Kicking and Screaming

Kicking and Screaming was composed in 2021.
 

Duration: c. 5 minutes, 40 seconds.

The piece is inspired by the common idiom 'kicking and screaming' - meaning being forced to do something unwillingly, especially involving vehement protesting and extreme reluctance.

This feeling is demonstrated in this piece through the use of dissonance, mixed metre,
extended techniques, and contrasts in its elements. Such contrasts include in dynamic, tempo, style and feel. Some of the extended techniques included in the piece are slap tonguing, multiphonics, growling and vocal effects.

All of this, when combined, reflects the feeling of extreme reluctance and vehement protests.
In addition to using traditional harmony, Kicking and Screaming utilises some elements of jazz and blues conventions in its harmonic construction, as well as moments of atonality to create a clashing pastiche that again plays into the meaning of the idiom.

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Performances:

Nicholas Russoniello, July 15, 2022. The Sound Lounge, Sydney, Australia. International Premiere.

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