Arp Art

Elias Tanenbaum - Arp Art

About this album by Elias Tanenbaum (1924-2008): "Movements," as all the pieces on this album, was composed at the Electronic Music Studio of the Manhattan School of Music. The main instrument of the Studio is an Arp Synthesizer, a very compact and flexible instrument, that uses matrix switches to make connections instead of the usual patch chords.

"Movements" is involved with the movement of sound in space on a multidimensional level. The sounds are presented as patterns or shapes, that at times repeat in different surroundings, become altered, and are sometimes accumulative.

The melody sung by the soprano at the end has its origin in specific intervals and pitches that have moved in and out of the piece on different levels and at different times.

I find it most satisfying to listen to "Movements" in total darkness even during public performance. Walls are flat surfaces. Darkness allows the musical shapes to move through space more freely and with greater depth and perception.

"Contrasts" is a physical piece. The title applies to the many directions the sounds move and to the extreme contrasts in dynamics and range of frequencies.

"Blue Fantasy" begins with sounds that fade and bend in spece. These sounds evolve into noise and noise in turn evolves into them. Free fantasy emerges as the dominant characteristic. Even the voice, which is fed through and blended with the synthesizer, is a free improvisation.

"For the Bird" - "The Bird in this piece is the jazz musician, Charlie Parker, long admired by me. It starts with a slow pulse and a very short envelope on four separate envelope generators. The envelopes are then varied and the pulse gradually quickens into a jazz-like beat, which is used as a base for the fading in and out of the jazz tune "Bloomdido" by Charlie Parker.

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. Movements {16:14}

Side 2

1. Contrasts {5:00}

2. Blue Fantasy {6:32}

3. For the Bird {6:51}

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ACA Recording Award: Electronic Music

various artists compilation - ACA Recording Award: Electronic Music

* originally posted on August 7, 2006

DANCE FOR SARAH (1976) and THEME AND VARIATIONS (1977) were designed to explore a rich palette of electronic sounds. Timbres are often presented in a state of flux, approximating the opulence of acoustic instruments without imitating their specific colors. The sounds manipulated in these compositions were generated on the now-standard assemblage of classical analogue tape equipment bolstered by an early model Buchla Synthesizer. Cutting, splicing, and mixing - techniques handed down from the first makers of tape-recorder music - were used to extend short segments into longer melodic lines and more dense textures.

Flamboyant, raucous gestures characterize portions of DANCE FOR SARAH. The material presented in the opening undergoes considerable change as the work progresses and new elements appear, creating two broad sections. In 1977 DANCE FOR SARAH received honors at the Fifth International Electroacoustic Music Awards held in Bourges, France. the composition celebrates the birth of the composer's niece and is infused with the noisy energy of her first years.

The formal scheme of THEME AND VARIATIONS is more tightly defined. This later piece consists of a set of 17 variations on the opening tune. The variations differ in length, timbre and texture, and in the degree to which they reflect the character of the original. The theme can be heard quite clearly in the first and third variations; in later statements the relationship is not as readily apparent. The final statement, however, contains phrases that sound similar to those of the original theme. THEME AND VARIATIONS won second prize at the Sixth International Electroacoustic Music Awards in Bourges in 1978. (Arthur Kreiger)

AURORA, A WALTZ, uses a few distinctly electronic timbres, but mostly uses sounds with sharp attacks and immediate decays, similar to those of the piano. These sounds were chosen to emphasize the energetic rhythmic life of the musical structures employed. I would like to express my gratitude to William Buxton, the Director of the SSSP in Toronto, for the invitation to work there and for technical assistance. (William Matthews)

The material used in CONTRADICTIONS is varied. There are both electronically generated and concrete sounds. The work opens with a man's voice saying, 'Sounds are.' That phrase expresses my feelings about this work; sounds are whatever they are and stand by themselves. (Elias Tanenbaum)

Tracklisting:

1. Arthur Kreiger - Dance For Sarah {8:15}

2. Arthur Kreiger - Theme and Variations {8:55}

3. William Matthews - Aurora, A Waltz {6:21}

4. Elias Tanenbaum - Contradictions {10:33}

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