Fantasy Quartet (an essay on fire)
Breached (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Opus 19
be still.
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Psychosis Quartet (2023)
Psychosis Quartet is a string quartet I began composing in June of 2022 and completed in May of 2023. It is a work in one movement that relishes in chaos, uncanny humor, and forcing its away to resolution. A lot of the musical material stylistically was inspired by the work of the late Stephen Sondheim, whose quirky yet addictive style of writing I consistently cling onto. The Quartet also fuses in some of the thematic material from my 2023 short film project, Breached. Aesthetically, I like to think of this style of my composition as a sort of bridge, or half-way-point, between my film-music and concert-music writing. This performance was recorded by the Telegraph Quartet at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on May 10th, 2023. It is the final project of my undergraduate career to be recorded. A heartfelt special thanks to Telegraph for recording this quartet and to my professor Joseph Stillwell whose mentorship helped bring this work to fruition.
Their Hearts Were Still (2022)
Composed for Cello and Tape, this multimedia work is a narrative collage of sonic and visual elements, examining the meaning of dreams when life itself becomes an inescapable nightmare. Despite our preconceptions, here the music finds light in the darkness, and escapes the darkness of the light.
Opus 19 (2021)
[ Yesterday I performed a piece I wrote for violin and piano with the talented @archerhbrown . This isn’t a piece I wanted to write, but needed to. With so much tragedy in the world, managing to not only survive, but celebrate life was one of my greatest personal challenges. I am so grateful to everyone who’s been by my side along the way. “To love somebody, to care for somebody... that makes life not just livable, but a gallant, gallant event.” - Toni Morrison ]
– Bobby Alarcon 1/25/2021
Sic Terra (Thus the Earth)
Visuals, Sound Design, and Music by Bobby Alarcon Premiered at the Chabot Space & Science Center May 5th, 2023
How does one experience the rise in our planet’s temperature associated with climate change? As a slow gradual climb? As something that’s been building for some time and will eventually be irreversible? Yet, how does this change feel when put in the context of the earth’s cosmic history? Can we truly understand the rate of climate change in the context of humanity’s 200,000 year history, let alone in the context of Earth’s 4.5 billion year history?
Sic Terra (thus the earth) invites its travelers on a journey back in time; experiencing the earth from its creation 4.5 billion years ago until present day. Discover the drastic changes in earth’s climate across the eons; changes which many times nearly wiped out all life. After exploring the wondrous mysteries of prehistoric life, jurassic and microscopic, the piece sets in on its primary subject: us. All of humanity’s 200,000 year history is scaled into a 5 minute composition. At this scale, 600 years pass by every second. Human civilization began approximately 6,000 years ago, which comprises just under 9 seconds of the total 5 minutes. At this cosmic scale, a “gradual rise” no longer feels so gradual.
This work is comprised of three submovements: Initium :
Hadean to Cambrian (3.5 billion years) Ruina : Mesozoic (186 million years) Renascitur : Cenozoic (66 million years)