CONSORTIA

CONSORTIA

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Scoring & Instrumentation
Ensemble and Kyma Interactive Electronics
Ensemble is of variable size and instrumentation.
Alternate Title

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Year Authored (or revised)
Duration (min)
12-15
Movements

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Files & Media

Audio
consortia.excerpt.mp3
Audio file
Video

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Sample Pages

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Detail

Description

Composer's Note:

Consortia is a revised version of an earlier work, Consortium, adapted for ensembles of any size or instrumentation. It is the result of work that never made it into the multimedia chamber opera The Cosmic Engine.  The electroacoustic background structure and live improvisations are based on the works of two English Renaissance composers, William Byrd and John Jenkins. A prerecorded version of the Jenkins melody (as recorded by cellist Jacqueline Ultan) begins the work, processed in real-time by the computer. The ensemble joins, improvising around the two English Renaissance themes, which are themselves processed by the computer, building a fabric of sound constructed of all these sources.

The computer processing of the sampled sound is inspired by the intersection of the ancient ideas of canon and isorhythm, and the rather more modern ideas of sample looping and phase-shifting. In the performance, the audio technician records, transforms and loops a portion of each melody in a large window of time, between two- and six-beats wide. Over the course of 11 minutes, this window gradually traverses the length of a 32-beat melody, all the time adjusting and transforming the material being looped, in addition to being modulated by computer tracking of the performers. This creates a kind of canon that is the foundation for the live, improvised performance that implements this same idea of moving windows to both melodic lines.

 

Comments

Players imitate the electronically processed sounds and embed their own performance as part of the overall texture.

First Perfomance
May 17 - 19, 2013
Recording

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Text Language - Non English

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Text Source/Author

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Title Number
Ensemble Type
Open inst, variable options, or undefined
live audio interactive solo or+voice(s) or instruments
Genre/Theme
computer or live sound or video
Improvisation and or graphic score elements
Instrument
electronic or computer live sound
Purchase Options
PDF License & Download
PDF Price
Print & Ship
$9.00 performance score
Score includes link to electronics download.