Prof. Eric Chasalow (MUS), highly acclaimed composer and Irving G. Fine Professor of Music, is a musician famous for combining the traditional sounds of physical instruments, such as piano and horns, with the more intangible and imaginative reverbs of electronic sounds. The eclectic and haunting music he creates, however, belies a more traditional musical background which started, as with most accomplished musicians, when he was a child."Like many musicians, I started very young, but my interests grew and changed a lot over the years. From age eight to 18, almost all I wanted to do was play guitar-at first because I was so in love with the Beatles' music, but soon after also Jazz. By high school, I was writing pop songs, big band charts, and little solo Baroque-style pieces. Most of my energy by the time I got to college was going into writing Jazz," wrote Chasalow in an e-mail to the Justice.

However, his interest in fusing electronic sounds with traditional instruments started early as well. He wrote, "In high school and college I experimented with tape recorders and some of the early synthesizers." After discovering the work created at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York, he said, "it reminded me of the great improvised Jazz that I loved." He then followed the music to the university level. "I was lucky enough to be able to go to Columbia for graduate school and study with composers who had invented ways to combine traditional instruments with electronic sounds. That was 1977, and I have been writing music that extends this tradition ever since."

It is difficult to describe Chasalow's work with words. To get a real feel for the music that embodies his compositions, one should listen to a piece that provides a clear lens into the foundational elements of his music. "Dream Songs" is a spellbinding piece, performed in multiple parts, with evocative snippets of John Berryman's poem of the same title spliced in. Eerie, conglomerate, percussive, and haunting might be a few key descriptors.

It is an extraordinary sound, and it caught the attention of Chamber Music America, who gave Chasalow a grant for a new composition in this electro-traditional style. It is difficult to receive a grant for composition of a new musical work. In fact, a composer must apply for grants to fund musical compositions just as a scientist would apply for funding of personal research. "One must put the work out there, wish for luck, and try to forget about it. After many years of doing this, I am still very surprised and pleased when my work is chosen," he wrote.

Chasalow's new work will be another extension of his established creative endeavors. According to him, "My compositional techniques use samples from oral histories, recited poetry, iconic recordings and other archival sources. Some pieces recontextualize iconic samples, for example 'Scuse Me for electric guitar and electronic sound, from 1998 is saturated with motives from Purple Haze. There is a series of electronic music composer portraits on everyone from Milton Babbitt to John Lennon. Even works that set pre-existing poems in the manner of an art song use the electronic layers to create a new kind of dramatic tension." But the concert will not just be of stationary players and electronic beats. "I am also thinking of integrating theatrical elements into these pieces, either through staging or via video, so that the musicians may speak or sing and perhaps move as well as playing their instruments," he wrote.

The commissioned piece will be performed by New York New Music Ensemble, a well-established contemporary music grop. It will be premiered at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City in 2012.