Repeated Figures (1991)

Ken Davies (b. 1944) — Repeated Figures (1991) for keyboard instrument

Ken Davies (b. 1944) is an American composer based in the state of Mississippi. As a trombonist, during the 1970s Davies was the trombonist with Gabriel’s Brass, a jazz-rock show band that performed frequently for Walt Disney World. Davies has worked as a commercial arranger and session producer for radio and television, and has composed many original acoustic and electronic compositions. In 2006–07, he received a Mississippi Performing Artist Fellowship in Composition.

“Repeated Figures” (1991) is a short minimalist piece that can be performed on any keyboard instrument. The performance here uses a “sine wave organ” (Al Morse’s Hauptwerk “calibration organ”), with sine waves at 8’ in the manual and 16’ + 8’ in the pedal. The sound is thus reminiscent of the electronic organ timbre prominent in the early years of American minimalist music (Glass, Reich, Riley, etc.)