COMPEL Omeka Dev

Browse Items (868 total)

  • Uses Daniel Iglesia’s MobMuPlat platform for building mobile interfaces for Pd.
  • Contact the composer for performance materials.
  • Crosswinds represents a melding of the traditional woodwind sound of the clarinet with digital live electronic techniques, and the piece explores the potential for this relationship in three parts.

    To begin the piece, the stage performer breathes through the clarinet, which serves to inform the electronic elements to come. This initial breath is captured by the computer program and is modified and reduplicated to create the sonic tone of a soft wind always present beneath the piece to come. This is the first step in uniting the digital and woodwind elements, as the same breath which animates the clarinet also activates the electronics.

    From this most fundamental element, the breath becomes a single sustained note from which the computer will generate all of its subsequent tones. The impression is one of a mentor relationship, where the traditional instrument provides the tools and the support for the electronic elements. The disposition is contemplative, though it alternates between a subdued easiness and a playful mystery, as if to introduce the digital aspects to the range and variety of the clarinet’s moods. The rapport between the two is hesitant in the first part: the electronics contributing a subtle reverb as the performer teaches the computer dexterity through a number of broad leaps, hinting at but never fully embracing the main motif.

    As the theme becomes more self-assured, the digital element now produces its own tones, parroting the clarinet melody to signal its readiness to be an equal partner in the conversation. As the clarinet begins the second part of the piece, the computer now provides a harmonizing undercurrent each time it is invited to do so by the performer.

    In the third part, the electronics play counterpoint to the skill of the clarinetist, the two elements intricately entwined. From the elemental sound of wind first produced by the performer and perpetuated by the computer, the piece concludes in a celebration of the relationship built between the two, and the main theme is fully expressed as the two take it in variations.

    Crosswinds is, in many ways, an experience of the history of our music through the relationship between traditional clarinet and modern digital techniques: the common elements they share, the singularity of their own particular strengths, and the beauty that can be experienced when they collaborate.

    Program note by Walter Jordan
    Please credit Walter Jordan when using this program note

  • Critical Mass is defined as “the smallest amount of fissionable material sufficient to sustain a chain reaction.” It seemed an appropriate title for this brief but energetic piece. The pre-recorded sounds on the CD were derived partly from organ sounds recorded by Karel Paukert at the Cleveland Museum of Art in January 1989, and partly from the digital synthesis facilities at the University of Missouri- Kansas City. Critical Mass is the sixth in a series of works for solo instrument and CD playback, and is dedicated to Karel Paukert. It was commissioned by Mr. Frank Griesinger for the Cleveland Museum of Art.
  • Creatures from the Black Bassoon is an acousmatic work consisting entirely of processed and unprocessed bassoon sounds. The work explores the attributes of a variety of animal-like and environmentalish sounds, including key clicks, reed squeaks, multiphonics, and other traditional and extended techniques. These sounds were organized by similar properties into characters, which were placed in a number of tableaus of length based on the golden section. Certain tableaus in the work are designated as “windows”, where developmental method is determined by significant contrast to the surrounding sections.
  • Source material for ‘Ce Que Signifie’ consisting of recordings made in Nuku Hiva in the Marqueses Islands.
  • for moving flutist and pre-recorded electronic part

    Influenced by the movement of traditional Noh actors, Convexed Origins links ancient Japanese gestures as both sound and movement. This is a summoning to one’s ancestors through the simplicity of line, shape and texture of sound and body. The pre-recorded electronic part dictates the form, the flute outlines the body and the movement extends the boundaries of the music.
  • In Contrappunto (the first of my Inventions for data stream) the data stream (from the AFLOWLIB.org entry for Silicon) is manipulated during the live performance creating a musical material that will be influenced by the performer in any instance of execution. This is where the CADDC environment is most versatile, allowing for a large degree of improvisation and for a broad palette of esthetic choices. The duration of the piece is open and the recording on SoundCloud is just an example of the infinite possibilities that this piece opens.
Output Formats

atom, dcmes-xml, json, omeka-xml, rss2