Cutest Little Arbitrage
ensemble two alto saxophones, tenor trombone, keyboard, electric guitar and drums (with fixed electronics)
duration 12 minutes
written for Ensemble Klang
commissioned by Gaudeamus Music Festival
premiere September 11, 2011; Utrecht, The Netherlands
publisher Unsettlement Music
listen to an excerpt
notes
"So let's say I buy the bond and buy protection on it. If it defaults, I get paid par for my bond. I make 8 points. If it doesn't default, and the carry isn't negative, nothing happens. I get paid they yield on the bond, but probably gave up all the spread buying the Credit Default Swap. So basically its a trade that has a high probability of doing nothing, but a small possibility of producing a nice return. Upside with no downside = arbitrage."
from "How does a Credit Default Swap Work? The Accrued Interest Blog, April 27, 2007
Cutest Little Arbitrage was commissioned for Ensemble Klang by Musiek Centrum Nederland and Gaudeamus Musiekweek. Set in three short movements, it's a study in diverging but coexisting senses of pulse. Throughout the piece, musicians are called to play together through shifting pulse-fields, to split apart into groups playing different tempi, and to rigorously adhere to a strict pulse that the music they are playing makes every effort to mask. One goal of setting up such games with meter is to create the effect of an overriding rhythmic force that, if not always unifying, is bigger than the independent pulse-streams flowing within it. The underlying rhythmic schemes of the piece, as well as the pitch centers, are derived from one outside sample, taken from steaming video on the internet and triggered through samplers played by the ensemble.
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