Ambiguity (2017)

Program Notes

This Math Rock composition was brought about by using various influences like Plini, Chon, Strawberry Girls, and The Contortionist. Math rock focuses mostly on complex patterns, odd time signatures and certain things that seem to involve literal math. I called the piece Ambiguity because of the somewhat off sound it has this is due to the mixture of tonalities that make the music fight between sounding happy and sad, with a mixture of Keys like C maj, moving to Amin to then shifting to A maj and with the half step relation of 7th chords. There are parts in the piece where I remove certain notes from the beginning and replace them with rests this helps shift the feel of the piece. I would also remove parts from each instrument and make them ‘ping pong’ off each other. The constant change in note value adds on to that math rock feel. For example, some parts get sped up by subdividing and some parts get slowed down.

About the composer

Jonathan Rodriguez is a musician based in Brooklyn.  Born in 1994, He picked up the guitar at age 15 after getting inspired by playing video games like Guitar Hero 3. This introduced him to the music from Guns N’ Roses, and Rage Against The Machine. By the time he went to high school he met a friend, who opened up his mind to a way faster and more aggressive form of metal, called Metalcore. From there on Jonathan’s Music tastes varied and changed but usually was stuck under the same umbrella of metal. He also joined a band called waveforms where this mishmash of style in writing can be seen.