Bobby Ge - System Haptics Off, for percussion quartet (So Percussion)

Completed March 23, 2024
Premiered May 14, 2024 by So Percussion in the Lewis Arts Center, Princeton University
All of my music is in some way, shape, or form, grounded in how people interact. I have a particular interest in how new social norms develop in and around the presence of everyday tech: the unspoken rules of texting; the limits on cell phone time in public; where and when it’s permissible to cold call someone (i.e. never); whether a thought is more fit for an email, a text, or a direct message, etc.
For all of the incredible conveniences afforded by digital technology, people speak so disparagingly of its ubiquity that manufacturers have actually created features that specifically limit how much digital communication intrudes in daily life. Many of my friends and I permanently enable ‘Do Not Disturb,’ while permanently disabling the annoying buzz of haptic feedback - the way smartphones vibrate to make digital indicators seem more tangible.
This piece is about the inescapable presence of digital intrusion into regular life. The music begins gentle and malleable, vibraphone and steel pan trading phrases back and forth in a decidedly gooey treatment of time. Swiftly, though, sampled iOS sounds and hyperactive hi-hat activity interrupt the thoughtful opening texture. Initially attempting to coexist with these interruptions, the vibes and pans eventually get caught up in all the energy, hurtling headlong into a madcap hodgepodge of wild rhythms, notifications, and rude interjections.
System Haptics Off was written for the incredible musicians and pedagogues of So Percussion. They are some of the kindest, most generous, and most skillful musicians I have had the pleasure of working with, and they made the process of writing this piece an absolute joy.

[@josephbovecomposing]

I love the drumset writing in this, such a great piece!

[@AvielMannBallo]

I love it 😂 The stressful experience of your phone and inbox blowing up simultaneously, writ symphonic

[@vallieplushie]

lmao I didn't expect to every hear the 'bruh'. sound in a piece of music, I love it !

[@bobbycge]

hahahaha glad you liked it! always trying to bring some humor into the concert hall...

[@vallieplushie]

​@@bobbycge I love this, it's so great. I've performed a few theatrical pieces and they are so much fun to perform and to experience. we did one where the audience was asked to leave the auditorium so that we could have our union-mandated lunch break, before being led through a museum of performers in glass boxes playing the music, so much fun.

[@bobbycge]

@@vallieplushie whoaaa that sounds wild hahahaha

[@cwmcomposing]

very cool piece! what is your composition process? do you directly notate on music notation software or do you write on paper?

[@bobbycge]

usually just right into the notation software!

[@jtchapman01]

everythings nascent as fuck but drumset part sounds like it was written in sibelius by a non-percussionist and harmony/rhythms are too purty for my personal taste

[@bobbycge]

lol 'nascent af' is a new one hahaha ty for listening and for your thoughts !