Collaborative Projects

Collaborations with Frankie Brackley Tolman, Visual Artist        

I have been an admirer of Frankie Brackley Tolman for many years. Her works as a visual artist are in response to the ever changing beauty of her surroundings in rural New Hampshire. We share these surroundings. Inspired by her paintings, I decided to undertake a collaborative project, integrating her paintings with music and film.  

I began this project in the spring of 2017 by filming one of Frankie’s paintings, Gardening in the Rain. I was attracted to this work because of it’s large splashes of color which jumped from the canvas. This effect was created by the large amount of open canvas, free space, surrounding the flowers; splashes of vivid colors especially yellow. This imagery led me to film the field in front of our home, bursting with the perennial springtime daffodils naturalized throughout the landscape.

Experimenting with these two videos, merging the clips from Frankie’s canvas with those of the daffodils, inanimate images with the living flowers, exciting possibilities came into focus. As I continued to explore various video editing techniques, Frankie and I drafted ideas for our teamwork, and thought of “Double Image”. This reflected the effect observed in the film when her painting was merged with the daffodils. It also was a statement of shared connections, personally and through our art.

This collaboration has evolved into a two works: Sonata in G for Piano and 4 Seasons for Solo Harp.

Sonata in G for Piano

Sonata in G, a four movement, twelve minute work, was created in two phases.

The first was the production of the film. Focusing on Frankie’s paintings of flowers, I selected four paintings which reflected the range of her styles. In the natural light of her studio, I used the camera as an “eye” to explore her art, and then filmed three different gardens; two at Frankie’s home and another of a friend in our community. Integrating the gardens with the paintings, I created a video for each painting, botanical garden, BLUE FLAGS, It’s A Jungle Out There, and Abundance.

After completion of the film, I composed the music for the score.

The intent was to convey a deep impression of the painting while following the sonata form of classical music. The piano was chosen as an instrument well suited for this work.

About Sonata in G for Piano

Sonata in G was composed as a score for the film I created featuring the paintings of artist, Frankie Brackley Tolman.  I selected her four paintings botanical gardens, BLUE FLAGS, It’s A Jungle Out There, and Abundance, not only because they reflected Frankie’s stylistic range, but also because they were well suited to a musical score in the classical form of a sonata.  I filmed the paintings and also her gardens (adding a garden from another friend), and merged the images, animate and inanimate.

The intent was to convey a deep impression of each of the paintings while following this form of classical music.  The piano was chosen as an instrument well suited for this work.

The four movements, titled after her paintings, are ordered as is standard for a sonata, with the first movement in a sonata-form, followed by a slow movement, then a dance, and ending with the last movement in a sonata-rondo form. 

Tonally, the work is modal, centered around the pitch of G (for gardens).  In botanical gardens, the first theme is stated in G Dorian, and followed by the second theme in D Dorian.  returning to the tonic of G Dorian, as in the classical sonata-form. 

From this first movement centered on G, the second movement progresses to the mediant of B Dorian.  Keeping this same key signature, the dance movement is in D Ionian, and the finale, Abundance, returns to G Dorian.

Following this over arching structure, and in response to each of the paintings as well as the environs of the gardens, particular musical ideas - melodic themes, harmonies, scales - are used and developed.

The imagery of botanical gardens, the painting as well as the garden, inspired the use of spare lyrical flowing themes.  Influenced by the Asian appearing images in BLUE FLAGS, I used a pentatonic scale with quartal harmonies.  The whimsy of Frankie’s It’s A Jungle Out There, and the grand performance of the garden moth, demanded the incorporation of the New England contradance tune, There She Goes, with its traditional rhythms and harmonies.  The bold colors and brush strokes Abundance inspired a style of music associated with the impressionist composers, especially the quartal harmonies of Debussy.
For the performer:  This composition can be performed without the film. However, if it is performed with the film, strict adherence to the metronome markings must be maintained for accurate synchronization.

4 Seasons for Solo Harp

For my second collaboration 4 Seasons, I wanted to create a work around our New England seasons; an ever changing kaleidoscope. I composed the music first for this project. As an instrument of both beautiful delicacy and great power, I selected the harp. Also I was excited at the prospect of having gifted harpist Rachel Clemente perform the piece.  

I selected paintings which expressed aspects of each season, and interwove them with the scenes and sounds of the natural world. Scoring these to the harp music, I hoped to bring to life the magic of our life in New Hampshire’s forests and fields.

Collaborations with Rebecca Patek

The Future Was Looking Better In The Past, 2015

L.A. Dierker’s collaborations with Rebecca Patek span a period of over fifteen years. Premieres and performance venues have included the Mulberry Street Theater, The Chocolate Factory, The Kitchen and MoMA in NYC and the Fringe Festival in Philadelphia. They also were honored as Artists in Residence at Keene State College, Keene, New Hampshire.

Below is a video excerpt of The Future Was Looking Better In The Past: My Family Herstory:Or from religious persecution to american greed to murderous infamy to denial, repression and the slow dissolution into moral confusion, financial ruin and karmic retribution. The piece was co-commissioned and presented with Abrons Arts Center at The Chocolate Factory.

The Future Was Looking Better In The Past invokes the story of Leopold and Loeb to hold a mirror to her own “crimes” and investigate a personal history involving familial guilt, tainted blood, and bad karma. Music and sound design by L.A. Dierker.

video Excerpt of The Future Was Looking Better in the Past

CREDITS: Created by Rebecca Patek. Performed by John Hoobyar, Sheila Lewandowski, David Patek, Sam Roeck, Chris Tyler, Peter Mills Weiss and Jaime Wright. Music and Sound Design by L.A. Dierker. Lighting Design by Joe Levasseur. Video Design and Production by David Pym. Video Production by Vincent Lafrance.

Tunnels, 2016
Part of the Sites of Absence show at the glasshouse in Brooklyn
Featuring work by Julie Tolentino, Rebecca Patek, Camila Caneque & Maria Jose Arjona

Sites of Absence presented performance devoid of its spectacle nature. It highlighted the frames of pre and post performance works by genuine voices in contemporary performance art, providing an observation on the remains or leftovers from a powerful presence. A floor-plan, a charcoal sketch of what would become a durational piece, a social media feed, an edited video, a wrapped journal exploding with gathered materials—each of these objects were exhibited as traces to the essential code of performance, gifting a rare intimate view on the individuality of process and its fluid archiving.

Rebecca Patek’s piece, Tunnels, made in collaboration with L.A. Dierker, was performed as part of the exhibit.