Crossfade was the first piece created with Alex's Laptop Ensemble software, a free open-source package built with MaxMSP which simplifies the creation of networked laptop ensemble music. Click here for more information and to download the software.

A crossfade is the transition of two sounds by having one decrease in amplitude (fade out) while the other increases (fade in). This piece is structured around a large-scale crossfade between a bass voice and a melodic voice, but instead of amplitude fades, the range of pitches in each voice fades. Each of these voices has an ordered list of pitches that they traverse through the course of the piece, but the pitches change over time. The bass voice gradually reduces to playing a severely-downscaled version of its list, experienced as microtones around a center pitch; the melody voice does exactly the opposite, beginning as a microtonal gesture and gradually expanding to a recognizable melody.

Jittery, odd-metered rhythms (constructed with hybrid crossfaded drum samples) and an unpredictable harmonic backdrop round out the piece atop the bass and melodic voices. Crossfade is punctuated in three discrete sections, each being faster than the one before.

To view the premiere performance of this piece, click here.

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Performed by Reginald Bain, George Fetner, Kevin Rogers, and Alex Wroten.

Clippings is an audiovisual work constructed from video and audio clips of performances of Alex's previous pieces. These clips are scrambled, layered, and sonically altered to create a new piece which does not seek to overtly reference its source materials.

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Period will be Alex's last piece performed in his years as an undergraduate student at The University of South Carolina. Scored for four winds, four brass, and rock quartet, this work was inspired by the progressive rock and fusion jazz movements in 1970s rock music, with electric organ and electric guitar playing prominent roles in the musical texture.

The title of the work not only indicates its symbolic punctuation in Alex's school career, it also relates to its rhythmic structure. Phrases of various lengths and time signatures loop over one another to create a sense of perpetual motion, harmonic excitement, and variation.

Click to play excerpt (synthesized)

To be premiered at the New Voices Student Composers Concert on April 25, 2009.

Alex composed V.A.N.I.L.L.A. for a reading session with ICE, a prominent chamber music ensemble, held in October 2008 at The University of South Carolina. The title, an acronym of Vapid Acronyms Never Inspire Legitimate Listeners' Attentions parallels and parodies the full name of the ensemble (International Contemporary Ensemble) while providing insight into the musical materials. The main riff from Vanilla Ice's "Ice, Ice, Baby" is projected rhythmically and harmonically to produce the world in which this short piece lives.

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Zukunftsangst was composed over the summer of 2008 while Alex was in close contact with Greenville County Youth Orchestra's conductor and music director, Dr. Gary Robinson, over its scheduled premiere. The piece oozed into shape quickly, and upon examination revealed a close connection emotionally to Alex's anxieties over his future after college. It balances the technical necessities of a youth orchestra work without affecting the desires of the composer.

Dr. Robinson chose to perform this piece twice at its premiere. To view these performances, click here for the first one and here for the second one.

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Performed by the Greenville County Youth Orchestra Young Artist Orchestra. Conducted by Dr. Gary Robinson.

This piece was inspired by the media concern over whether or not Guitar Hero and Rock Band were ruining kids' interest in learning real musical instruments. Alex developed new software in MaxMSP to allow a Guitar Hero controller to be used as a musical instrument and devised a notation scheme for this new instrument using standard musical notation. Excuses was composed with this software to fuse the Guitar Hero idiom and modern classical electronic music.

For more information about Excuses, its software, and its notation, please visit this page.

To view the premiere performance of this piece, click here.

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Performed by Kevin Rogers and Alex Wroten.

Gold nanorods begin in an aqueous solution of colloidal gold. Gold atoms attach to a starting seed, and “grow” the long thin rods. Many such processes involve a process known as diffusion limited aggregation – the growth depends on the diffusive flow of the atoms until they are close enough to attach to the seed. This process can be modeled by mathematically describing a randomized motion of the atoms. The core of the music in this piece is based on this mathematical description of the random motion.

One of the unique properties of gold nanoparticles is that they scatter light in the ultra-violet and visible range. When the light signal of their scattering is optically recorded, one can see concentrated peaks at specific frequencies, corresponding to the orientation of the rods and their individual aspect ratios. This wave spectrum has been translated into the audio waveforms used in the sonification of the gold nanorod growth.

This work is part of a Participant Observer Fellowship; supported by the National Science Foundation: CMS #0555329.

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This piece was inspired by a walk through a noisy toy store; there were so many instruments, and none of them were intended for serious music. Cookies at Night bridges the gap between classical music and the toy store by having 28 different types of toy instruments played live by thirteen performers. Tuning issues, dynamic range issues, and issues of dealing with chromaticism using diatonic instruments are all tackled in this 7 1/2 minute piece.

To view the premiere performance of this piece, click here.

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Performed by Brian Wilmer, Sarah Tholstrup, Matt Nadolny, George Fetner, Carley Peace, Thomas Russell, Julie Wilson, Christian Traylor, William Cornelison, Neil Ostenfeld, Kristian Ring, Zoe Lentz, and Lindsay Wolfe. Conducted by Matthew Caine.

Kevin Rogers and Kristian Ring commissioned this duet after the success of The Kidnapper. The inspiration for the music came from the blues scale and power-chord-based rock n' roll. An optional improvisation section allows the performers to extend and add their own ideas to the piece.

The title, which refers to practical, power-based politics versus ideals is analogous to the power and ubiquitousness of rock versus classical music.

To view the premiere performance of this piece, click here.

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Performed by Kevin Rogers and Kristian Ring.

Kevin Rogers commissioned this piece after the success of Skulking. Black Glass is slow, filled with low, grumbling piano harmonies and polarized, glassy artificial harmonics on the violin.

To view the premiere performance of this piece, click here.

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Performed by Kevin Rogers and Luke Fang.

Alex decided to revise and extend his piece, Malaise, after its premiere in April 2006. The resulting work, Pathosis, exists in three movements: Miasma, Tribulation, and Viaticum. It is scored for flute, two clarinets, bass clarinet, piano, two percussionists, two violins, viola, violoncello, and contrabass.

Miasma unfolds from uneasy dissonance into a churning rhythmic machine. Tribulation grows from mellifluous melody to a large monophonic climax. Viaticum rounds out Pathosis in an exciting, quick rhythmic climax.

Pathosis earned a spot as a national finalist in the 2008 SCI/ASCAP Composition Commission Competition.

To view the premiere performance of this piece, click here.

Click to play excerpt of I. Miasma
Click to play excerpt of II. Tribulation
Click to play excerpt of III. Viaticum

Performed by Joe Anderson, Brian Wilmer, Lindsay Wolfe, BJ Diden, Matt Nadolny, Wesley Lyda, Thomas Russell, Kevin Rogers, Julie Wilson, Andrae Raffield, Pedro Ludwig, Jay Coker. Conducted by Chris Bechtler.

Following the composition of The Kidnapper, Kevin Rogers commissioned a piece of unaccompanied violin music for his upcoming recital. The resulting virtuosic piece features extensive usage of left-hand pizzicato to utilize fully the polyphony of the violin.

The title describes the sneaky, creeping mood of the piece.

To view the premiere performance of Skulking, click here.

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Performed by Kevin Rogers.

Inspired by the emergence of portable music players and the growing trend of downloading MP3s, this piece explores the sonic possibilities of several audio compression methods. The musical material came from a scrapped section of The Kidnapper, recorded by Kevin Rogers on the violin.

The title refers to the filters used to organize the music in different frequency bandwidths in the piece, as well as the necessity for audio compression in applications of limited storage and transmission bandwidth.

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Kevin Rogers and Kristian Ring commissioned this duet. The title was determined before any music was written, and the composition began by developing motives from the dates associated with the Lindbergh baby kidnapping.

The piece begins slowly and darkly, developing into an intense, virtuosic middle section which features melodic trade-off between the instruments. It winds down into a slow and dark ending.

To view the premiere performance of The Kidnapper, click here.

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Performed by Kevin Rogers and Kristian Ring.

This piece of music embraces the sound of skipping audio CDs as a compositional tool. First, Alex composed a section of electronic music using cascading, chromatically-shifting quartal harmony. Next, he burned this music onto two CDs, scratched them with keys, recorded the playback of these discs onto his computer, and constructed the final piece with both the original and skipping forms.

The title refers to Reed-Solomon error correction, a safety built into CD audio to limit skipping. It is in 4 parts: 1. original music (Smoked), 2. skipping CD (Chopped), 3. computer-aided development (Pressed), 4. recapitulation (Cooked).

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Having recently completed the soundtracks for The Human Elbow and some short films by Joe Worthen, Alex wanted to reverse the process of writing music for existing media. Eric Rogers, the film/video teacher at The Greenville County Fine Arts Center (FAC), agreed to have his class create a video for a pre-written piece of music.

The piece balances harshly-distorted dissonance with contrastingly-mellow sections. To view the video created by the FAC film/video class, click here

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This piece was inspired by the progressive rock of the 1970s, Alex's favorite genre. Scored for guitar, electronic keyboard, bass guitar, synthesizer, and drumset, Malversation captures the essence and groove of the under-appreciated style while exhibiting Alex's penchant for aesthetically-pleasing dissonance.

To view the premiere of this piece, performed April 2005 at The Greenville County Fine Arts Center, click here.

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The Greenville County Concert Band (GCCB) had a contest for young composers to write a 3-6 minute composition, grade level 3, for concert band. Simultaneously, the South Carolina PTA Reflections program was nearing its deadline, and the theme for the year was "A Different Kind of Hero."

Alex composed this piece for both competitions. The simple harmonic material, not a trademark of Alex's style, was dictated by the GCCB competition. The title and mood, influenced by the Reflections prompt, describe an unexpectedly depressed hero as he ventures into the hideout of a joyous "anti-villain".

Click to play excerpt (synthesized)

Dr. Jon Grier, theory and composition teacher at The Greenville County Fine Arts Center, called to request a piece of electronic music for an upcoming concert. Alex had auditioned and been accepted to the music program for the next school year, but had not yet attended a class.

Good Question utilizes granular synthesis and other completely electronic sounds juxtaposed with the warm tone of a vibraphone. When Dr. Grier asked, "So what's it called?," Alex replied "That's a good question."

Click to play excerpt