electronics or computer live sound

eleclive

Passing Through

Composer: 
Michael Slayton
Scoring: 
5-octave Marimba (three players)

Ensemble Type

Instruments

Passing Through is a work for marimba (three players) and computer-genreated sound (recorded or in real time via laptop computer). This piece was a collaborative effort with composer Stan Link, conceived as an homage to composer John Cage's ideas of indeterminacy in music. The two of us worked independantly from each other, neither knowing exactly what the other was doing, or had done, until the premiere. The marimba pieces (Slayton) and the computer-generated soundscapes to accompany them (Link) coexist as separate entities, tied together only through the singularity of the philosophical concept. That being said, the marimba work (listed here) may be performed seprately. To obtain a recording of the computer music, please inquire with ACA, or contact me directly.

Genre/Theme

List Price: 
$12.95
List Price: 
$30.00 set of 3 scores

EMERGENCE

Composer: 
Hubert Howe

Ensemble Type

Instruments

Excerpt from composer's note:  Emergence is based upon the fascinating thing that happens when a group of independent tones are played together and tuned so that they are in a harmonic relationship. Another note, the fundamental, appears, and now we hear only that second note, while all the others are heard as the timbre of the sound.

audio/mpeg iconExcerpt - Emergence

Red Plumes

Composer: 
John Gibson
Scoring: 
cello and electronics

Ensemble Type

Instruments

Composer's note:  Deep beneath the surface of the Pacific lie hydrothermal vents that spew scalding water, laced with toxic minerals and gases, onto the near-freezing ocean floor. In the pitch-black depths, giant tube worms grow to a length of eight feet, protected from the harsh conditions by a tough outer shell. Having no mouth and no digestive tract, they host bacteria that convert minerals into food. The bacteria in turn receive food from the worm's blood-filled plumes, which exchange carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and other compounds with the seawater. A worm has no eyes, but somehow it can sense vibrations, which cause it to retract the plume into its shell. Imagine that you are hearing these vibrations.

Genre/Theme

audio/mpeg iconExcerpt - Craig Hultgren, cello

Barstow Bagatelle

Composer: 
Tom Flaherty
Scoring: 
retuned, remapped keyboard

Ensemble Type

Instruments

Barstow Bagatelle makes use of the tuning system devised by Harry Partch and used in the guitar part of his "Barstow." The 19 notes per octave is a non-symmetrical subset of his 43-tone scale. Some adjacent notes are just about a "half-step" apart, in 12-tone equal tempered tuning. In other parts of the scale it may take 4 adjacent notes to span the same interval. The harmonic possibilities range from stunningly pure consonance to excruciating dissonance, and Barstow Bagatelle uses most of that range.

I am a relative newcomer to the world of microtonal composition, but I do have visceral early memories of tuning issues. Popular songs in the 50s and 60s would occasionally shift a tiny fraction of a half step, due to splicing two sessions that were recorded at different speeds, perhaps. The extraordinarily dizzying sensation of those moments made me wonder as a child whether they were deliberate key changes or accidents. Barstow Bagatelle begins with exactly that unsettling question and proceeds to explore many tonal centers, each with its own flavor.

Wind Quintet No. 2, "Birds of Guandu"

Composer: 
Robert Carl
Instrumentation freestyle: 
Flute (dbl pcc), oboe, clarinet in Bb, French Horn in F, Bassoon

Ensemble Type

Instruments

LYRIC FOR CELLO AND COMPUTER

Composer: 
Michael Rothkopf
Instrumentation freestyle: 
cello, computer

Ensemble Type

Instruments

Composer's note: The cello has always impressed me as an instrument with lyrical vocal qualities.  In composing Lyric, I sought to capture that lyricism.  The computer, on the other hand, is an instrument capable of instant changes in character and mood.  In Lyric, I juxtaposed these two qualities in the musical dialogue between the cello and the computer.

This version the Lyric employs an interactive program in which the computer is listening to the cello and responding with musical decisions in real-time regarding musical gestures and timbre.

BROWN VELVET

Composer: 
Robert Carl
Instrumentation freestyle: 
bsn, live audio

Ensemble Type

Instruments

Brown Velvet is a work for solo bassoon and live electronics. The work is both decrease and increase. There is a pedal (see below), that begins on the lowest pitch of the bassoon, Bb. Only overtones of that note are initially allowed in the bassoon part. The pedal then progressively “migrates” down to Bb-F-Bb-D-Bb, over two octaves, lower than any acoustic sound. At each new pedal, all overtones above it are allowed in the bassoon. So as a result, the descent (decrease) of the pedal allows ever greater harmonic richness (increase) within the bassoonist’s part. The pedal point is electronic. The version created by the composer is a Max/MSP patch, provided along with this score. (Instructions for the electronic player are included in the patch). But if one wishes to make another realization, it should be possible from the score and tunings provided within. It is important however that the pedal be real-time, i.e. not a pre-recorded part. The essence of the piece is a dialogue between the bassoonist and the “pedaler”, who will probably be performing from laptop.

List Price: 
$12 PDF score, instructions, and audio files download

SUNSTAR

Composer: 
T.J. Anderson
Instrumentation freestyle: 
solo Bb trumpet, and two recording/playback devices

Ensemble Type

Instruments

List Price: 
$12 list price plus shipping

SLAMMED

Composer: 
James Sain
Instrumentation freestyle: 
B flat soprano saxopone, computer

Ensemble Type

Instruments

TO EAT THE LAST MESSIAH

Composer: 
Jeffrey Stolet
Instrumentation freestyle: 
PIANO, ELECTRONICS, THEATRICAL

Ensemble Type

Instruments

FRANKENSTEIN, the Concerto

Composer: 
Jeffrey Stolet
Instrumentation freestyle: 
Alto Sax; Orch: 2222 2200 perc piano strings, computer generated sounds

Ensemble Type

Instruments

Blue Traces

Composer: 
John Gibson
Instrumentation freestyle: 
piano and computer, with optional string orchestra

Ensemble Type

Instruments

Kati Gleiser, the pianist for whom I wrote Blue Traces, told me about swimming in the ocean at night and marveling at the colorful glow cast from bioluminescent plankton. Moving your arm disturbs the plankton, and in response they set off a bluish trail of soft light. This image gave me the idea for the piece: the piano plays, and the computer creates gently glowing traces of sound. Near the end, everyone becomes more agitated, as if the swimmer were now splashing around and the plankton reacting with more excitement.

All the computer sound comes from live sampling of the piano performance, transformed by various kinds of granulation — a technique that can take a short sound and extend it into a long sustained note.

Out of Hand

Composer: 
John Gibson
Instrumentation freestyle: 
trumpet, trombone, and computer

Ensemble Type

Instruments

Out of Hand, for trumpet, trombone, and computer, was written for Michael Tunnell and Brett Shuster. The computer plays a hybrid role, exploring the continuum between fixed-media accompaniment and improvised responses based on real-time analysis of the live performance. The musicians play together throughout several contrasting scenes, sometimes taking diverse positions on the underlying material, other times trading the same isolated fragments. In the final third of the piece, the two play in unison rhythm — with the computer extending their sound by harmonization — as they dodge an algorithmically-generated funk bass line.

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