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Postcard Compositions

These compositions are an attempt to bridge the distance of geography, social isolation, and quarantine with intimate obscurity. They have few rules and while they contain musical instructions, I would say that these pieces are “pushes”, like visual art. I wish for them to accumulate meaning in the course of quotidian contemplation; they are meant to sit until they absolutely must be performed. I have joked that something horrible would have to happen to me for anyone to feel the need to perform them.

For many of these pieces, I have collaborated with my wife, Jessica Brown, for the artistic designs of the postcards. The opposite of ready-made mass-produced scenes, they are one of a kind pieces which seek to capture the vistas of the soul, and they are themselves music whose temporality presents a “now” which is integrated cyclical creations of relations in the past and present. They are performable, in many cases more so than my contributions, which for this project are indulgent beyond casual comprehensibility.

All of our projects together center Eros, in many ways we are a system of shared responses, ethics, and desires.

 

This series is inspired by the postcard creations of James Tenney. A performance of which was at my first concert experience here in Philadelphia. The person who took us to this concert Thomas Patteson, is the first recipient of our compositional output. He is also a mensch.

 

Rules and hints-

1- Never say anything written on the card outloud unless instructed. This is not a spoken word poem. 

2- I frequently use pitch-class notation and sets, the different colorations of the sets are up to interpretation. 

3- Never force yourself to perform any of my music, it is a well-spring not a mine. 

4- You must love someone or something

Composition #9
an A(we)nser
for No(r)a Lang
of Salt Lake City

Front and Back by Aaron Pond, composed in Cooper City, Florida on a 100 degree day in October 2022

Composition #8

Bereshit 

for Jack Braunstein

of Philadelphia

Front by Jessica Brown

back by Aaron Pond

​

composed in a tiny room on

South Broad Street 

Composition #7 for Carlos Salas and Raphaela Meloro of Gainseville, Florida

Front by Jessica Brown

back by Aaron Pond

composed in a tiny room

on South Broad Street

Composition #6

Singing in the Shower

for Cora Coleman of 
La Jolla, California

Front by Jessica Brown

back by Aaron Pond

composed in a tiny room

on South Broad Street

Composition #5

Hot Cup for

Leah Fennimore of 
Philadelphia

Front by Jessica Brown

back by Aaron Pond

composed in a tiny room

on South Broad Street

Composition #4

for a name that escapes me

​

Front by Jessica Brown

back by Aaron Pond

composed in a tiny room

on South Broad Street

Composition #3

Duckie Digression for

Madam Data of 
Singapore, Singapore

Front and Back by Aaron Pond, composed in a tiny room on South Broad Street

Composition #2
Chicken Scratch

for Kate of 
Philadelphia

Front by Jessica Brown

back by Aaron Pond

composed in a tiny room

on South Broad Street

Composition #1
An old crop f
or

Thomas Patteson 

of 
Philadelphia

Front by Jessica Brown

back by Aaron Pond

composed in a tiny room

on South Broad Street

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