Browse Items (868 total)

• Rotational Asymmetries

  Electronic work for two vintage instruments. Slowly evolving. Warm. Buzzy. Minimal.
  
  This piece involves the first use of my recently acquired vintage model 31H Leslie speaker. I played my Hammond M3 through it and recorded various elements that were used in the construction of the finished piece using my fragment-based compositional process. I also generated some repeating and evolving short patterns using a Dot Com Q960 sequencer driving my Moog Model 12 modular synthesizer.

• Riverrun

• Ritual Habit

  An electroacoustic music composition and dance collaboration

• Ring, Resonate, Resound

  Ring, Resonate, Resound is an acousmatic composition written in homage to John Chowning. The piece tips its hat to Chowning’s Stria, Turenas, and the beautiful sonic landscape Chowning explored through his research and discovery of FM synthesis. Ring, Resonate, Resound is dedicated to him.

  The composition explores timbre through dozens of bell sounds, which provide the harmonic and timbral material, structure, foreground, and background for the piece. The composition is comprised of five sections, each examining a different set of bells and materials that interact with them. The piece begins thin and bright, then gradually increases in spectral and textural density until the listener is enveloped by a thick sound mass of ringing bells. The bells gently fade into waves of rich harmonic resonances.

  The piece was composed using a multidimensional timbre model Reid developed while at Stanford University. The model is based on perceptual timbre studies and has been used by the composer to explore the compositional applications of “timbre spaces” and the relationship between reverberant space and timbre, or rather the concept of “timbre in space.”

  Ring, Resonate, Resound was premiered at Stanford University’s Triple CCRMAlite: 40, 50, 80 celebration in October of 2014.

• Ricercare (Inventions for data streams #2)

  The structure of Ricercare is a reinterpretation of the original “ricercare” style of the late renaissance and early baroque period. Here the word “ricercare“ (Italian for “to research”) takes a double meaning: on one hand is the research the performer does to find the optimal connection between the flute and the sonification of the data stream in the basso continuo accompaniment; on the other, it refers to the scientific research work that has led to the data on which this composition is based. All the parts are directly based on the remix and sonification of the materials property data for Silicon, Germanium and Tin (Si1_ICSD_60389, Ge1_ICSD_181071 and Sn1_ICSD_53789 in AFLOWLIB.org), some of the group IVa elements of the periodic table. The flute part is built on the materials data mapped to pitch class sets (one of the output of the data manipulation algorithm). These pitch class sets are used in the original form found by the mapping procedure – no operation (translation, inversion or multiplication) is done on the sets. The rhythmic patterns oscillate between quasi-random sequences and continuous virtuosity runs as in a baroque solo section. The basso continuo is split in one harmonic and one percussive part. The harmonic part comes from the direct mapping of the materials data into MIDI note-on/note-off events streamed live through the DataPlayer app; the percussive section doubles the flute part in a rhythmic unison triggered by the flute through an audio-to-MIDI pitch recognition Max for Live patch.

• Reverie of Solitude

• Reverberance

  Reverberance is an exploration of the many timbres and textures that the Tam-Tam can produce. Through the use of a variety of implements and techniques, the performer takes us on a journey beyond our normal perception of the Tam-Tam, and with the help of Max/MSP creates a lush world full of color, warmth, and light.

  Rather than using traditional score notation, Reverberance uses notes and cues hosted directly in Max/MSP to instruct the performer which gestures to perform throughout the piece. This allows the live performer and the electronic elements to remain organically and seamlessly intertwined.

  Through the use of electronics, the reverberant qualities of the Tam-Tam have been isolated from their attacks, and augmented to show their range and depth. Decays have been impossibly extended to create rich harmonic textures and often overlooked sonorities have been moved into the spotlight. Reverberance is truly an expansion of the under-utilized characteristics of the Tam-Tam.

• Reveal

  
  
  Deconstructing an instrument is a revelation, because it unsettles the myth, causing a change in the listeners’ perception. The guitar is the source for all the sounds presented in this piece, which emphasizes the ones that have been hidden by the instrument’s technique and repertory, or unnoticed due to their low volume.
  
  The recorded part of this piece reveals guitar sounds that normally are not clearly audible in a concert room. The computer enables processing the recordings, in order to enhance or highlight parts of the spectrum, timbres, and percussive elements.
  
  The breakage may result in a complete dysfunctional instrument, when the main resources for producing sounds are prevented by this organized malfunction.
  
  Reveal is a noun and a verb, and the piece expresses both meanings, because it reveals the rich universe of resources denied by the traditional technique and provides a new possible listening to a guitar, when the listener might achieve a whole new comprehension of the instrument—the piece brings to light a sub-known universe of sounds that was present, but not understood.

• Resonances

  (Score and electronics available upon request – jacob.sudol@gmail.com)
  
  quad and stereo versions also available
  
  * * * * *
  
  Program Note
  
  Would that the sound of the bell might go beyond our earth,
  And be heard even by all in the darkness outside the Cakravala;
  Would that, their organ of hearing become pure, beings might attain perfect infusion of the senses,
  So that every one of them might come finally to the realization of supreme enlightenment.
  
  -bell gatha enchanted after reading the Samantamukha-Parivarta
  
  The 2010-2011 version of Resonances for metallic percussion and live electronics was recorded by percussionist Nathan Davis at the University of California in January 2011. The recording was engineered by Martin Hiendl. I mixed, edited, and mastered the recording from January to April 2011. The first versions of the piece, composed from 2005 to 2007, were performed by the Brazilian percussionist Fernando Rocha. This would piece would not be possible without the invaluable help from Fernando Rocha and Nathan Davis.
  
  –Jacob David Sudol
  Spring 2011
  La Jolla, CA

• Requiem for the Living