{"id":510,"date":"2015-08-01T09:59:44","date_gmt":"2015-08-01T13:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christophertrapani.com\/wordpresssite\/?page_id=510"},"modified":"2026-07-27T13:19:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T17:19:09","slug":"sparrow-episodes","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/christophertrapani.com\/wordpresssite\/sparrow-episodes\/","title":{"rendered":"Sparrow Episodes"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"container\">\n<h2 style=\"padding-left: 30px; text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\"><strong>Sparrow\u00a0Episodes (2006)<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">for sixteen\u00a0players (flute, oboe, 2 clarinets, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, piano, percussion, electric guitar, 2 violins, viola, cello, bass) [8:30]<\/h4>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/composersedition.com\/christopher-trapani-sparrow-episodes\/\">SCORE<\/a> at COMPOSERS EDITION<\/em><\/h3>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/soundcloud%253Atracks%253A107147324&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=true&amp;visual=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"300\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc; line-break: anywhere; word-break: normal; overflow: hidden; white-space: nowrap; text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif; font-weight: 100;\"><a style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\" title=\"Christopher Trapani\" href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/christophertrapani\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Christopher Trapani<\/a> \u00b7 <a style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\" title=\"Sparrow Episodes\" href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/christophertrapani\/sparrow-episodes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sparrow Episodes<\/a><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\"><em>Sparrow Episodes<\/em> unfolds like a musical comic book, a series of consecutive\u00a0snapshots. Musical material varies wildly from frame to frame, but as a whole they trace\u00a0a single relentless forward narrative. Ideas are introduced, explored for very small\u00a0spans of time (20-30 second on average), but are never given sufficient time to develop\u00a0before they are pushed aside to make way for the next idea. This pattern continues for\u00a0the first three-quarters of the piece, until the guitarist activates an eight-second delay\u00a0loop for the final two minutes. Recall is avoided for most of the piece then forcibly\u00a0imposed at the end, and memory has a rather untraditional and dysfunctional role as a\u00a0result, as if the saturated world of the opening is viewed in distant retrospect in the\u00a0conclusion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"float: left; margin: 5px 20px 5px 20px;\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"float:right; width:400px; height:290px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom: 10px; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"400\" height=\"290\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CrBGY2mvfP0?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">Two common threads recur throughout the piece. First, a chord progression borrowed\u00a0from the song \u2018Sparrow\u2019 by Myshkin (a songwriter and singer friend from my high school\u00a0days in New Orleans), the obscure departure point for this project simply because of its\u00a0strong resonance in my own memory. The second is the sound of the electric\u00a0guitar\u2013\u2013my guitar, played through a cheap amp in the small apartment in Paris where\u00a0the piece was composed this summer. Its rough, dirty sound is integrated literally, by\u00a0placing a guitar amidst the ensemble, but also figuratively, by coloring the vocabulary of\u00a0gestures and harmony of all the instruments. The harmonic compass of <em>Sparrow\u00a0<\/em><em>Episodes<\/em> is wide, ranging from tonal to \u2018spectral\u2019 harmonies derived from the amplifier&#8217;s ring modulation, and part of its purpose is to force a dialogue between these potentially\u00a0contradictory systems of thinking.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">The piece is scored for sixteen players (the standard formation of the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, plus electric\u00a0guitar), and the musicians are separated onstage into four quartets: strings in front,\u00a0woodwinds on the left, brass and bassoon on the right, and the piano, percussion,\u00a0guitar, and an amplified contrabass in the rear.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2219 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/christophertrapani.com\/wordpresssite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Schermafbeelding-2018-02-21-om-14.55.37-1-1024x506.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"506\" srcset=\"http:\/\/christophertrapani.com\/wordpresssite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Schermafbeelding-2018-02-21-om-14.55.37-1-1024x506.png 1024w, http:\/\/christophertrapani.com\/wordpresssite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Schermafbeelding-2018-02-21-om-14.55.37-1-300x148.png 300w, http:\/\/christophertrapani.com\/wordpresssite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Schermafbeelding-2018-02-21-om-14.55.37-1-768x379.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sparrow\u00a0Episodes (2006) &nbsp; for sixteen\u00a0players (flute, oboe, 2 clarinets, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, piano, percussion, electric guitar, 2 violins, viola, cello, bass) [8:30] &nbsp; SCORE at COMPOSERS EDITION &nbsp; Christopher<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/christophertrapani.com\/wordpresssite\/sparrow-episodes\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">&#8220;Sparrow Episodes&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-510","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Sparrow Episodes - CHRISTOPHER TRAPANI<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/christophertrapani.com\/wordpresssite\/sparrow-episodes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sparrow Episodes - CHRISTOPHER TRAPANI\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sparrow\u00a0Episodes (2006) &nbsp; 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