Even to this day…Movement One: Inoculations
Music for Orchestra and Soloists

(Inoculation: to inoculate)

This applies to vaccinating against the coronavirus and to mentally preparing ourselves to be strong against the onset of paranoia, boredom, depression, isolation, apathy, and all of the other symptoms of this disease that we did not anticipate.

Even to this day…in its entirety comprises three movements. Movement One: Inoculations, which you are listening to now, is for orchestra and 21 improvisers. The complete length of Inoculations is 10 hours and 32 minutes and consists of 12 individual Modules. The second movement, Part Two: Syncretism: for the draw…is for metal band and orchestra and will be released later in 2021. Finally, as yet unnamed, the third movement for symphony orchestra and large ensemble with improvisers will be completed at the end of 2021.

I started writing Even to this day... for my upcoming 75th birthday a year before it was to happen at the request of Rent Romus, who was organizing a concert of 75 musicians to perform the piece, unaware that Covid lurked around the corner. The performance never happened. So, I decided to go for what I wanted using real and virtual musicians performing composed music combined with improvisation—which always seems to be the best way to get what I want musically—a blend of serenity, intensity, and stability that shifts like the sands in a desert. And, as I wanted to have many of the West Coast musicians I play with represented in the music, I came up with a plan to have soloists play over a large and continually changing symphonic setting.

Even to this day... includes soloistic journeys, short interludes, transitional forms, and improvisations involving orchestral textures. Performed live, I would have used a combination of conducting techniques I have been refining since the first concert of the Vinny Golia Large Ensemble in 1982. Unfortunately, I could not do this live because of Covid restrictions and instead created an alternate composition system to supplant and expand on those techniques. Our West Coast community of creative musicians is vast and intensely innovative, and from this communal pool, I used improvisers accustomed to performing New Music and freer forms of improvisation. Specific compositions showcase their creative talents, resulting in a myriad of improvisational approaches. For the listener, the modules within each movement can be arranged in any order but are best listened to in their original order as the compositions within each module accent each other.

Movement One: Inoculations is the first part of over a year’s worth of work on Even to this day... The movement is a direct response to Covid, reflecting feelings and thoughts while locked down or “safer at home” for 15 months. With so much discord in the world at the moment, the chance for a few of us to collaborate on something positive seemed a great way to fight back, peacefully, against the malaise of fear, uncertainty, isolation, hostility, and depression. So, this orchestral project started in March 2020 is now ready to add the final component, the listener...