism in the 50’s and 60’s for conservative reasons. They wanted to maintain elements of modern utility while returning to the reassuring classical forms of the past. The result of this was an ironic brick-a-brack or collage approach to construction that combines several traditional styles into one structure. As collage, meaning is found in combinations of already created patterns.

In a sense postmodernism is a rejection of the sovereign autonomous individual with an emphasis upon anarchic collective, anonymous experience. Collage, diversity, the mystically unrepresentable, Dionysian passion are the foci of attention. Most importantly we see the dissolution of distinctions, the merging of subject and object, self and other. Flesh of my flesh was written with a post-modern approach to music in art: however, the collage pieces, if you will, are not just drawn from classical forms, but from all elements of music that the modern composer is exposed to; both popular and classical idioms.

Flesh of my flesh represents a musical exploration into the soul of an artist, and the road this soul takes as it goes through a period of growth and maturation.

-Michael Miller