(2025) RETROSCOPE

(2025) RETROSCOPE

RETRO-SCOPE invites listeners on a 7-minute sonic journey where orchestral tradition meets tech and innovation. The title itself reveals the composition’s essence—”RETRO” from Latin means “past,” and “SCOPE” from Greek means “to observe”—creating a work that honors music’s past, present, and future simultaneously.

In this piece, a soloist uses a vocoder and a drum pad to create electronic textures that dance with the orchestra’s rich acoustic palette. The composition incorporates science fiction elements, including voice techniques imitating the otherworldly theremin, allowing audiences to hear the past quite literally through a modern lens. 

RETRO-SCOPE celebrates orchestral heritage and makes a statement about music’s technological horizons—a conversation between human emotion and digital possibility that seems to be here to stay. 

Instrumentation:

2* 2 2 2 – 4 3 3 1 – timp+4perc – hp – synth – synth voice – strings

*1st doubling piccolo

PERCUSSION: 4 Percussion players (Glockenspiel, Vibraphone, Crotales, Suspended Cymbal, Snare Drum, Hi-Hat, Marimba, Bass Drum, Tam-tam)

SOLOIST: Synth Voice (TC Helicon Voice Live Touch 2 – Valkyrie 199 setting, described as “like a theremin”) Synthesizer (ROLI DeepX Phase Attack Keys, with various settings including “Big Jazz Group,” “Bunch of Bass,” “Dancing Glass Ants,” “Magic Toy Piano”) + drum pad (finger drumming)