Below you can find video links of Ed’s chamber music works, his collaborative compositions with Gamelan X, and a list of his compositions.
Ed often composes chamber music,
drawing inspiration from his background with
percussion, Indonesian gamelan, and other sources.
“Kawitan” is the title of a traditional Sundanese gamelan musical piece that stems from the tari keurseus dance genre of the early 20th century. My piece titled Kawitan is based off of the melodic content and overall form of the original, utilizing much different harmonic, rhythmic, and expressive treatment.
The overall tempo and pace of Vibreum is largely determined by the swelling of the performers' vibrato and tremolo techniques. The performers' create melod...
Today's Date (2017) uses the numbers of today's date to define certain parameters of the piece. In this April 27th performance, 30 of the 31 measures were pl...
When he served as artistic director of the Oakland-based group Gamelan X,
Ed created the “Sambelan” project — a meeting ground for Balinese marching gamelan instruments, Brazilian drums, and a brass section — in collaboration with percussionist Rob Peterson and brass player Josh Jerge.
Ed also combined Sundanese and Balinese music with staged dance choreography to present compelling multimedia performance art, in collaboration with dancers Cia Garcia and Maurissa Dorn.
Music composed by: Ed Garcia. Choreography and dance: Cia Garcia and Maurissa Dorn. Performed on July 16, 2016
Sambelan performance, live at the Ashkenaz in Berkeley, CA. This song was built from an earlier Balinese-inspired piece called “Joker’s Wild,” written by Jocker Winangun, I Made Pasta, and Dan Bales.
Undercover Presents Radiohead's Kid A. Video taken from June 3rd performance and rehearsals. Arrangement by Ed Garcia features Gamelan, Voice, Violin, and Cello.
List of Compositions
Isolation Songs (2020) for percussion ensemble
Flight (2018) for clarinet and cello
Isolation Songs is for any number of performers, for open/flexible instrumentation. Conceived for the UCSC Percussion Ensemble as directed by William Winant. This piece explores musical connections between performers in musically isolating environments, and is presented as three "songs" connected by and overlaid with interludes.
Flight for clarinet and cello borrows much of its overall form from the number set 3, 4, and 5, with each of these numbers representing different aspects of meter, note groupings, and polyrhythmic effect. This rhythmic interplay is accompanied by slight changes in modalities and stark tempo shifts.
Piano Rug (2018) for solo piano
This solo piano piece was inspired by a small weaved design on an Islamic prayer rug. Muslims generally focus their gaze on their prayer rugs during prayer, oftentimes with a closeup view as they begin and end their prostration. The weaved design used in Piano Rug was discovered in this way. I captured the design as a closeup black and white photo, and superimposed a grid onto the image to create several tiny pixels. Each pixel represents 16th note durations within the piece. The darkness, lightness, and complexity of each pixel affects note values, duration, and dynamics. Special thanks to Larry Polansky for helping me find a way to realize this concept.
Three Songs for Guitar Duet (2017)
Many of the rhythmic patterns and melodic shapings within this piece find their roots in the Balinese gamelan gong kebyar tradition, which are then nested within larger musical forms that I feel work naturally on classical guitar. Special thanks to Karlton Hester for presenting the opportunity to compose this piece during his UC Santa Cruz composition class, and to the ensemble Duo Noire for reading the first song and encouraging me to write the second and third songs.
Strings for Kembang Tanjung (2017), arranged for string quartet, gamelan, and dance
This jaipong-style dance and vocal piece was originally created in the early 2000s by Awan Metro (dance choreography) and Wahyu Roche (accompanying gamelan music) in West Java, Indonesia. While I was living in West Java in 2014, I was exposed to many jaipong performances, and I began contemplating the combination of western melodic instruments with jaipong. This arrangement substitutes the original vocal and rebab (Indonesian spiked fiddle) melodic lines with strings, which I then expanded harmonically and rhythmically to accompany the dance movements and drum patterns. Special thanks to Undang Sumarna for his guidance throughout the duration of this project.
Vibreum (2017) for vibraphone and haegeum
The overall tempo and pace of Vibreum is largely determined by the swelling of the performers' vibrato and tremolo techniques. The performers' create melodies that often operate on the same "wavelength." The premiere took place at the Pacific Rim Music Festival in Santa Cruz, California on October 28, 2017. It was performed on haegeum and vibraphone by KIM Soo-yeon of Festival Ensemble Korea and Brandon Ilaw of New York New Music Ensemble, respectively.
Today’s Date (2017) for more than one performer
Today's Date uses the numbers of today's date to define certain parameters of the piece.
Tablalan (2017) for tabla and Sundanese gamelan instruments (gambang, saron, panerus, kabluk, gong, and kempul)
This piece is the exploration of Indian tala (musical meter) within the scope of a Sundanese gamelan ensemble. The piece utilizes common Indian rhythmic patterns: rhythm groupings that reduce and expand, as well as the cadential tihai form - three identical rhythmic phrases separated by rests, culminating on a resolution point known in traditional Indian music theory as sum. These ideas are combined with Indonesian musical concepts: gong cycles, subdividing instrument patterns, and colotomic punctuations. The pitch content comes from both salendro and pelog scales, inspired by a performance I saw in Bandung, Indonesia, where the musicians played salendro- and pelog-tuned instruments simultaneously.
Kawitan (2017) for flute, Bb clarinet, violin, cello, bass
“Kawitan” is the title of a traditional Sundanese gamelan musical piece that stems from the tari keurseus dance genre of the early 20th century. My piece titled Kawitan is based on the melodic content and overall form of the original, utilizing much different harmonic, rhythmic, and expressive treatment.
Brass for Joker’s Wild - Jocker Winangun, I Made Pasta, Dan Bales (2016), arranged for gamelan, bateria, and brass
This rendition of “Joker’s Wild” is an arrangement of an older Gamelan X piece that was inspired by Balinese beleganjur marching music (as composed by longtime Gamelan X member Dan Bales, and Balinese expert musicians Jocker Winangun and I Made Pasta). I preserved their original form and instrumentation (Balinese reyong, cengceng kopyak, and gongs), but arranged the drum parts to be performed on the Brazilian caixa (snare drum) and surdo (bass drum). I also composed for brass quintet (trumpets, trombones, and tuba) to engage new melodic ideas and timbres. The resulting music is a blend of rhythmic complexities, melodious phrases, and dynamic energy.
Sambelan (2016): three pieces for gamelan, bateria, and brass, in collaboration with Rob Peterson and Josh Jerge
Sambelan is a compositional collaboration between percussionist-composer Rob Peterson, trumpet player and band-leader Josh Jerge, and myself. These pieces were designed for and performed by Gamelan X. The core format for the three Sambelan pieces “Chico Ballad,” “New Kids on the Bloco,” and “Meu Sombra” originated from Rob Peterson, who is an avid performer and student of Brazilian samba percussion. Rob and I were able to transform these pieces by arranging Rob’s agogo bell patterns into Balinese reyong (metal kettle pots) patterns, and shaping his tamborim (small frame drum) rhythmic patterns into Balinese cengceng kopyak (handheld cymbals) patterns. We also added Brazilian caixa (snare drum) and surdo (bass drum), and utilized Gamelan X’s various Balinese gongs.
Once this skeletal style had been created, I turned to trumpeter Josh Jerge - with his background and experience in a wide variety of genres and arrangement - to collaborate with me in composing riveting horn lines that could serve as the melodic feature of this ensemble. The brass section - consisting of trumpets, trombones, and tuba - often have sweeping melodies that intertwine with the punctuations of the Brazilian surdo patterns and the Balinese gong cycle, while still drawing from easily recognizable genres like jazz, funk, and rock.
Violin and cello for Radiohead’s Kid A (2016), arranged for gamelan, voice, violin, and cello
I arranged this song for Gamelan X for our performance of the title track of UnderCover Presents: A Tribute to Radiohead’s Kid A at the Independent in San Francisco. UnderCover concerts typically have one band perform one song each as a tribute to a particular iconic album. I arranged this version of Kid A for gamelan instruments (Balinese gangsa, kendang, Sundanese kendang, and several aluminum plate gongs), voice, cello, and violin.
Storm Stroll (2015) for cello, piano, percussion
While living in Bandung, Indonesia, I realized that there are only two six-month seasons in that part of the world: wet and dry. The wet season is filled with frequent short intervals of full-blown rain, thunder, and lightning. These boisterous bursts can begin and end quite suddenly. The consequences of these storms become immediately apparent with the rapid flooding of roads and sewers, the splashing waves created by passing vehicles, and the sounds of rainwater splashing against the surfaces of roofs, cars, and other city structures.
This piece is inspired by my daily seven-minute stroll from my school to my house in Bandung. My stroll was always an exercise in deciding what level of discomfort would soon feel satisfactory compared to the weather intensity that preceded or proceeded it, and this piece shows how I would feel emotionally based on my predicament. The differing sections of the piece represent different layers of the storm.
Division: The Guardian and the Thief (2015), written for gamelan and dance
Division: The Guardian and the Thief, an original dance duet accompanied by Sundanese-inspired music composed for Gamelan X's Balinese instruments. Music and plot composed by Ed Garcia. Choreography, costume design, and dance performance by Maurissa Dorn and Cia Garcia. Two young sisters enter the stage, moving as one unit, thinking as if from one mind. They remain as such until they both notice a golden selendang along their path. They are enamored by the selendang, and they both covet it. However, one of them only wants to protect it, and the other wants to steal it for herself. Realizing that for the first time in their lives that they both want something different than the other, their naivety and the chance for individualism sparks an irreparable division between the two that becomes a life or death situation. Who will prevail... the guardian or the thief?