NATICK TRAFFIC CALMING PUBLIC ART PROJECT
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COMPOSITION NO. 4
Composition No. 4 is an another in a series of experiments utilizing musical notation to create a visual works. This work is currently being installed in Natick Center at the intersection of Rt 135 and Rt 27. This work aims to free the musical symbols of predefined directions, allowing for a more fluid and gestural relationship amongst the same symbols in different structures.
Project Description
My works are experiments utilizing musical elements, such as notation, texture, and listening experiences, to derive visual works. Even in my musical compositions, I experiment with the visuals of the score and notation. My visual works free the symbols found in musical notation from their predefined direction, allowing for more fluid and gestural relationships in different structures.
This Traffic Calming Public Art is a work designed specifically for Natick titled Composition No. 4. My formal training culminated in my Doctorate of Musical Arts in Music Composition, where I focused on “Graphic Scores,” which have heavily influenced my visual works. Composition No. 4 is designed to match the vibrant Natick town center and encourage viewers to think about how they experience music. As a town resident and private music instructor for the Natick Public School District, I encourage my students to think outside the box and identify where their creative practices performing and listening to music can be applied. Composition No. 4 will hopefully promote the same thinking to the general public.
Composition No. 2 (2021)
alcohol ink on paper, 11”x14”
Kevin Baldwin, D.M.A, artist, composer, saxophonist.
The score of a musical work is fascinating.
As a composer, I spend hundreds of hours alone with a score to unearth and present the uniqueness of every sound. I consider the physicality of a sound, both in the depth of overtones and frequencies and in the most minuscule human motions it takes to produce them. I consider texture, the harsh and grinding color of the cellist utilizing overpressured bowing, and the intimate fragility of the flutist's unstable multiphonic. I consider shape, from violent rhythmic gestures to light, lyrical flurries. I consider form, how various larger blocks made up of colors, textures, layers, and rhythms work together to highlight every unique aspect of a sound. I consider the weight of each and every observance I make, and I ensure every mark in the score best reveals the essence of a sound.
The audience I am writing for will never see this score.