Two PhD presentations: Jordan Gammon and Jared Destro
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RCH/006, Ron Cooke Hub, Campus East, University of York (Map)
Event details
ALL WELCOME
Things Betwixt | Jordan Gammon
In this presentation I will outline the progress on my PhD thus far, looking at how video game music functions to engage with the diegesis. I will use examples from video games to show how music can be a part of the environment, exploring a duality between diegetic and non-diegetic modes to show how this can potentially make for a better player experience. I will discuss a model I am currently working on for assigning numerical values to musical functions to identify trends, and will demonstrate of some of the compositions I have created for existing video games, to illustrate my key points.
Polytemporality, multiplicity, and coexistence as a narrative manifold | Jared Destro
Polytemporality in music takes many forms: from the literal and metrical; to the referential and spherical; and as the accretive and palimpsestic. My work investigates the conditions of coexistence. That is, how multiple states of being can inhabit the same sonic space without neutralizing one another or collapsing into mere density. If music is to carry layered narratives that point beyond the notes on the page, simply stacking materials is insufficient. Doing so invites overwhelm to the listener, thus flattening the very nuance we intend to express. For me, the aim of polytemporal saturation is not to "sound" complex but to hold multiple meanings in suspension. This in part is to allow for the listener to navigate them more freely without getting lost in their haze. But it is also to scry a spirit of revelation: that music has the power to be divine, mesmeric conjuration.
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About the speakers
Jordan Gammon’s background is largely in popular music: he has been a drummer for much of his life. He studied Popular Music with Music Technology at the University of Derby, where he became interested in found sound composition, using abstractions of found material as instrumentation for my pieces. He further developed this on the MMus Critical and Experimental Composition course at University of Leeds before reaching out to Matt Barnard, who was then at the University of Hull but then joined the University of York. Jordan decided to follow and has been loving it ever since.
Jared Destro (b. 1998, Buffalo, NY, USA) is a composer, piano improviser, and engraver. He holds an MMus from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama with distinction, and a BA from the University at Buffalo, summa cum laude, having also attended Charles University. His music has been featured in the National Eisteddfod of Wales, the World Harp Congress, Eastman School of Music, the Athenaeum Club, at the Lincoln Center, and the Hajibeyli International Music Festival, among others. Some key accolades include first prize in the Warsaw Wind Ensemble Composition Contest (2020) and second place in the NMGCS II competition, with notable works including his: 9 Sinfoniette, 4 Divertimenti, 7 Piano Suites, and (Piano Trio No. 1 + Piano Sonata No. 3), which are held in the Library of Congress.
Venue details
Wheelchair accessible