Harold in California is a composition for viola and pre-recorded electronics.  The electronic part is composed almost entirely of recorded and manipulated viola sounds.  The viola part is specified in the score but except for a few notated bits and a few crucial timed convergences with the electronic part, is partially improvised.  In my performance of this piece I mix old Romantic viola tone with contemporary viola technique.

In the title, Harold represents the old: a viola and California represents the new: the electronics.  It is also a pun on Berlioz's Harold in Italy. Apparently there is a town in California called Harold but any convergence is purely coincidental.

:27 G & F stutter

:41 Notes Strewed

:56 Zingers

1:05 B-flat stutter buzz

1:25 upward doubles

1:45 B-flat buzz

1:53 chaotic sequence

2:36 Sequence

2:05 Buzz melody in

2:20 more chaos… 

2:36 CUTOFF! (Cresc. On A)

2:42 PIZZ! A, E, Cn, B

~3:10 play A minor melody

3:44 downward scale

3:46 edgy melody

4:30 dreamy convolved

4:48 edgy melody fragments

5:06 dreamy convolved

5:29-6:09 Solo cadenza and with pizz on low C

6:37 Snap pizz

6:39 Snap pizz

7:00 Stutter, edgy melodies

7:26 zinger

7:42 B-flat (melodic melody) 

7:42 stutter B-flat

7:45 upward doubles

8:14 pretty swirls