Electric Sheep (1998)
6'45"
3-3-3-3, 4-3-3-1, timp+2 perc, strings
Notes
In Phillip K. Dick's short story "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", the actual "Electric Sheep" in question are robotic pets, created to look and behave just like real sheep. These android animals exist in part because, in the author's portrayal of the future, some form of holocaust had killed most living animals. As a result, ownership of a real, live animal became a symbol of wealth and status. The 1983 movie "Blade Runner" is loosely based upon this possible future.
In Electric Sheep I have attempted to capture the essence (or lack there of) of the fake animals. The piece is playful and highly rhythmic, yet is still shrouded in an icy coldness that perhaps a living sheep would be without.
Winner of the 1999 Marilyn K. Glick Young Composers Showcase, awarded by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
Awarded 1st place in Region 5 East for the SCI/ASCAP 2001 Composition Commission Awards
Winner of the Winter 1998 USC Symphony Competition
Premiered by the USC Symphony
Jung-Ho Pak, conductor
March 3, 1999
Bovard Auditorium
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA
Audio
Electric Sheep
PDF Score excerpt