Herbert Brün - Wayfaring Sounds
Non SequitIur VI (1966)Performers: Carolyn Ho - flute; Sarah Wiseman - cello; Ann Warde - piano; Shirley Blankenship - harp; J. C. Kilbourne - marimba I; Jeff Magby - marimba II; David Madden - percussion I; Ian Ding - percussion II; Arun Chandra - conductor
For the "instrumental" parts, a program written by the composer in SCATRE, calling on MUSICOMP, was executed by the computer IBM 7094, resulting in a printout, which was recoded into a score and parts for musicians to read. The "tape" sections, however, were programmed by the composer for the then new D/A sound synthesis system. The resulting sound was used without modification just as the composer and converter system had synthesized it. (from the liner notes)
Wayfaring Sounds (1958)
I regard the term "work of art" with misgivings and therefore gave my composition the name Wayfaring Sounds. Sounds are wayfaring, not only for me, not only in electronic studios. Everywhere, in theater, in poetry, in language and in music a powerful movement has started, scorning all categorization and mocking the conventional associative patterns. Everywhere sounds are on their way to take possession of articulation and of communication, augmenting them and trying to liberate them from outdated routines of misunderstanding. (Herbert Brün)
on stilts among ducks (1997)
Performer: Eckart Schloifer - viola
I, Viola, loves Duck
for not being I.
Duck never sounds Viola
who never plays Duck.
Eckart the Schloifer had
asked for it has
waited for it for I said
yes:
on stilts among ducks -, (Herbert Brün)
Sonoriferous Loops (1964)
Performers: Patrick Purswell - flute; Ernest Bastin - trumpet; Thomas Fredrickson - double bass; William Parsons, Michael Rosen, and Jon Dutton - percussion; Herbert Brün - conductor
The structure of the composition, defined by elements and rules together with an algorithm which operates in and on the structure as a looping generating function, was translated by the composer into two programs: one for the instrumental section and one for the tape section. Both programs call on MUSICOMP, were written in SCATRE, and were executed by the computer IBM 7094. The "instrumental" output, a printout, thus had to be recoded by the composer into a score and parts legible to live musicians. The "tape" output, a deck of cards, was converted into actual sound by the computer CSX-1 and stored on audio tape. The final performance tape is the result of extensive modification on the CSX-1 sound, achieved with the analog equipment of the Experimental Music Studio, University of Illinois. (from the liner notes)
Infraudibles with percussion (1968-1984)
Performers: Percussion Group Cincinnati: Allen Otte, James Culley, Russell Burge
In the Sixties I taught a computer at the University of Illinois to assist me in composing a piece of music and then to actually perform it.
The piece I called Infraudibles, and you'll hear the computer play it from tape through the loudspeakers.
Later, I added, by hand and without computer, parts for live instrumentalists.
In Infraudibles with percussion, the instrumentalists play a musical analogy to the music on the tape. Whereas in Infraudibles with quintet, the five instrumentalists play a musical response to the music on the tape.
In the analogy, the tape plays one music and the percussion another music. The two musics speak two languages about one content.
In the response, however, tape and quintet play one music, speaking one language about two contents. (Herbert Brün)
Sentences Now Open Wide (SNOW) (1984)
For Marianne Brün
Performers: The Performers' Workshop Ensemble: Lesley Olson and Megan Lyden - flutes; Ja'acov Ziso - French horn; Charles Lipp and Mark Enslin - bassoons; Sarah Wiseman - cello; Arun Chandra - guitar; Herbert Brün - piano; Pamela Richman, Susan Parenti, and David Friedman - voices
Composed for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Experimental Music Studios of the University of Illinois
The text - my words and where I want them - has accumulated since 1970. It responds with discontent to the commonplace of power: "Let us do our best for you, or else!"
The tape I made - using methods similar to those of 25 years ago - with the generators, oscillators, filters of the University of Illinois Experimental Music Studios. It plays music constructed in analogy to social movements which will, if we fail them, fail us.
The instruments - strangers between text and tape - wonder how they got here, while calling with remembered and with invented gestures for answers to the questions: "What was? What is? What next?" (Herbert Brün)
Herbert Brün first turned to electronic sound production for the composition of music during the late 1950s in the Paris, Cologne, and Munich studios, particularly guided by Gottfried Michael Koenig. Before that, and at the same time, he composed works for acoustic instruments: small and large chamber ensembles and orchestra.
He also worked as a composer and conductor of music for the theater, gave lectures and seminars on the function of music in society, and did broadcasts on contemporary music. After completing a lecture tour through the United States in 1962, he went to the University of Illinois to do research and to teach; he is presently Professor Emeritus there.
Herbert Brün was born 1918 in Berlin, Germany, and studied with Eli Friedmann, Frank Pelleg, Wolf Rosenberg, and Stefan Wolpe. (about Herbert Brün from the liner notes)
Tracklisting:
1. Non Sequitur VI {12:50}
2. Wayfaring Sounds {4:29}
3. on stilts among ducks {18:10}
4. Sonoriferous Loops {14:19}
5. Infraudibles with percussion {10:30}
6. Sentences Now Open Wide (SNOW) {11:00}
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