Computer Directions

various artists compilation - Computer Directions

Originally posted on July 28, 2006

Speech and song are commonly thought of as different and distinct - as oranges and apples. It is my feeling, however, that they are more usefully thought of as occupying opposite ends of a wide spectrum of musical potential. It is, after all, a common experience to listen with musical ears to the sonic surface of an unfamiliar spoken language, jsut as it is to perceive the potent speech-like inflections of sung language, particularly in jazz, popular and folk music. My SIX FANTASIES are exploratory visits to different points along this spectrum. The point of origin for these explorations is a spoken performance by the actress Hannah MacKay (who is also my wife) of the well-known poem by Thomas Campion. While Campion considers the contrast between the implicit, heavenly music of Lawra's beauty, and the explicit and plain earthly we must resign ourselves to make, I took the opportunity to play with the implicit music within an excellent spoken performance of this explicitly musical poem. In writing this poem, Campion was apparently confronting the issue of so called 'quantitative' verse in English, and, composer that he was, made quite a free-wheeling musical playground out of the vowel box. Each of the six movements attempts to corner and elucidate a particular musical aspect of the reading. The last movement consists of the original reading presented in unaltrered form against a backdrop of vowel and contour imitations; I hope that by the time this movement arrives the listener will be able to hear the sound of the spoken performance as explicitly musical. The piece was synthesized during 1978-79 on an IBM 360/91 and 3033 computer, and converted at the Winham Laboratory, all at Princeton University. It uses a technique known as all-pole linear prediction, in which the original source material (a recording of a single reading of the poem) is analyzed in small 'frames,' each 1/112th of a second, and the information gained allows reconstruction in which pitch, rhythm and timbre may be controlled almost at will. In movements 3 and 5, a variety of comb filters and special effects are added, and in the first movement the backdrop consists of a simple combination of sine waves. (Paul Lansky)

SECOND VOYAGE reflects my ongoing interest in harmonizing specific pitches with the results of their own modulation spectra. The notes in the voice part, grouped together in two's and three's, were subjected to frequency modulation, amplitude modulation, and other signal processing. Each generating diad or triad thus yielded a variety of 'chord-spectra' (made up largely of non-harmonic partials) from which I chose material to hrmonize the vocal line. The syllabic setting of the text reflects the way one might read the poem naturally, in an interpretive fashion. Written for and dedicated to George Shirley, SECOND VOYAGE was supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The work was realized at the Centro Sonologia Computazionale (C.S.C.) using the resources of the Centro di Calcolo, both at the Universita di Padova, Italy, and uses the MUSIC 360 program for digital sound synthesis. I wish to acknowledge the assistance (and patience) of G. Tisato and the extraordinary goodwill of the staff at the Centro di Calcolo. (James Dashow)

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. Paul Lansky - Six Fantasies On a Poem by Thomas Campion: Her Voice {2:44}

2. Paul Lansky - Six Fantasies On a Poem by Thomas Campion: Her Presence {3:38}

3. Paul Lansky - Six Fantasies On a Poem by Thomas Campion: Her Reflection {3:55}

4. Paul Lansky - Six Fantasies On a Poem by Thomas Campion: Her Song {3:01}

5. Paul Lansky - Six Fantasies On a Poem by Thomas Campion: Her Ritual {5:50}

6. Paul Lansky - Six Fantasies On a Poem by Thomas Campion: Her Self {2:12}

Side 2

1. James Dashow - Second Voyage {17:20}

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