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1...789
Haris XANTHOUDAKIS: 1 ... 789 It is the setting to music (of the "setting in rhythm", more precisely) of two Greek texts talking about the French revolution and illustrating two opposite aspects of its impact in Greece, still occupied by the Turks, of the end of the seventeenth century: a "Patriarchal letter" (sort of circular of the Patriarch of Constantinople, to read in the Orthodox churches), condemning the French who "practiced the fraticide, killed their king and lost their faith in God" (in this order) and, on the other hand, a poem by Antonios Martelaos (1754-1818), congratulating the French for having shed blood for the freedom of the people. The first text is played at the beginning and end of the song (phonetically reversed and in a normal voice, respectively). The other forms slowly, parallel to a rhythmic accompaniment, of "disco" nature. This double reconstitution will be done in steps of proportion 1: 2: 3: ...: 7: 8: 9. A portion of this proportion, namely 1: 7: 8: 9, serves to generate an interval pattern (semitone, fifth, sixth minor, sixth major) that appears in both its sequential and simultaneous forms. Repetitive music, "disco" music, serial music, for a piece that wants to celebrate a bicentennial, its contradictory way, while keeping its distance.
3 divertissements numériques (1 franchir le rubicon, 2 fission, 3 mange ta télévision)
Recording of Jean-François Cavro's 3 divertissements numériques (1 franchir le rubicon, 2 fission, 3 mange ta télévision). This work is created with electronics and uses traditional electronic technique. There is present noise elements within this work's texture, which establish a good balance within the orchestration of sound. By working with electronic sound effects and pre-recorded sounds of many qualities or frequencies, balance is found.
4 Piezas Instrumentales
For being the round world, who walks away in the East looking for new landscapes, after many trips and adventures he will return to the starting point from the West ... perhaps without wanting to or looking for it. By listening to these 4 instrumental pieces, you will think that they consist of an interpretation made for traditional music instruments. However, for me, the composer is nothing but a new experience in the field of technological music. In this case the experimentation consists of a program that improvises, plays, exchanges in many different ways an initial succession of tones giving rise to very different sound tissues. It is an experiment of the same complexity and quality as others that I have used in the past and that have given me totally different sound results. In this case the experimentation uses shades of defined and adjustable height, creating clear intervalic, acordic, polyphonic organizations, etc. In this domain, a similarity with instrumental music is inevitably obtained. I did not want to avoid this reality using bands of noise or continuous changes of harmonicity, but, on the contrary, I highlight the winter using homogeneous sounds that parody some known acoustic instrument. The four instruments chosen are: Trumpet, Marimba, Voice and Guitar. These instruments are presets of the Yamaha DX7II with all its advantages and disadvantages. I chose a solo arrangement for each extremely sharp instrument in terms of interval discourse and thus obtain a better appreciation of the different games, canons, permutations, dynamic levels, ornamentations, etc., which developed the program. Each in semitones. The scores corresponding to the pieces of Trumpet, Marimba and Guitar are recorded on diskettes, constituting "tapeless music", bone music that can be played directly by operating the computer to the digital synthesizer. The vocal piece has been made in …
6 electronic preludes
Recording of Bohdan Mazurek's 6 electronic preludes for tape.
8 Deustche Tänze
Recording of Peter Wessing's 8 Deutsche Tanze.
12 haiku pour la paix céleste
Recording of Bernard Fort's 12 haiku pour la paix céleste. This piece is for 12 haikus for celestial peace. Haikus are very short Japanese poems which with reading, demonstrate the way of photography, as moments, sensations and feelings. There is a wide variety of both synthesized sounds and manipulated samples.
96
Recording of Sten Hanson's 96. "According to Amnesty International, there are 96 countries in the world that have political prisoners. In most of these countries, there is clearly physical or mental torture that is punishable by law and unlawful killings." Sound material includes sounds of doors shutting, locks locking, bells, ringing, etc.
124 E 170th St
Recording William Ortiz's 124 E 170th St. (for electronic tape, narrator, and percussion). It is a mixed electroacoustic work depicting the Puerto Rican urban experiences the United States: the struggle against the agony of the ghetto and against the imposition of a crushing colonial state of mind. The piece is a summons to awake from the broken English dream and assume the Puerto Rican and Latin American essence that belongs to us. The text was written by two Puerto Rican poets living in New York City: Pedro Pietri and Sandra Esteves. The music largely makes use of Afro-Caribbean rhythms, and involves theatrics.
950 for Bob
Recording of Terry Setter's 950 for Bob. He describes this style of composition as "focusless music," which is structured in such a way that the listener always hears an undifferentiated sound continuum, making the smallest changes noticeable. The title refers to the length of the piece (950 seconds) and to Robert Ericksson, to whom the piece is dedicated.
1789-1989
Recording of Juan Blanco's 1789-1989. This piece aims to expose how the French Revolution, through the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, inspired the liberation movements of the people against the oppressive and tyrannical governments. The piece is divided into two parts, which give a sound panorama of the triumph, using electronic and acoustic equipment, the latter taken from songs of the time: "Departure to Place de la Bastille"; "Place and capture of the Bastille", "Lamentation of Louis XVI" and "The Permanent Guillotine", and ends with a few words from the Declaration of 1789, in French.
1789 Libegal FRA
Ivan PATACHICH: 1789 Libegal FRA The title of the play is a date, known throughout the world, and an acronym containing the first syllables of the three slogans of the French Revolution: FREEDOM, EQUALITY, FRAternity. The sound materials of the play are those three words spoken and sung in nine languages, French, English, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, German, Erithrenic, Russian, Hungarian, and the sampled structures of the vowels and consonants of these notes in nine languages, as well as two concrete sounds. These sounds are interlaced by a pre-recorded and modulated percussion part and another one of percussion "alive" / live / without modulation. The work has nine parts "atacca". Its bridge shape is phrased by rhythmic contrasts. After the fifth section, the sections return "in crayfish", but in a varied form. The stereophonic work was realized with the collaboration of Istvan Horvath, sound engineer, Gabor Kosa, impact, Agnés Mester, -soprano, Gabor Olah, -Baryton.
Les Accords d'Helsinki
Recording of Trevor Wishart's Les Accords d'Helsinki for tape.
Les accords d'Helsinki
Recording of Steve McCaffrey and François Dufrêne's Les accords d'Helsinki. These pieces are part of a suite for electronics. Sound materials include vocalizations and spoken text.
The Acoustic Painter
Like colours, the sounds are composed using a keybord like brush and time like canvas. The work has two parts: first the painter freely paints an abstract subject and second he compose a defined subject. This work was originally composed for voices, bassoon and tape but this is the unique realization. The sounds were generated using additive, frequency modulation, ring modulation synthesis and sampling.
Across the Evening Sky
"Across the Evening Sky" consists of sustained, slowly changing sonorities and pedal figures which gradually evolve across a variety of registers, densities and intensities. Formal cohesion is achieved via a process akin to isorhythm, wherein large-scale repetitions occur at varying rates, thus resulting in ever-changing juxtapositions of material. The composition was realized at the computer music studio of Northwestern University in the winter and spring of 1987, and received its premiere at Dartmouth College in October of that year.
Action/Passion
Recording of Annette Vande Gorne's Action/Passion. It is the result of a close collaboration where choreography and music were designed in interaction. The work is inspired by inner energy and its manifestation: movement. During the show, the dynamic movements of the sounds unfold in the space thanks to a spatialized interpretation. Music and dance play on very contrasting energies such as breaths, fluids, attack/immobility, attack/movement, rebounds, journeys, falls, crushing, rotations, oscillations, flights; causing so many stages of a sound metamorphosis of matter into movement.
Acuerdor por Differencia
Picture yourself travelling at ease on the train. As you look through the window, you notice the power cables, which run parallel to the tracks. As your eyes follow them, they seem to turn giving the impression of a volume that gently and continuously rotates as it changes shape. This flow seems to accelerate before being momentaneously interrupted by the posts that hold them at more or less regular distances; this is immediately followed by the previous soft change as you recapture the perspective of the hanging cables. Of course, you easily deduct how the illusion works and soon are off onto something else more productive. But imagine you were in a position to determine a few things beforehand, says the distance between posts. Or, if you are of the impulsive "hands on" type, imagine you were able to change the speed of the train instantaneously at your will. You would then be able to effect changes in the evolving pattern of the cables and on the rate of the change itself, thus giving the whole illusion a direction and a life of its own right in front of your eyes. In Acuerdos por Diferencia I have attempted to draw a musical parallel with a similar sort of speculation. So many of the gestures and rhythmic objects in the music commence or finish on a point of accord (Acuerdo), from which their flow continues or emerges. A great deal of variation, differentiation, juxtaposition and superimposition (Diferencia) between computer and harp takes place between those points, their appearances being also subjected to quick "edits" and variations in speed. Thus my title can be freely translated as "accords within difference". I have used mostly harp, lute and vihuela sounds for the computer part, which was realised and recorded at the studios of …
Acufenos V
Recording of Alcides Lanza's Acufenos V, for trumpet, piano and electronic sounds. Written in 1980 for the trumpet player Robert Gibson, who did the premiere performance at Pollack Hall, Montreal, with the pianist with Alcides Lanza at the piano. The tape part of Acufenos V was made from sounds of recorded trumpet, with a diversity of mutes and styles of playing, and electronic imitations of the same sounds. Acufenos is a Spanish medical term meaning "tinnitus" (tinnitus: from the Latin ringing, French tinnitus or acuphene. It is the past participle of "tinnire", to ring: a sensation of noise (as a ringing or roaring) that is purely subjective. With the carapace of a porcupine type of animal. The tape part was realized at the electronic music studio, McGill University, Montreal, and finalized at the private studio of the composer (Shelan Studios).
Adagio
Adagio is, as the title suggests, cast very much in the tradition of the late-Romantic symphonic slow movement, with its carefully measured pacing combined with a dramatic use of weight and drive. In particular, Adagio has a special relationship with the slow movements of Mahler's symphonies, this relationship being present at different levels and to different degrees at various points in the piece, ranging from the use of generally expressive gestures to explicit 'quotations' (particularly from the Andante of the Sixth Symphony). Perhaps the most easily perceived Mahlerian trait in Adagio is the use of randomly struck cowbells which permeate the Sixth and Seventh Symphonies. Adagio was composed in the summer of 1985 in the Electroacoustic Music Studios of the University of Birmingham. It won the EMAS/PRS prize in 1986.
[Adam Nussbaum Lecture, February 28, 1989: Part 3]
Jazz Lecture Series presentation by Adam Nussbaum on February 28, 1989 at 2:00PM at the UNT College of Music. It includes a lecture and performance by Adam Nussbaum, drums, interspersed with questions from the audience.
[Adam Nussbaum Lecture, February 28, 1989: Parts 1 and 2]
Jazz Lecture Series presentation by Adam Nussbaum on February 28, 1989 at 9:30AM at the UNT College of Music. It includes a lecture and performance by Adam Nussbaum, drums, interspersed with questions from the audience.
Adieu petit prince
Recording of Ton Bruynèl's radio composition on the theme of "Le Petit Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, "Adieu petit prince." The text of the composition is partly taken from a critical analysis of the children's book entitled "Fantaisie et mystique dans le Petit Prince" by Yves le Hir. The piece was commissioned by the Netherlands Broadcasting Foundation.
Aglavaine et Selysette. Musique de scène
Recording of Annette Vande Gorne's Aglavaine ed Selysette. Musique de scène. This work uses traditional electronic technique to manipulate sound and create a eerie soundscape. The use of sound within the space is truly key within this work. The sounds are all around the stereo system and sometimes sound closer and further away.
L'agrippe des droits
Recording of Henri Chopin's L'agrippe des droits. One male voice reads the poem which is then electronically processed. Written for Christian Clozier. Henri Chopin's "Audiopoems" was originally realsed on cassette by Edition Hundertmark as 89. Karton in 2001. Only 500 copies were released.
L'Agrippe des Droits
Recording of Henri Chopin's L'Agrippe des Droits. One male voice reads the poem which is then electronically processed. Written for Christian Clozier.
Agua Derramada
This piece was included in first electro-acoustic recording in Mexico under the Colección Hispano-Mexicana de Música Contemporánea. Agua Derrramada is the sonic result of my perception of spilled water with different recipients. The instruments used for this piece are one Arp 2600, one Korg 3100 and a DX7 with no sample technique involved.
Akaklaklak
Akaklaklak is more than a radio play - it is a radio performance - it is first a radio composition... - but also a study of the creative use of modern computer technology - further it is a trip to virtual sound in space - and an attempt to develop radio's acoustic story telling - Radio Art... also performed in other spaces with visual elements - it is a performance with authors playing live with their magic instruments - cycle of 25 mixed media paintings - an folia installation with 300 pictures on windows, glass portales - 300 folia pictures hanging in trees - 130 pictures on cork plates - an outside radio spectacle for a loudspeaker orchestra - live 8-track mixing, a five floor high vertical sound sculpture - a television documentary of authors' sound art directed by Iza Lewenstam Main instrument: Human voice, the paragon of all instruments Others: bird skulls, bones, wooden flutes, stones, bows, drums, bowls, hay, horns, seeds, sand, stamping tubes, rain sticks, bull-roarers, aerophones, rattlers, didgeridoos, dance tubes, computer programmes, samplers, multitrack tape recorders.
Akymyle
Recording of Yvon Magnette's Akymyle.
Alcoforado
Alcoforado is a fuzzy, vaguely remembered portrait of a woman whose passion for passionate love letters will ensure her a place in history - as in the case of the original Alcoforado, a XVII century Portuguese nun who shared the same passion. Incidentally, this is all that is known about her but - one must admit - is sufficient to make one envious. Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (also known as Witkacy), a Polish painter, writer and philosopher, was a man of unusual energy which he expended on opposing any and every kind of orthodoxy - whether artistic, political or religious. He was perceived as an enfant terrible of his time, rigorously antagonistic to the uniformity of dogmatism, seeing it as a tool for enslaving the mind. Witkacy foresaw very early on the disastrous results of one such ideology - communism. Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz remained faithful to his ideas to the last day of his life, committing suicide on September 17, 1939 - the same day that the Russian Red Army crossed the eastern Polish border, helping its Nazi allies in fighting Polish troops. In Witkiewicz's prolific artistic output, there is a number of portraits of women entitled Alcoforado. These portraits present women's heads against fantastic and surreal backgrounds. This composition attempts to capture this idea. Alcoforado is an homage to Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz and was commissioned by the National Museum in Warsaw for the first complete exhibition of his works since his death. The piece was premiered on 18th of December 1989, the day the exhibition opened.
Alice
Recording of Thomas Gerwin's Alice. This work is inspired by special and unique personal memories, which cannot be restored later in life. There is pre-recorded audio of everyday sounds and voices and samples, which interrupt these field recordings.
Allegory
Allegory (11’52”; 1987) is my second composition in the medium of computer music. It was created at the Brooklyn College Center for Computer Music on a Sun 3/160 computer, using the Csound synthesis program and Fromp, a music composition program developed by the composer that generates musical fractal structures. All of the sounds heard in this piece, pitched or otherwise, result from a filtering of white noise. The idea behind Allegory takes its inspiration from the music of the duduk, an ancient Armenian double reed instrument of a particularly haunting and beautiful quality. Often in duduk music, there are two players. One plays the melody while the other, through circular breathing, plays a continuous drone on a single pitch. The melody emerges from this drone, plays beautifully and all-too-briefly, only to return inevitably to the drone. In Allegory there is an ever-present drone composed of thirteen frequencies that are the source material for the entire piece. A fractal texture based on these frequencies emerges from the drone and grows to prominence, only to undergo a transformation: certain elements of the fractal die away while those which remain align themselves and synergize into a new quality, the sensation of a single timbre. This timbre, a gong-like tone comprised of the original thirteen frequencies, then dissolves back into its unchanging source, the drone. The extremes of the initial fractal and the ending timbre – diversity and unity – are the representatives of chaos and order, often a primal duality in my work. The movement toward order and integration is intended to suggest the possibility of such transformation in one’s life. Allegory has been programmed for various concerts, mostly in the United States, and most notably in Binary Convergence (MIT Concert Series, 1988) which featured works by Mario Davidovsky, Jonathan Harvey, and Morton …
...als ob's aus dunklen Fernen rief...
"...als ob’s aus dunklen Fernen rief..." ("as if it was calling from dark remotenesses") was produced as a commission of the Hungarian Film Factory MAFILM in the Electronic Music Studio of the Hungarian Radio Budapest in March/April 1984. The title comes from the poem "Alone with the sea" by the Hungarian poet Endre Ady, which inspired my composition: remembrances that emerge from the eternal roaring of the sea. The time structure of the composition was derived from the Fibonacci-Progression 1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89,144,233,377,610. The total duration of the piece is 610 seconds. In the studio a MOOG-Synthesizer (Moog III) with two keyboards and two sequencers was available. In the first week I explored its possibilities and determined eight different sound materials. Then I composed the single layers. The first material is coloured noise, from which gradually the other seven materials emerge: frequency modulated sounds, noisy tones, tone sequences and so on. In this way I created a continuum with similar sounds in always new constellations. The eight different materials were recorded one after the other on an Eight-Track-Tape-Recorder and then mixed to a stereophonic version.
Alterego per percussioni solo e nastro
Recording of Iván Patachich's Alterego per percussioni solo e nastro. This piece wants to use the possibilities of electroacoustic modulation in the field of percussion instruments. The score of the composition consists of four parts noted in a traditional way. The second, third and fourth parts are transformed by electroacoustic means, the first part remains without any modulation. The piece consists of short sections. During these sections, free rhythms alternate. The composition has a bridge shape, culminating at the end of the fifth section. The main modulations are: filtering with control voltage, feedback, transposition, spatialization, etc.
Alterego per Percussioni Solo e Nastro
Recording of Iván Patachich's Alterego per Percussioni Solo e Nastro. This piece wants to use the possibilities of electroacoustic modulation in the field of percussion instruments. The score of the composition consists of four parts noted in a traditional way. The second, third and fourth part are transformed by electroacoustic means, the first part remains without any modulation. The room is made up of short sections. During these sections, free rhythms alternate. The composition has a bridge shape, its climax is at the end of the fifth section. The main modulations are: filtering with controlled voltage, re-injection, transposition, spatialization, etc.
Alternances
"Alternances" for violin, clarinet, piano, percussion, cello and tape was written in 1985, the electroacoustic effects being made in the studio of Romanian Radio-Television. The room consists of seven sections, including sections 2, 4 and 6 on tape. The 6th section on tape and "life" is the recurrence of the second section, of the same existing correspondence between sections 1 and 7, 3 and 4. The dominant idea of ​​the work is that of the imbsication of parallel music, with particular character and evolution. The music "life" is transformational, while that recorded in advance is non-transformational and has the appearance of a sound plasma; the first is discontinuous and the second - continuous. From the expressive point of view, the sounds "life" suggest belonging to the world of appearances; on the contrary, the sounds recorded on tape suggest a world of essences, permanence.
Alternances
Recording of Patrick Lenfant's Alternances. Alternances explores a different aspect of other synthesizer pieces that I have previously composed. The synthesizer is used here as a generator of as varied an electronic material as possible. This material and its temporal articulation, instead of being definitively fixed on a magnetic support, will evolve according to the instrumentalist. Indeed, this one has two control pedals, piloting the synthesizer and allowing it to make coincide its playing and its musical time with the variations of the electronic material which it controls completely. Alternatively, the synth will generate pure electronic material, or the flute will interfere with it either by modifying it or by triggering it. Instrumentally, many game modes are put into action. The flute player alternates these precisely in relation to the score. The spirit of this piece is that of a "fantasy" creating ranges free of improvisation, in a way testing the flexibility of the electronic variations that can be obtained from a device that is not in the strict of the term an "instrument", but which can become so if one imagines the means to control it, to "sensitize" it to instrumental playing.
Amalgam
This composition is music for a ballet, made for the The National Ballet of Iceland and was first performed in November 1986 in Reykjavík. Amalgam is an alloy of mercury. Practically all metals will form alloys of amalgams with mercury, with the notable exception of iron. Amalgams are used as dental materials and as electrodes in various industrial and laboratory electrolytic processes. The ballet was made for six dancers, dressed in gray tight clothes with a golden stripe on the back walking, standing, and dancing on a narrow, strong light beams
Ambitos
This work was made from basic material taken from human voice and electronic sources and was ended at the beginning of 1984.
Ambiversion
Recording of Tera de Marez Oyen's Ambiversion performed by Harry Sparnaay, bass clarinetist.
Ambon-Ulan-Alon
Recording of Marie Pauline Esguerra's Abmon-Ulan-Alon. The title of this piece (Rain-rain-waves) reflects what is to be perceived as aquatic quality. Water and rain is the majority of sound material used in the piece, primarily in the way gestural sound objects, when iterated and developed in different ways, create larger, textural events, which continually shift the listener's focus.
American Made
Recording of Anna-Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner's American Made. It is an electroacoustic piece using various English and Japanese sound fragments to recreate the sound of a motorcycle's exhaust.
Amphora
The fun title of work : "Amphora" (for Tenor Saxophone and tape) is four movements : 1. Snake Chari 2. Bazaar 3. Prayers 4. Amphora SNA
Anaconda
"Anaconda" could be labelled as a "naturalistic" work. Conceptually, the piece relies on the imagery provoked by the sound, and on the immediacy of the sound world and the integration of the flute part in terms of sound texture and musical material. Broadly, this work can be divided in three parts: 1) The very beginning represents the location : jungle, unfamiliar, exotic, moist, exuberant and very importantly, claustrophobic ( this last is maintained throughout the piece). It is here that we get our first glimpse of the anaconda, who, very soon embarks with his song, which is not unlike a requiem, but at times, this song or narrative, is interrupted by the sound of the anaconda itself and by its environment. It is very much like moving between 1st and 2nd person. 2) The environment is disrupted. Foreign sounds and activities invade our location. The jungle moves, everything is in motion, fear and flight take over. But, suddenly, we realize that there is a certain gracefulness in all this motion, that the flight is but a retreat, a withdrawal into itself, nature and eternal life, with the certainty of a return. 3) The rebirth. Like the Phoenix, the Anaconda is reborn, as myth, and as the reality of wisdom. A reflective and poised character, strengthened by the experience, the Anaconda reasserts itself, its place in relation to the environment, and its place in relation to us, the spectators, and at times participants of its story.
Anamorphées
"Anamorphées" was made entirely from a single instrument (saxophone) of five seconds, processed in computer delayed time. The basic instrumental sequence is presented, isolated before the play for the jury. The use of a reduced original material makes it possible to carry out a real "genetic" work of sound and musical development where each stage of treatment is an opening towards other possible ones. From mutations to successive mutations, the resulting sound objects are diversified, progressively or radically different from the basic model, becoming themselves the starting point of a new tree generation of transformations, then developed and organized in sequence by micro-operations. montages, tiling, brewing ... Some terminal sounds are separated from the basic sequence of a considerable number of transformations (sometimes more than thirty), something unrealizable without technical problems (support) in an analog studio. Just as impossible, carried out traditionally, are the operations brought by certain programs dealing with the temporal order allowing extremely complex micro-assemblies going below the only ones of temporal perception until the organization of whole sequences, making pass the anamorphosis of the detail to the composition. The anamorphosis is also of musical order - to take a very conventional instrumental sequence: legatissimo and rapid chromatic twisting to moult it following very different "phases-states" deviating from the original model by its principles.
Anamorphoses
Recording of Charēs Xanthoudakēs' Anamorphoses for tape.
Anarmoniosis
Recording of Andrea Libretti's Anarmoniosis .
...and even the stone would cry
The composition is a meditative work based on the cantability of basic instrumental materials - fragments of melodic and harmonic structures of a cello part - transformed by the vocoder, the digital sound processor, the equalizer and so on. It clearly shows the author's desire to establish a relationship between these "thematic materials" ostentatious timpani and dynamising structures synthetically created.
...And the River Passes...
"Acufeni" are auditory phenomena: hearing buzzings or hisses that are not outside but inside ear. Briefly: one cannot stop these sounds anyway. So, nearly all the sounds in thie piece are long, dark, and static. A "pedal" bass tone goes from beginning to end; throughout the 10 minutes, it raises its pitch very slightly from E-flat to A-flat (approximately 1/2 tone each two minutes). Either sounds make different episodes; sometimes, these episodes are based upon contrasts. More frequently upon repetition. How to listen to: darkness (or closed eyes); calm; not searching for anything in the music, but quietly waiting for it, aware that it could also never come.
And Then She Said
The concept of "And Then She Said" evolved while I was working on the music for the production of "Medea-Plays" conceived and directed by Ed Isser at the Stanford Drama department. Ed had the ingenious idea to use four narrators, backstage, each reciting a different version of the Medea story in a different language (Greek, Latin, French, or German), while four actors on the center stage spoke in English. The rich musical possibilities that this idea offered attracted me immediately. With Ed's permission, I recorded the four narrators in the four languages. They spoke the text just as in the play, but I also included some variations such as having them whisper the text, or sing it on certain specified pitches. I then processed those recordings with a Lexicon digital reverberator, and combined them with some of the computer-generated sounds I had used for the original Medea score. The actress does not play the role of Medea; instead I chose to juxtapose the Greek myth and an opposite idea: the Judeo-Christian symbolism of child sacrifice as the ultimate religious commitment, as in the stories of Isaac and Jesus. The story that I adapted for this piece is that of Hanna and her seven sons, taken from the book of Maccabees. "And Then She Said" was written between September 1986 and March 1987. It is dedicated to the memory of Catholic archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, who was assassinated there on March 24, 1980 for his beliefs.
Andromeda
It is a mixed piece for percussion and electroacoustic support. This one was realized in 1984 at the Berlin Technical University Studio with technical assistance from Folkmar Hein. The CD interpretation is performed by percussionist Martin Schulz. From a formal point of view, the piece divides into two different parts. The first is a permanent game on acceleratins, with the evolutions of a serious bell-shaped sound as alternative of speech. The second feeds on the musical gestures of the first, arranged in an open spatial context and very spread out. Percussion fuses totally with the electroacoustic medium, giving rise to a real perceptual unity. The electronic materials of the support were produced with a Synclavier and an ARP synthesizer. The Doppler effects at the beginning are produced by devices developed by the Berlin Technical University Studio.
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