The Automaton - Premiere by Kyle C Randall

This is a great performance at the 2015 Hot Air Music Festival, with Eric Tran on piano, Lara Mitofsky Neuss on clarinet, and James Jaffe on cello.

Notes:
“The Automaton” attempts to explore the potentially fine line between the fundamental natures of the biological and the mechanical. Because the inner workings of the mechanical—whether man-made or not—are often relatively simple and potentially understandable, they are often considered mundane and devoid of mystique, while the biological is still a mystery. At some level of complexity, nuance, and detachment, however, one might imagine that the functions and interactions of the mechanical would become exotic, fascinating, and even mystical. It is this nearly biological realm that “The Automaton” tries to evoke, following its subjects through the mystical, the mundane, and the exotic over the course of its six short movements (played without pause), which could be seen to represent one full day.

The piece has six short and continuous movements:

I. Prologue: Deep Slumber
II. Awakening
III. The Multitudes
IV. Glasswalking
V. The Grey Morning
VI. Epilogue: The Defunct and the Somnolent