Category: solo tape or audio playback prerecorded
prerec audio
Computer generated tape piece
Blue States (2008) was composed
during the fall and winter of 2008. The title alludes not only to
states that voted for the Democratic nominee in the 2008 election, but
also to various jazz elements and moods of sadness, largely abated by
the results of the election.
The opening introductory section settles
on jazz chords at the end of its long phrases. In the next fugal
section a jazz tune is presented in several timbres and speeds, as if a
group of players were standing around waiting for their turn to get in
a lick. A strong bass line proves counterpoint here and elsewhere
throughout the piece.
Two introspective sections follow – the first
with sustained white-noise chords punctuated by bell-like attacks, the
second with vibraphone-like chords. A further set of variations moves
from an almost catatonic state to a full emotional outburst, perhaps
occasioned by the election results. Another faster jazzy section leads
to a recapitulation that expands and alters the original three sections.
The anacoustic zone is the region of the earth’s atmosphere, above an
altitude of about 160 kilometers, where the distance between the air
molecules is greater than the wavelength of sound, and sound waves can
no longer be propagated. One thing I find attractive about composing
electroacoustic digitally rendered music is the possibilities inherent
in the ability to approach sound, and the transformation of sound, in
ways that are not otherwise available.
In Anacoustic Zones I was
intrigued by the possibility of creating metaphorical anacoustic zones
through which sound-generating sources pass into and out of and the
sounds they emit are disintegrated or reanimated in the process. The
substance of the music becomes the aural evidence of anacoustic
processes acting on sound generating sources as they near, pass
through, and emerge from these zones. It is the transition from a
normal state to immersion in the anacoustic zone (or visa versa) that
is elevated to the perceptual surface of the music.
Originally a 4 track electronic composition of processed piano sounds extracted from an earlier recording of one of my piano works. All of the processing was performed in a classical electronic music studio, with a large moog synthesizer, and peripheral sound modifiers, as well as 2 and 4 track analog tape decks. The modified sounds were organized by types of movement and gesture, and assembled into a kaleidoscopic progression of transforming colors and textures. The work has since been transferred to CD.
Originally a tape piece (later transferred to CD) of 4 tracks of pre-recorded voices performing selected lines of poetry as well as vocal gestures and vowel-consonant sounds, which were then processed in a classical electronic music lab, the result being a kind of multi-media vocal piece, with constant transformation of the original material.
An electronic piece realized on a Moog synthesizer, the first of 12 "Fluxus" works created over a period of 15 years. The piece explores the repetitive, sequential possibilities of the Moog, as well as its capacity for timbral modulation.
A piece for tape, created in a classical electronic music studio, employing a Moog synthesizer.
