various artists compilation - New Music for Early Instruments
released in 1995
Performed by Ensemble Nova: Leta Miller - flutes, Linda Burman-Hall - harpsichord
with Frans Bruggen - recorder, Richard Crocker - baritone, Eva Legene - recorder
From the liner notes:
In the early years of the 20th century, many of the more adventuresome composers wished to break out of the mold of late 19th-century romantic tonality, and began searching for ways to expand or change musical language. These composers explored many different musical paths - a return to modality, borrowings from folk music and world music, "exotic" scales, and so-called "atonality" (leading to the development of the 12-tone system).
One path of escape from romanticism was archaism - engagement with the formal structures and tonal/harmonic languages of early European music. Manifestations of this approach can be seen in such diverse pieces as Vaughan-Williams's Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis (1909), Resphigi's Ancient Airs and Dances (1917-32) and Orff's Carmina Burana (1936). Paralleling this compositional interest in archaism was a budding interest in early instruments themselves. Various historians, performers and teachers began to research the construction and playing techniques of early instruments, and encouraged craftsmen to build replicas of them. A community of dedicated amateurs and semi-professionals began to form, dedicated to playing early music on modern replicas of the recorder, harpsichord, viola da gamba, and lute.
Before long, some European composers began to write new music for these early instruments.
...
In the United States, there were similar attempts in the 1930s and 1940s to find fresh approaches to the problem of musical language. Like many of their European counterparts, composers of the American "experimental tradition" (such as Seeger, Cowell, Hovhaness and McPhee) also looked to folk music, world music and early European music for fresh sources of compositional inspiration. Lou Harrison's baroque-influenced Six Sonatas for Cembalo (1943) - recorded on this CD - was a product of this movement.
...
Today, as this century draws to a close, fine players of early instruments abound, and musicmaking involving early instruments is now a frequent and respected aspect of concert life on both sides of the Atlantic. A substantial body of modern works has already been created for early instruments by both European and American composers, and twentieth-century compositions now occupy a small - but significant - place in the early instrument repertoire.
Tracklisting:
1. Lou Harrison - Six Sonatas for Cembalo: Sonata I (Moderato) {3:10}
(1943) for harpsichord
2. Lou Harrison - Six Sonatas for Cembalo: Sonata II (Allegro) {2:52}
(1943) for harpsichord
3. Lou Harrison - Six Sonatas for Cembalo: Sonata III (Moderato) {5:08}
(1943) for harpsichord
4. Lou Harrison - Six Sonatas for Cembalo: Sonata IV (Allegro) {1:42}
(1943) for harpsichord
5. Lou Harrison - Six Sonatas for Cembalo: Sonata V (Moderato) {3:21}
(1943) for harpsichord
6. Lou Harrison - Six Sonatas for Cembalo: Sonata I (Allegro) {3:11}
(1943) for harpsichord
7. Richard Felciano - Alleluia to the Heart of Stone {3:53}
(1984) for reverberated recorder
8. Richard Felciano - Responsory {7:09}
(1992) for solo male voice and live electronics
9. David Evan Jones - Fugue State: Prelude {3:31}
(1993) for flute and harpsichord
10. David Evan Jones - Fugue State: Fugal Variations {9:17}
(1993) for flute and harpsichord
11. David Evan Jones - Fugue State: Postlude {2:59}
(1993) for flute and harpsichord
12. Gordon Mumma - Eleven-Note Pieces: 1, a Luigi Dallapiccola {0:21}
(1978) for harpsichord
13. Gordon Mumma - Eleven-Note Pieces: 2, a Durand Begault {0:20}
(1978) for harpsichord
14. Gordon Mumma - Eleven-Note Pieces: 3, a Diane Carlson {0:28}
(1978) for harpsichord
15. Gordon Mumma - Eleven-Note Pieces: 4, a Graciela Paraskevaidis {0:38}
(1978) for harpsichord
16. Gordon Mumma - Eleven-Note Pieces: 5, a Padre Mujica {1:12}
(1978) for harpsichord
17. Gordon Mumma - Eleven-Note Pieces: 6, a Jacques Bekaert {0:13}
(1978) for harpsichord
18. Gordon Mumma - Eleven-Note Pieces: 7, a Pauline Oliveros {0:59}
(1978) for harpsichord
19. Gordon Mumma - Eleven-Note Pieces: 8, a Eduardo Bertola {0:20}
(1978) for harpsichord
20. Gordon Mumma - Eleven-Note Pieces: 9, a Linda Burman-Hall {0:38}
(1978) for harpsichord
21. Gordon Mumma - Eleven-Note Pieces: 10, a Coriun Aharonian {0:36}
(1978) for harpsichord
22. Gordon Mumma - Eleven-Note Pieces: 11, a Robert Ashley {0:14}
(1978) for harpsichord
23. Gordon Mumma - Decimal Passacaglia {1:25}
(1978) for harpsichord
24. Gordon Mumma - Octal Waltz {1:23}
(1980) for harpsichord
25. Robert Strizich - Aphorisms: Aphorism II {0:50}
(1986) for solo alto recorder
26. Robert Strizich - Aphorisms: Aphorism VII {1:20}
(1986) for solo alto recorder
27. Robert Strizich - Aphorisms: Aphorism VIII {1:02}
(1986) for solo alto recorder
28. Robert Strizich - Fantasia {6:27}
(1985) for recorder quartet
29. Robert Strizich - Tombeau {10:53}
(1982) for baroque flute and harpsichord
(1) or (1) (2) or (2) [links coming back soon, maybe (1/24/2012)]
John Cage - Variations II/Eight Whiskus/Music for Two/Ryoanji
Performers:
Malcolm Goldstein - violin
Matthias Kaul - percussion, glass harmonica
When discussing John Cage's music, the word "anarchy" is never far away. There is nothing wrong with this, if the concept of anarchy is used discerningly, and if we remember that anything that lacks not just regimentation but also discipline is doomed to failure. Only those for whom others set the limits can proceed without consequences. By contrast, those who define the rules of their actions for themselves are best off being precise in those actions. Anarchy and discipline: the compelling logic of this combination is best demonstrated using the example of John Cage's lifework. For, however iconoclastic John Cage's thoughts and actions might seem, the open universe that he preached was always precisely surveyed.
Even in his early work, Cage revealed a marked preference for measurement. The sound explosions of his Constructions in Metal or his pieces for prepared piano occur within an exact grid of rhythmic structures, predefined subdivisions of time, within which Cage arranges the sounds and noises. And even in the Variations I of 1958, a (belated) birthday present for David Tudor, in which he proclaimed "anarchy by means of the negation of time" (Heinz-Klaus Metzger), he did not abolish measurement when he relinquished rhythmic structures. On the contrary, the "construction of a pure 'in itself,' the emancipation of every 'for other,'" as Metzger analyzes the situation of this composition, is based directly on operations involving measurement. Six transparent sheets - one of which has 27 different points, the others five lines each - can be superimposed in different ways. The lines represent different parameters of the sound event: pitch, volume, timbre, duration, and point of entry. When perpendicular lines are drawn through the points from each line, it gives values, distances to be measured or simply observed, as Cage puts it in his introduction to Variations I. If Cage's procedure for generating a musical text by means of points and lines might seem arbitrary, there is no denying the exacting subordination of the performer under this maxim of "measure and comply."
The same is true of Variations II, conceived four years later (and presented here in a version prepared by Malcolm Goldstein for violin and glass harmonica), where the plurality of possible results is even greater. The material provided by Cage consists of five small sheets with a point each, and six larger ones each with a line. The sheets can be superimposed in any way imaginable; five of the lines have the same function as in Variations I, while the sixth one determines the number of tones (in Variations I this was determined by the sizes of the points, which were fixed).
...
The visual contrast between the conspicuous macroforms of the fifteen large stones and the raked gravel, which from a distance seems homogeneous but from up close reveals an anarchic micropattern, that characterizes the famous stone garden of the Ryoanji monastery in Kyoto inspired Cage first to the drawings and etchings of the cycle Where R=Ryoanji. The musical composition Ryoanji transforms that visual contrast into sound in a way that is as appropriate as it is original.
...
Another variant of this surveying of preexisting materials so typical of Cage is found in the technique of writing through, in which texts of the most diverse provenance - from the Bible to James Joyce - are "filtered" through mesostichs. In Eight Whiskus for solo voice from 1984, Cage applied the method to a poem by the Australian poet Chris Mann, and since the poem is called whistlin is did, and since Cage used it as the source for eight haikus structured like mesostichs, he invented the word "whis-kus" for the results. Using chance procedures, Cage assigned the syllables to the notes of the F-minor scale, producing a piece of vocal music that is very unusual within his oeuvre: with a key signature of four flats and purely diatonic! The imaginary folk song that is generated by this abstract method was reworked by Cage for solo violin a year later, after consulting with Malcolm Goldstein, such that the vowel and consonant qualities of the poem are transformed into various bowing positions, gradations of bowing pressure, and forms of articulation. According to Goldstein, "The tonal melodies are thereby extended, as lines of timbre-texture qualities, expressive of the bowed violin sounding."
...
Two extensive series of pieces - Music for ... of the years 1984 to 1987 and the 47 compositions, ranging from solo to orchestral works, that make up the so-called number pieces that began with Two - demonstrate that Cage had now found a solid and productive method for reconciling his anarchic ideals with the conventions of traditional concert practice. The numbers that the computerized I Ching generates are as "random" as the distances between the perpendicular lines connecting the lines and points in arbitrarily arranged transparent sheets, and just as the sheets of the Variations allow for an incalculable number of versions, the numbers of the I Ching oracle can be read as answers to a wide range of questions. The questions that interested Cage in the reductionist pieces of his later years were ones like: "How many successive sounds should I place in a 'time bracket' of one minute? How many components should make up these events? What pitch and what dynamic should these sounds have?" Music for ... provides 17 half-hour-long answers in the form of independent parts for different instruments that are not coordinated into a score, which can be played as solo parts or in any possible combination. (Peter Niklas Wilson)
Tracklisting:
1. Variations II {20:10}
(1961) realization for violin and glass harmonica
2. Eight Whiskus {5:21}
(1985) for violin
3. Music for Two {29:40}
(1985) for violin and percussion
4. Ryoanji {19:51}
(1983-85) for voice and percussion; voice part transcribed for violin by Malcolm Goldstein
(1)
Wind Chimes
cassette released in 1990
On this edition of the nature/environmental sounds postings, I present the sounds of chimes made by a gentle wind.
Tracklisting:
1. Wind Chimes {30:48}
Note: both sides of the cassette are the same
(1)
The Freight Elevator Quartet - Fix It In Post (1997-2000)
released in 2001
Luke Dubois - Max/MSP programming, analog modular synths, guitar, bass, keyboard, effects
Paul Feuer - didjeridoo, keyboards, synth bass, programming
Rachael Finn - cellos, effects
Stephen Krieger - beats, drum machines, keyboard, sampling, effects
The recordings on this CD were taken from nearly four years of live recordings by The Freight Elevator Quartet. This album chronicles the progression of our sound from our first chaotic performance in a 125th st. freight elevator through our performances this year in support of our fourth album, some thirty-five shows later. Over this time we've moved from our original instrumentation of cello, didjeridoo, modular-synth and drum machine to include samplers, keyboards, guitars, basses and a Powerbook running Max/MSP. The tracks you hear on this album are composites of different performances, some as many as three years apart. Our music is largely improvised, so no two shows are the same, and we tried to reflect this range of sound and styles in the composite tracks. As computers become so immersed in our cultural discourse that they become literally transparent, we're interested in highlighting the juxtaposition of technology with acoustic instrumentation and human improvisation, using electronics and computers in the framework of four people in a band performing on stage. We hope you enjoy the album. (liner notes by The Freight Elevator Quartet)
Tracklisting:
1. Pomoerotic {8:53}
2. Transform/Disappear {6:20}
3. Downtime is Becoming Less of an Option {8:32}
4. Seeming {6:01}
5. Acmend's Revenge {3:05}
6. Transparent {5:27}
7. How Does It Feel to Be Going Out of Style? {4:18}
8. Gilgamesh {4:22}
9. Bring Me My Mental Health {7:06}
10. Cellophane {1:48}
11. Ahmed Goes to Heaven {4:42}
12. Infrared {5:13}
13. Excerpt from 'Berlin: Symphony of a Great City' {1:49}
14. File Under Futurism {5:34}
(1) or (1) (2) or (2) [links coming back soon, maybe (1/24/2012)]
Charlemagne Palestine - Strumming Music
This was originally posted on the old version of this blog three years ago and also posted again on this version of the blog after I created this version of the blog to obtain the capabilities of the new Blogger engine. There are people who have asked for a reposting of this piano drone classic so here it is.
Originally released on LP in 1974; reissued on CD in 1995
From the back cover:
Charlemagne Palestine was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1945. His formal education includes music and art in high school, Mannes College of Music, The New School for Social Research and New York University. From 1964-1970 he was carillonneur at Saint Thomas Church, NYC. He was composer in residence at New York University and has taught at California Institute of the Arts and Nova Scotia College of Art. His works have been performed all over the United States, Canada and Europe. Apart from his music he is also known for his body art, video and purely visual works.
Strumming Music is a work developed over the past five years utilizing a note alteration technique with the sustain pedal of the piano constantly depressed. This technique allows the undampened strings to resonate and compound with each other creating complex mixtures of pure strummed sonority and their overtones. No electronics or special tunings are utilized; only the finest instrument available today, the Rolls Royce of pianos, "Bosendorfer" of Vienna, all of Mr. Palestine's piano works have been composed especially for this marvelous instrument.
Tracklisting:
1. Strumming Music {52:13}
(1)
Jere Hutcheson - Contemporary Ensemble Works
I had seen this LP a while ago, looked at the cover closely and figured that it was worth taking a chance since I never had heard of the guy. Jere Hutcheson is still new to me. Also, I still do not know much about the background of these pieces or Hutcheson himself as there are no liner notes. If this LP did include liner notes, they are missing. All that was inside the record jacket are the LP and a sheet with contact information at his employer, Michigan State University. There is not much info online about Hutcheson either. One of the few webpages about Hutcheson is his faculty page at Michigan State University where he still teaches composition.
This LP contains three pieces:
"Shadows of Floating Life" for mezzo soprano, tenor, flute, violin, double bass, vibraphone
Performed by Mary Alice Stollak - mezzo-soprano, Paul Behhingfield - tenor, instrumental ensemble conducted by Dennis Burkh
"Three Things for Dr. Seuss" for harp and six percussionists
Performed by the Michigan State University Percussion Ensemble, Mark Johnson - conductor
"Night Gallery" for four trombones
Performed by the Ohio University Trombone Ensemble
I don't think that this LP is an official release. This looks like a private press LP. There is a catalog number on the label, but no mention anywhere of who released this LP. The only site that mentions Hutcheson's music on other recordings is WorldCat. Most of those recordings listed appear to be non-commercial.
Tracklisting:
Side One
1. Shadows of Floating Life: I. Sighs for the Bygone Days {8:13}
2. Shadows of Floating Life: II. Pictures of the Dewdrop World {8:34}
3. Shadows of Floating Life: III. Love and Dreams {6:57}
Side Two
1. Shadows of Floating Life: IV. Eternal Rest {6:18}
2. Three Things for Dr. Seuss: Overture (Thing One) {4:29}
3. Three Things for Dr. Seuss: Nocturne (Thing Two) {3:49}
4. Three Things for Dr. Seuss: Finale (Thing Three) {2:47}
5. Night Gallery {5:18}
(1) (2)
Thundering Rainstorm
cassette released in 1988
Listen to the thunder and hear the lightning crack as the rain pours down; then the storm slowly tapers to a shower. These sounds help wash away tension and set the mood for a pleasant, pressure-free mental break.
Tracklisting:
1. Thundering Rainstorm {45:30}
Both sides of the cassette are the same.
(1)
Olivier Messiaen/Arnold Schoenberg - split release
All music on LP performed by Domaine Musicale Orchestra, conducted by Pierre Boulez
Other performers on "Seven Haikai":
Yvonne Loriod - piano
Strassbourg Percussion Ensemble
SEVEN HAIKAI
This work was written in 1962, following a trip to Japan. Although no poems are included in it, the title HAIKAI denotes that the seven pieces are short, like the Japanese poems bearing that name. The dedication, on the other hand, is long, but bears citation:
"TO YVONNE LORIOD, TO PIERRE BOULEZ, TO MME. FUMI YAMAGUCHI, TO SEIJI OZAWA, TO YORITSUNE MATSUDAIRA, TO SANDAU BEKKU AND MITSUAKI HAYAMA, TO THE ORNITHOLOGIST HOSHINO, TO THE LANDSCAPE, TO THE MUSIC, AND TO ALL THE BIRDS OF JAPAN."
Here is a brief analysis of each of the seven pieces:
I - INTRODUCTION
Cencerros, bells, trumpet, trombone and metallic percussion introduce Indian rhythms dedicated to the three Shakti. The piano and woodwinds play a retrograded rhythmic canon. The xylophone and marimba play a Metabole of the Tala Simhavikrama (force of the lion) and of Tala Micra-Varna (mixture of colors). The violins then play a melodic phrase, of which we hear only the first strophe (the second strophe is heard in the seventh piece).
II - THE PARK OF NARA AND THE STONE LANTERNS
The Nara region in Japan. Four Buddhist temples in a park. Does and stags roam about freely. The sun's rays play among the Cryptomerias along the main path. 3,000 stone lanterns press together and out of view.
III - Yamanaka - CADENZA
The birds singing in this place were heard in the forest near Lake Yamanaka at the foot of Mount Fuji. They are almost the same birds heard in the sixth piece, but one must add Misoszai, a Japanese Troglodyte portrayed by the xylophone, and Aka-Hara, a red-sided thrush, portrayed by the English horn. Aoji, a Japanese masked bird and Oruri, a blue Japanese fly eater were observed at Subashiri. The three piano "cadenzas" portray successively:
(a) first cadenza: KIBITKA, a narcissistic fly eater;
(b) second cadenza: HOAKA, a grey-headed bird and Hibari, a Japanese meadow-sparrow;
(c) third cadenza: KURU TSUGUMI, a Japanese blackbird.
IV - GAGAKU
GAGAKU is the noble Japanese music of the VIIth century. It is still performed at the Imperial court. We hear only the two main timbres of this music: SHO (mouth organ), replaced by an ensemble of 8 violins, and HICHIRIKI (primitive oboe), replaced by trumpet.
V - MIYAJIMA AND THE TORII IN THE SEA
This is perhaps the most beautiful spot in Japan. It is a mountain island covered with dark green Japanese pines and maples that turn red in autumn. A Shinto Temple, white and red, with a great red portal opening onto the deep blue sea. To all these colors, the musical harmonies of woodwinds, brass, violins and bells (and also the resources of CROTALES, piano and triangle) add other combinations: grey and orange-gold, silvery red, lilac and violet-purple.
VI - THE BIRDS OF KARUIZAWA
The birds singing in this piece were heard in the vicinity of Karuizawa, in a mountain and Japanese pine setting. Some were heard in the woods, near a gorge and a small stream not far from the Asama volcano, where bright-red azaleas flourish. Some of the main birds are:
(a) UGUISO, a Japanese songbird that has two songs: the first is a long, swelling note, followed by a victorious, rapidly descending trill and continuing in a third, interrupted and repeated many times, slowing progressively. UGUISO is represented by the trumpet and woodwind ensemble. (b) HOTOTOGUISO, a small grey-headed cuckoo that sings an odd fanfare of five or six notes. HOTOTOGUISO is represented by trombone, bassoons and clarinet.
(c) KIBITAKI, a narcissistic fly eater whose song is of repeated strophes, sometimes quite numerous. Its plumage is yellow-orange and black, a great yellow brown, great white spots on the wings. KIBITAKI is played by four clarinets, as well as xylophone and marimba.
(d) ORURI, a blue Japanese fly eater. Its head and coat are blue, and the belly white, throat and breast black.
(e) AOJI, a Japanese masked bird, whose song consists of rapid, separated leaps.
(f) SAN KO CHO, another fly eater with head and throat of violet-black, white belly, a reddish-brown coat, and a pale-blue circle around each eye, with a very long tail. SAN KO CHO is played by xylophone and marimba.
(g) KURO TSUGUMI, the Japanese blackbird, whose varied song differs from that of the European blackbird.
(h) MEJIRO, a bird of tender green plumage with white circles about its eyes. In the piano cadenzas we hear BINZUI, Hodgson's songbird, and O-YOSHIKIRI, a reddish oriental bird. There are at least a dozen other Japanese birds heard in this work.
VII - CODA
Given by the CENCERROS, bells, trumpet, and metallic percussion, a suite of Indian rhythms, dedicated to the three SHAKTI. Piano and woodwinds again take up the retrograded rhythmic canon of the first piece. The sequence is reversed, however, and the violins play the conclusion, or second strophe, of the melodic phrase heard in the first piece. (Olivier Messiaen)
CHAMBER SYMPHONY OP. 9 (1906) for fifteen solo instruments
The CHAMBER SYMPHONY, composed in 1906, is years ahead in concept and content. Although the romantic heritage of Brahms, Mahler and Wagner is not to be denied, one may already discern the forces which were to emerge fully in the mature Schoenberg. The form itself reveals a compactness: the different parts of a symphony in one unit, a device favored by the Vienna school, particularly by Alban Berg. The symphony corresponds to the following scheme:
I - Exposition of two themes, with a repeat of the principal theme and transitional segments between each.
II - Scherzo and trio with repeat.
III - Development (in three parts)
IV - Slow movement
V - Repeat of the thematic material of the first part in a more elaborate form, modified and in the nature of a Finale.
THREE PIECES FOR ORCHESTRA (1910) for an ensemble of instrumental soloists
The THREE PIECES were only discovered in 1957 among some papers left by the composer. Dating from 1910, a year before Schoenberg wrote the Six Little Pieces for Piano, op. 19, they reflect the composer's preoccupation with extreme economy of means and maximum concentration of form. It also illustrates the principal of non-repetition, emphasizing variability, asymmetry, and plurality, shedding new light on this aspect of Schoenberg's thought. (Jean-Claude Eloy)
Tracklisting:
Side 1 (All tracks by Olivier Messiaen)
1. Seven Haikai: I. Introduction {1:50}
2. Seven Haikai: II. The Park of Nara and the Stone Lanterns {1:30}
3. Seven Haikai: III. Yamanaka-Cadenza {3:39}
4. Seven Haikai: IV. Gagaku {2:57}
5. Seven Haikai: V. Miyajima and the Torii in the Sea {1:24}
6. Seven Haikai: VI. The Birds of Karuizawa {5:33}
7. Seven Haikai: VII. Coda {1:53}
Side 2 (All tracks by Arnold Schoenberg)
1. Chamber Symphony, Op. 9 {17:08}
2. Three Pieces for Orchestra {1:55}
(1)
John Cage/Christian Wolff - split release
I posted this LP a couple of years ago which was a gift from one of this blog's visitors. Apparently the link in the original post is dead. Since I managed to obtain a copy, I decided to use my copy for reposting as my copy from the original post is buried somewhere in my archive of CD-Rs. If you got this from the original post you may want to get it from this repost as liner notes and photos from the record jacket are included this time.
The title, CARTRIDGE MUSIC, derives from the use in its performance of "Cartridges," phonograph pick-ups into which needles are inserted for playing recordings. Contact microphones are also used. These latter are applied to chairs, tables, waste baskets, etc.; various suitable objects (toothpicks, matches, slinkies, piano wires, feathers, etc.) are inserted in the cartridges. Both the microphones and cartridges are connected to amplifiers which go to loud-speakers, the majority of the sounds produced being small and requiring amplification in order to be heard. The dials of the amplifiers affecting volume and tone are controlled by the performers.
...
The sounds which result are noises, some complex, others extremely simple such as amplifier feed-back, loud-speaker hum, etc. (All sounds, even those ordinarily thought to be undesirable, are accepted in this music.)
...
Following the suggestion of David Tudor, the recording is the superimposition of four performers by the two of us. This is within the spirit of the directions given which accompany the material supplied ("there may be any number of performers equal at least to the number of cartridges and not greater than twice the number of cartridges"), and it takes advantage of physical possibilities in a recording studio which are not available in concert performance. (John Cage)
These are performances that happen to have been recorded under very good conditions.
The three pieces are all written in such a way that no two performances are likely to be the same. The way the instruments coordinate and the fact that the players constantly have options of what to play (say, one of three pitches, any pitch at a fixed loudness, any loudness at a fixed timbre) brings this about. The coordination - how the players play together - is not, in turn, for the most part, related to fixed time, of a beat or of the clock. The players are given indications of when to play simultaneously, one immediately after the other, overlapping, or alone. A situation is indicated, but not when one is to enter into it, nor, necessarily, for how long one is in it. Durations of individual notes may be indicated as relatively short, long, or free, or they may be determined by the requirements of a situation. For example, it is indicated that two players play simultaneously for a free duration. One of the two, whoever decides to do so first (without prior agreement), starts to play. The other, hearing this, must join immediately. Both play. One of the two, whoever does so first, stops playing. The other must stop immediately. The sound may have come at any point of time and may have been of any duration, as the players played, either one of them deciding and the other according with the decision as he heard it, each at each juncture (beginning, alteration, and end) of the sound.
Each of the pieces are made up of parts of varying lengths which can be repeated any number of times: they will tend to be different at each repetition. The continuity of the parts within a piece, then, is up to the players. Each can decide to play where he can begin a part, and the others must follow. It may happen that the players lose their way when, for example, two start different parts simultaneously, or one starts a part (which he indicates by making the first sound in that part) and the other mistakes that sound for another. That is part of the piece. The players, once they are aware of what has happened, stop and make a new beginning. A piece lasts as long as the players wish to continue it. I chose performances that would fit on the record. (Christian Wolff)
Tracklisting:
Side A
1. John Cage - Cartridge Music {19:44}
John Cage and David Tudor - cartridges and contact microphones
Side B
1. Christian Wolff - Duo for Violinist and Pianist {5:04}
Kenji Kobayashi - violin, David Tudor - piano; composed in August 1961
2. Christian Wolff - Duet II {7:55}
Howard Hillyer - horn, David Tudor - piano; composed in January 1961
3. Christian Wolff - Summer {9:08}
Matthew Raimondi and Kenji Kobayashi - violins, Walter Trampler - viola, David Soyer - cello; composed in August 1961
(1) (2)
various artists compilation - History of Music in Sound Vol. I: Ancient and Oriental Music
2-LP set released in 1966
This 2-LP set is the first in the History of Music in Sound series of volumes in conjunction with The New Oxford History of Music that surveys and discusses musical history. This series began in the late 1950s. Each volume includes a book in The New Oxford History of Music and the companion LP-set each including a booklet. According to the listing of titles in the booklet from this set, there has been 10 volumes. All volumes except Volume I: Ancient and Oriental Music focus on Western or European music. My copy once belonged to a high school library as the cover bears the stamps of the school and the pocket for placement of a circulation sheet. I do wonder how often this was either checked out or used at all by high school students and teachers. I wonder if high school libraries (or school library media centers) today have CDs of Eastern music.
Volume I of The History of Music in Sound may be regarded as an introduction to the main series of records devoted to Western music from the Middle Ages to the present day. In addition to the few examples of ancient Greek music which have come down to us, the volume comprises a selection of recrds from the Middle and Far East.
Oriental music, apart from some zither compositions and the ceremonial music of China and Japan, is transmitted orally from generation to generation. We have, therefore, no means of giving an historical survey of the music of any country represented in this volume. Some of the music, particularly the examples of sacred, ceremonial, and ritual chant may go back to a remote date and may have been handed down to us practically unchanged; others are of more recent date, while others again - for example the songs from Madagascar and Tahiti - are obviously influenced by European music.
The greatest difficulty for the Editor arose from the fact that the selection for this volume had to be made from the musics of peoples infinitely greater in number and variety than those of Europe, to whom all the other volumes in the History are devoted. The choice of examples, therefore, has had to be restricted to those which either supplement our knowledge of the origins of western music, such as the examples of Greek, Jewish, and Arabic music, or are most characteristic of their kind, such as the few examples of Indian, Chinese, and Japanese music.
In listening to music from the Islamic countries one should remember the main difference between our Western conception of music and that of the East. The western composer aims at expressing himself in a concise, clear form. The mind of the Eastern musician works differently; he makes music which flows in an unending stream. Different as the music of the various peoples may be in character; it has in common the endless repetition of a pattern which impresses itself on the audience and is often of a hypnotic nature.
Most of the examples from these countries, therefore, give only a small fragment of the whole chant or instrumental piece - in some cases longer in the LP than in the 78 r.p.m. version. There are some pieces in which the repetition and variation of the same pattern can be heard, but even in these examples the hypnotic effect of this kind of music cannot be fully experienced, for actually the singing, drumming, and dancing goes on for hours.
There is one feature of Far Eastern singing which seems strange to us: the Chinese operatic singer produces his tone with cramped throat muscles. To the West, singing is a sort of glorified speech and the singer is taught to avoid shrill notes; to the Far East, the art of voice production consists in singing with strained vocal chords, to make song as different from speech as possible.
Eastern music is mostly homophonic; part-singing in our sense is unknown though one does find that primitive part-singing which we call heterophony. Since the skill of the Eastern composers is concentrated upon one line, the melodic nuances are much richer than those of Western melodies, and so are the rhythmic patterns.
The differences in tuning and the variety of scales, which often include quartertones and even smaller intervals, make it difficult and in many cases impossible to transcribe Eastern music into our system of notation. Scholars have worked out methods of indicating quarter-tones by special signs or by figures, giving the number of vibrations; but such a notation is useless for practical purposes. We should bear in mind also the fact that unskilled singers frequently sing 'out of tune' and that it is purposeless to notate deviations from the scale which would not occur with trained singers.
Finally a word must be said about the quality of the records. Those of Arabic music go back to the Congress of Arabic Music held in Cairo in 1932; those from the Far East were mostly made in the countries whose music they represent, often under the most difficult conditions. Some of these are of unique musicological and ethnological value and it would be impossible to record them today. After listening to a great number of records made in recent years, the Editor has chosen those which he thought to be representative, though some may not be technically as perfect as we expect H.M.V. records to be, because they give a better idea of the character of music than the modern recordings do. Contact with European music through the gramophone, the radio, and particularly through the cinema, has left its traces on the music of the Eastern world; it has also influenced the technique of singing and playing. The majority of the records in this collection are therefore chosen deliberately from those made at a time when the impact of Western music was hardly felt. (Egon Wellesz)
Tracklisting:
Side I
(all tracks on Side I from China)
1. Louis Chen - Three Ancient Melodies: Tzuey Ueng Charn {0:48}
2. Louis Chen - Three Ancient Melodies: Lanq Taur Sha {1:35}
3. Louis Chen - Three Ancient Melodies: Nan Jinn Gong {2:02}
4. Orchestra of the Classical Theatre of China - Instrumental and Dramatic Music: The Poet Rides {3:15}
5. Ja Fuhshi - Instrumental and Dramatic Music: Meihua San Nonq {0:43}
6. Ching Yu-feng and T'ang Kuei Fang with orchestra - Instrumental and Dramatic Music: Duet from Sheau Fanqniou {1:45}
7. Shang Hsiao-yun with orchestra - Instrumental and Dramatic Music: Excerpt from Muudan Tyng {1:02}
8. Tu Chin-fang with Orchestra of the Classical Theatre of China - Opera: Excerpt from Bair Sheh Juann {2:25}
9. Hsiao Tsung-i with Orchestra of the Classical Theatre of China - Opera: Excerpt from Wuu Jia Po {1:28}
10. Hsiao Tsung-i with Orchestra of the Classical Theatre of China - Opera: Excerpt from Yuanmen Jaan Tzyy {5:51}
11. Chao Wen-kuei with Orchestra of the Classical Theatre of China - Opera: Excerpt from Tsao Chyau Guan {3:17}
Side II
(tracks 1-3 from Tibet; track 4 from Cambodia; track 5 from Madagascar; tracks 6-9 from Laos; tracks 10-12 from Bali; tracks 13-14 from Tahiti)
1. [uncredited artist] - Lamaist Instrumental Ensemble {1:10}
2. [uncredited artist] - Lamaist Chanting {1:49}
3. [uncredited artist] - Hymn by Two Nuns {1:16}
4. Mme Nouy with instruments - Bampe {2:59}
5. [uncredited artist] - Raivo {1:21}
6. Thao Nenh - Song of a Nam-Ngum Bargeman {0:43}
7. Thao Nenh - Mengphoutomdok {0:50}
8. [uncredited artist] - Laoh-Tenh {1:48}
9. [uncredited artist] - Thoum {1:05}
10. [uncredited artist] - Tjroektjoek Poenjah {1:41}
11. [uncredited artist] - Excerpt from Tjalonarang {3:01}
12. [uncredited artist] - Excerpt from a Gamboeh {2:23}
13. [uncredited artist] - Paoa {0:49}
14. [uncredited artist] - Aue Aue {1:04}
Side III
(tracks 1-3 from Japan; tracks 4-14 from India)
1. Shinichi Yuize - Gagaku (Court Music): Dance of the Great Peace {1:30}
2. Shinichi Yuize - Rokudan (Nos. 1, 3, and 6) {2:40}
3. Shinichi Yuize - Chidori-no-Kyoku {3:58}
4. [uncredited artist] - Folk Music: Rice-transplanting Song (Western Ghats) {1:02}
5. [uncredited artist] - Folk Music: Harvest Processional Song (Western Ghats) {1:16}
6. [uncredited artist] - Folk Music: Toda Song (Nilgiri Mountains) {1:08}
7. [uncredited artist] - Folk Music: Death Wail (Cape Comorin) {0:43}
8. [uncredited artist] - Folk Music: Afridi Song (Khyber Pass) {0:59}
9. [uncredited artist] - Folk Music: Marathi Weaver's Song (Hyderabad) {0:53}
10. [uncredited artist] - Folk Music: Bhajan (Marathi Villagers' Prayer) (Hyderabad) {2:08}
11. Vasanta Koakilam - Classical Music: Sundari Nann'indarilo (Telugu) (Carnatic Devotional Song) {1:35}
12. Khan Saheb Hamid Hussain - Classical Music: Pahadi (Dhun) (Sarangi with Tabla) {2:00}
13. Hirabai Barodekar - Classical Music: Kankariye ji na Maro (Hindi) {1:00}
14. Ali Hussain and party - Classical Music: Raga Kedara (Shannai) {5:29}
Side IV
(tracks 1-3 Jewish music; tracks 4-5 ancient Greek music; tracks 6-8 music of Islam: Near East; tracks 9-10 music of Islam: Iraq; tracks 11-13 music of Islam: The Maghrib)
1. Cantor Jacob Goldstein - Lamenasseah al Haggitit (Psalm 8) {1:05}
2. Cantor Jacob Goldstein - Moholel Kol Wehol Johol (Hymn for Hasha'na Rabba) {2:11}
3. Cantor Jacob Goldstein - 'Al Naharot Bobal Hosehoh (Paraphrase of Psalm 137) {1:03}
4. Arda Mandikian - First Delphic Hymn {3:26}
5. Arda Mandikian - Epitaph of Seikilos {0:38}
6. S. S. Alami - Muezzin's Call to Prayer {1:35}
7. Maulawiyah Atrak - Taqsim Bayati (Turkish) {1:09}
8. [uncredited artist] - Bedouin Song (from El Fayum) {1:23}
9. [uncredited artist] - Tahher Fouadaka Bil-Rahat {2:27}
10. Muhammad Efendi el Qabbanji - Ya Naees el-Tarfe {1:58}
11. Muhammad el Shuwaikah - Oomri Alayki (Moroccan) {2:04}
12. Muhammad ibn Hasan - Alhazo Zabi (Tunisian) {1:32}
13. Al-Hajj el-Arabi ibn Sari - Fah el-banafseg (Algerian) {1:17}
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NEXUS - Toccata
The 1995/96 concert season was the twenty-fifth year of performances together for the five members of NEXUS. It was a year highlighted by a tour of Europe and Scandinavia, a Silver Anniversary series of concerts in Toronto broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and a twenty-fifth anniversary celebration concert in the Eastman School of Music's historic Kilbourn Hall, the venue for the very first performance by NEXUS on May 20, 1971. In the early years of the group's existence, concerts consisted almost entirely of improvisations on percussion instruments collected by the individual members of NEXUS. Many of these instruments were from non-Western musical cultures and were not associated with the classical and popular music already familiar to the conservatory-trained percussionists. The instruments were mostly bells and gongs of Asian origin, although there were also wooden instruments, drums, and various home-made percussion instruments, and they invariably sounded pitches that fell in-between the notes of the European tempered scale system. Since there were no existing compositions for this unusual collection of instruments, the music was created in spontaneous improvisations, with no advance planning at all. Spontaneity has always been a major part of NEXUS' approach to performing its repertoire, and improvised pieces, such as Kichari, Reunion, and Toccata were featured in the NEXUS anniversary season programs. In these pieces, the listener will find the musical heart of NEXUS. Eric Robertson, the Toronto-based virtuoso organist, joins NEXUS in Toccata for some serious improvised fun. (Bill Cahn)
Members (performers all on percussion): Bob Becker, Bill Cahn, Robin Engelman,
Russell Hartenberger,
John Wyre
Tracklisting:
1. Kichari {15:00}
live at Studio 10, Berlin, Germany - October 6, 1995
2. Tongues {5:05}
live in the CBC Glenn Gould Studio, Toronto, Canada - June 11, 1996
3. Reunion {12:06}
live in Kilbourn Hall, Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York - February 20, 1996
4. Toccata {22:56}
live at St. Paul's Anglican Church, Toronto, Canada - May 11, 1996; with Eric Robertson - organ
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various artists compilation - New Music for Chamber Orchestra
SOME WORDS ABOUT WORDS ABOUT MUSIC by Carman Moore
The attempt of words and symbols to explain the subject of music represents so pure a history of failure that it might be regarded as itself a thing of perfection. The implications of the "sighing" Mozartean score, for example, with such an adjective as "female" thrown in has the makings of poetry but leads us away from the intellectual rigor - no matter how involuntary - represented by Mozart's music. And the term "chamber orchestra" may send the mind galloping off into the four winds. We may know that the "chamber" in question asks that you date and place it - a palace lounge in 1810? a South Rampart Street brothel in 1910? a New York City recording studio in 1970? Must an "orchestra" employ strings?
Even the score must be viewed as a program note, endeavoring to make the sonic journey seem more business-like and less physically hazardous than it really is. Nonetheless, while word and symbol may be imposters, they may also serve music with honor. For they function as that body of expectations over against which the truth of sound as organism performs its magic. The composer has profound need of these expectations, for taking the ear - even his own - by surprise (by storm) lies at the heart of his craft.
Iannis Xenakis - the architect, the mathematician as composer, to many listeners the man representative of all that is inscrutable in modern music (if you can't read his score, how can you presume to respond to his music?) - represents a prime example of the contemporary symbol-vs.-music tension. His very name at the head of a program note may cause the experienced reader-listener to expect a visually beautiful chunk of score and mathematical jargon. Yet the name when thought of relative to most of his works will probably call up memories of vast sonic textures and unforgettable psychic experiences. In his Achorripsis (1957) the Xenakis characteristic of overtly dramatic sound coupled with elegant formal proportions is already central to his style. Almost analogous to this fact, who can avoid noticing how the relatively civilized dryness of the pitched-instrument counterpoint is clubbed again and again into submission by big, primitive smacks from the bass drum? Xenakis's music seems to refuse the term "chamber," and rather transports the ear outdoors onto a rugged landscape. Yet in its juxtapositions of woodwinds, brass, percussion, and strings as agglomerate color families Achorripsis slyly reminds us of its debt to the Baroque concerto grosso.
Through Aldo Clementi's little "Triplum" (1961) and the even tinier Three Pieces (1910) for chamber orchestra of Arnold Schoenberg the point of broad expressive power within short time span is made and seems to deepen the mystery of how music works. "Triplum" presents fragile colors which is slipping away from each other seem to touch hands. Mobile pitch lines and densities seem to pause for re-coloring from time to time and then rush or slide away. It's all over in four minutes.
Ruggedly dramatic in another sense if Bo Nilsson's Szene III (1961). As if it has given way to total savagery after early attempts to conform to what a mad era insists is civilized, the closing measures of the work become a stretch of unrestrained tumult led into by a shattering crescendo on the tam-tam. Mr. Nilsson on side B shows another aspect of his expressive range through the elegant little Frequenzen (1956). With traditional Western percussion augmented to include jazz drum set, guitar, vibraphone, and xylophone the eruption promised by this heavily-batteried instrumentation never really occurs. Tightly organized of duration, pitch, and the like, it interestingly enough indicates dynamics by number 1-10 (pppp to ffff). Conductor Francis Travis expresses the basically low profile, and the beauty of this performance seems to prove it a sensitive work and performance.
Schoenberg's amazing "Three Pieces" recorded here for the first time (Darmstadt Festival, 1961), is little over 2 1/2 minutes and 28 measures long, but its powers to transport the listener are extensive indeed. Pieces I and II are sections completed by the composer, and Piece III is unfinished. Composed after the "Chamber Symphony" (1906), the "Gurrelieder" (1901: orchestrated 1911), and the "Five Orchestral Pieces" (1909), this work, relatively so slight of means, was obviously undertaken as a study in terse statement and perhaps as a shadow piece to the "Five Pieces." In the next decade or so Schoenberg was to ardently begin and then abandon many works, so it is not so strange perhaps that "Three Pieces" should end suddenly in mid phrase. What is both strange and remarkable is the fact that the third piece, from measure 5 to the end, sounds so like a work that was to be published and performed three years later - Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring." And for anyone seeking a precedent for Anton Webern's still, aphoristic style of composition there is the second piece - eight measures and three fermatas long.
Wlodzimierz Kotonski's Canto (1961) for chamber orchestra indicates a dynamic marking for every note, with a range from ppp to fff. From rhythms, almost all of which are long-held notes, the composer evokes, nonetheless, a true sense of momentum. Careful coloration and sensitive pitch choices make of the work a strange kind of high adventure.
As if to combine all of the impulses to formal precision presented in the above-mentioned works, Yuji Takahashi's brutally-difficult Six Stoicheia (1969) for four violins is totally written out and specific about pitch, for example, to the point of indicating "+=1/4 tone sharp" and "*=3/4 tone sharp." But it is the composer's creative imagination and the uncompromising brilliance of Paul Zukofsky (heard here on all four parts) which reveal this tight-looking score to be in reality a full-blooded sonic experience - an experience not at all out of place on a chamber orchestra recording.
These have been words and post-expectations of value to me. Perhaps they will function as an analogy to what each listener might bring to his own first and repeated relationships with these seven extraordinary compositions. It is to be done shamelessly. Just as nature has its still-life, it appears that music will always have its verbiage and symbols - as the last outposts of the outer world before the leap into the dimension of all sound and all form is made.
Tracklisting:
Side 1
1. Iannis Xenakis - Achoripsis {5:39}
Performed by Hamburger Kammersolisten, Conducted by Francis Travis
2. Aldo Clementi - Triplum {3:57}
Performed by Severino Gazzelloni - flute, Lothar Faber - oboe and Guy Deplus - clarinet
3. Bo Nilsson - Szene III {5:36}
Performed by Internationalen Kranichsteiner Kammer-Ensembles, Conducted by Bruno Maderna
4. Arnold Schoenberg - Drei Kleine Stucke {2:42}
Performed by Internationalen Kranichsteiner Kammer-Ensembles,
Conducted by Bruno Maderna
Side 2
1. Wlodzimierz Kotonski - Canto {5:07}
Performed by Internationalen Kranichsteiner Kammer-Ensembles, Conducted by Bruno Maderna
2. Yuji Takahashi - Six Stoicheia {6:22}
Performed by Paul Zukofsky - violin (recorded on four separate tracks)
3. Bo Nilsson - Frequenzen {4:01}
Performed by Hamburger Kammersolisten,
Conducted by Francis Travis
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Harry Partch - The World of Harry Partch
Harry Partch is an American visionary and stubborn individualist. . . . He has built his own musical world out of microtones, hobo speech, elastic octaves and percussion instruments made from hubcaps and nuclear cloud chambers. Recently. . . . an army of young music lovers stormed New York's Whitney Musuem to hear Harry Partch and his thirteen disciples produce a music that was totally personal and eclectic in the best sense. African polyrhythms, and ancient Greek modes, bits of Babylonia and the pulse of the American diesel engine all gathered into a richly erotic, primitive, fresh and stirring drama of sound. (Newsweek)
DAPHNE OF THE DUNES
Harry Partch - adapted viola
Other performers: Frank Berberich, Gary Coleman, Dean Drummond, Richard Lapore, John McAllister, Robert McCormick, Todd Miller, Emil Richards, Michael Ranta, Linda Schell
Instruments heard on this recording: Adapted Viola, Kithara II, Surrogate Kithara, Harmonic Canons II and III, Chromelodeon I, Cloud-Chamber Bowls, Spoils of War, Gourd Tree, Diamond Marimba, Boo (Bamboo Marimba), Bass Marimba, Pre-recorded Tape (Note: No more than four instruments are used simultaneously.)
DAPHNE OF THE DUNES is here recorded for the first time live. Originally the sound track for Madeline Tourtelot's film WINDSONG, Partch recorded it alone, by the process of overdubbing. The film, a modern rendering of the ancient myth of Daphne and Apollo, is a classic of the integration between visuals and sound. Partch explains his approach to the score:
"The music, in effect, is a collage of sounds. The film technique of fairly fast cuts is here translated into musical terms. The sudden shifts represent nature symbols of the film, as used for a dramatic purpose: dead tree, driftwood, falling sand, blowing tumbleweed, flying gulls, wriggling snakes, waving grasses."
BARSTOW
Eight Hitchhiker Inscriptions from a Highway Railing at Barstow, California
Harry Partch and John Stannard - voices
Other performers: John McAllister, Danlee Mitchell, Michael Ranta, Linda Schell Instruments heard on this recording: Surrogate Kithara, Chromelodeon I, Diamond Marimba, Boo (Bamboo Marimba)
BARSTOW, begun in 1941, is a setting of eight hitchhiker inscriptions copied from a highway railing on the outskirts of Barstow, California. This work shows Partch's style with language, as well as his approach to harmony and structure. Each inscription is stated, then humorously expanded, sometimes sung, other times intoned. Tonality is strong but ever-shifting. The over-all harmonic effect is quite smooth, as it would be in just intonation, with tones resolving to others by a subtle few vibrations as well as larger leaps. A masterpiece of Americana in song, it is more than that; it is musical dramatic narrative. Partch calls it his Hobo Concerto. As the word hobo itself is an American word, so is the music of Harry Partch an American music - probably the first truly American music since the American Indian.
CASTOR & POLLUX
A Dance for the Twin Rhythms of Gemini from Plectra & Percussion Dances
Performers: Gary Coleman, Dean Drummond, John McAllister, Danlee Mitchell, Emil Richards, Michael Ranta, Linda Schell
Instruments heard on this recording:
CASTOR
1. Leda and the Swan (Kithara II, Surrogate Kithara, and Cloud-Chamber Bowls)
2. Conception (Harmonic Canon II and High Bass Marimba)
3. Incubation (Diamond Marimba and Low Bass Marimba)
4. Chorus of Delivery From the Egg (All the foregoing instruments)
POLLUX
1. Leda and the Swan (Kithara II, Surrogate Kithara, and Low Bass Marimba)
2. Conception (Harmonic Canon II and Cloud-Chamber Bowls)
3. Incubation (Diamond Marimba and High Bass Marimba)
4. Chorus of Delivery From the Egg (All the foregoing instruments)
CASTOR & POLLUX is a dance-theater work with a beguiling program. It is structured in two large sections, each section comprised of three duets and a tutti. The first section is entitled CASTOR, the second, POLLUX. The first duet of each section is titled Leda and the Swan (insemination); the second, Conception; the third, Incubation; and the tutti, Chorus of Delivery From the Egg. By its contrapuntal texture, CASTOR & POLLUX shows well the melodic capabilities of the instruments, and the two tutti section grand finales to the glory of birth. In the liner notes to PLECTRA & PERCUSSION DANCES, first issued by Partch on his own GATE 5 record label, he relates the story:
"It begins with the encounter of Zeus, the male swan, with the beautiful Leda, and ends with the hatching of the fertilzied eggs - first Castor, then Pollux. From the moment of insemination, each egg uses exactly 234 beats in cracking. All of the right heavenly houses are in conjunction, and misfortune is impossible. Pairs of instruments tell the story in characteristic ways."
(Notes by Danlee Mitchell)
Tracklisting:
Side 1
1. Daphne of the Dunes {16:53}
Side 2
1. Barstow {9:06}
2. Castor & Pollux {15:50}
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Daniel Scheidt - Action/Réaction
A number of factors combine to influence the nature of the work represented by this disc. An interest in process, a respect for improvisation, and a fascination with systems realized in software have led me to the development of computer programs designed to interact with performers in real time.
Each piece presented here involves an instrumental soloist performing with an interactive computer system. The software that defines each composition is designed to accept acoustic input from the performer and produce electronic responses. The compositions included in this collection evolved during extensive rehearsals with the individual musicians and would not exist without their contributions. Each recording represents the documentation of a studio "performance" - there has been very little studio editing.
The improvisational nature of the performer's role is an important aspect of this music. In making the decision to allow the performer to improvise, I have relinquished aspects of compositional control in exchange for a more personal contribution by each musician. An improvising performer works within his or her own set of skills and abilities (rather than those defined by a score), and is able to offer the best of his or her musicianship. Once having become familiar with a system's behavior, the performer is free to investigate its musical capabilities from a uniquely personal perspective.
Another feature of this work is the performer's relationship to the musical feedback loop created in conjunction with the computer. The performer provides source material used by the computer system, while at the same time responding to the system's ongoing audio output. Any gesture made by the performer in response to the computer immediately becomes new source material for the computer to use and can influence subsequent output. One performer has referred to this model as an "idea expander".
Part of my attraction to this work is an interest in software as a compositional medium. Working with software offers extreme flexibility while at the same time requiring the articulation of creative intent in precise and unambiguous terms. The ability to develop, test, revise, and extend a computer program makes software a remarkably malleable medium for experimental artistic creation.
I find the design of compositional structures intended for interactive exploration during performance to be an extremely intriguing approach to music making - one in which I am able (perhaps forced) to investigate new relationships between composition and performance. (Daniel Scheidt, January 1991)
Tracklisting:
1. Obeying the Laws of Physics {16:20}
(1987) for electronic percussion and interactive software; Trevor Tureski - percussion
2. A Digital Eclogue {12:47}
(1986) for clarinet, bass clarinet and interactive software; Claude Schryer - clarinet, bass clarinet
3. Stories Told {12:30}
(1989) for soprano and interactive software; Robin Dawes - text; Catherine Lewis - soprano
4. Norm 'n George {20:17}
(1990) for trombone and interactive software; George Lewis - trombone
5. Squeeze {10:50}
(1990) for bass clarinet and interactive software; Lori Freedman - bass clarinet
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Moods Gateway Recordings - Tropical Rain Forest
On this Sunday of environmental/nature sounds Sundays, it's time for another trip to the rain forest.
Rain pelts the leaves, bouncing in endless random patterns as it falls gently to the soft floor below. . . The water fills the underbrush creating a thousand little streams. . . Birds punctuate the ambiance as you meditate in your tropical rain forest.
Tracklisting:
1. Tropical Rain Forest {22:01}
Note: both sides of the cassette are the same.
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