Fingerprint Skin Graft (2013)

for flute, clarinet, piano, violin, violoncello

[Score | Recording]

winner of the Stony Brook Premieres! Composition Competition

selected for performance at the 2013 Midwest Composer's Symposium

finalist for GAMMA-UT Festival

selected for performance at the 2015 Indiana State University New Music Festival (deferred until 2016)

Premiered by Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players at Stony Brook University for Stony Brook Premieres! Concert (NY)

Performed by Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players at Symphony Space for Stony Brook Premieres! Concert (NYC)

Performed by the University of Iowa Center for New Music at the University of Iowa Composer's Workshop (IA)

Performed by the University of Iowa Center for New Music at the University of Michigan for the 2013 Midwest Composer's Symposium (MI)

Performed by the Fresno State University New Music Ensemble for Brave New Works (CA)

Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players, Symphony Space (NYC)

audio file downloadable from SoundCloud (embedded above)

Program Notes:

Fingerprint Skin Graft

A skin graft is a type of surgery where skin is transplanted from one section of a patient to another section of the same patient (autologous), from a genetically identical individual to another (isogeneic), from the same species to the same species (allogeneic), from two different species (xenogeneic), or from replacing with synthetic material (prosthetic). 

The same procedure occurs with the pitch material of Fingerprint Skin Graft, shifting from a diatonic set [024579E], to an increasingly more chromatic aggregate by means of the a slow introduction of the complement [1368T] until the completion of the aggregate.  The visceral melody that sits on top is unique every time that it appears, but similar enough to appear analogous, like a fingerprint.