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Silkys (2020) for oboe and field recordings
Catherine Lee and Juniana Lanning

In Silkys, a blended sound world is created by exploring sounds and movements of the Bombyx mori (domestic silkworm moth) that highlights the beautiful, unexpected, and often overlooked aspects of the organism through its developmental stages and eventual metamorphosis into an adult silkworm moth. I have spent the past four summers raising Bombyx mori, and they have been and continue to be a profound source of inspiration. Originally conceived as a live performance, Silkys evolved into a fixed media work from our respective isolations during Covid -19. It was premiered at ISSTA 2020: Sonic Practice Now and is included on the album Remote Together (Redshift, 2021). This score was created to facilitate a live performance at the request of Nicholas Daniel. Just as the Bombyx mori cocoons and transforms, so too has our existence and work changed during this time of seclusion.

a tiny dance (2008) for solo oboe
Catherine Lee

a tiny dance (2008), was created for the dance piece Wet? by POV dance and performed at Ten Tiny Dances South Waterfront Project in Portland, Oregon, in August 2008. Two dancers were restricted to moving within a space of four square feet that also contained a cement ledge, a banister, and a section of a small waterfall. The dancers used their bodies to demonstrate the variety of movements that were possible in this restricted space. They incorporated all of the elements, including the waterfall, sometimes dipping their toes in the water or splashing. I wanted the music to reflect the obstacle of being confined while at the same time finding beauty and self-expression within those confines. The movement of the water was an inspiration; it ripples, flows, splashes, evaporates, and reflects. I tried to show these aspects in the music. I based the work on three things, the note b’, which has the most timbral fingerings on the oboe; the interval of the tritone, to create a feeling of reaching; and finally, the whole-tone scale, which includes both these aspects. I created a structure that was free enough that I could reflect the timing of the dancers’ movements and we could be joined as a united entity. a tiny dance is included on the album social sounds (Teal Creek, 2013).