Browse Items (868 total)

• Intersections

  Machine expressivity is often thought of as involving precision, speed, rhythmic complexity, non-idiomatic (for human performers) pitch patterns and replication.  Human expressivity is often thought of involving groove, phrasing, affect, contour, variation, articulation, entrainment and communication.  While these attributes help shape our conceptions of what is human versus what is mechanical, they are not confined to one category or the other: humans can be precise and robots can groove.  Expressive identity is more analog than digital.  This does not preclude expressive spaces that are unique to humans and machines, rather, it suggests the areas between them are ambiguous and that the attributes that define them do not do so in a one-to-one fashion (instead, attribute-space relationships are a function of combination and context).  The music explores these areas of ambiguity and clarity.  Genre is treated in a similar way such that stylistic exemplars are presented authentically and in transformation.  The intersections in expressive identity and style illuminate what is exclusive and what is shared.

  Performed by the Juventas New Music Ensemble and the musical robots PAM and CADI, which were designed and built by EMMI and the Music, Perception and Robotics Lab at WPI.

  Juventas New Music Ensemble:

  ​Lidiya Yankovskaya, Conductor

  ​Orlando Cela, Flute
  Wolcott Humphrey, Clarinet
  Nate Tucker, Percussion
  Maja Tremiszewska, Piano
  Olga Patramanska-Bell, Violin
  Michael Dahlberg, Cello

  Recorded and mixed by Scott Barton

• Interlude

• Inter Diabolus et Virgo (Between the Devil and a Virgin)

  This work uses Supercollider and a midi controller. The score does not have time indicated and can be performed at any length. There is also room for improvisation and expansion of sounds and ideas durning the performance using the midi controller.

• Integrated Elements No. 3 "Divide by Five"

  “Divide by Five is a visual and auditory overload that leaves the viewer with a high that is difficult to shake.”
  
  – Adam Castañeda, Houston Dance Source
  
  The Integrated Elements series features solo instruments and pre-recorded sound. The aim of this series is to use the sounds created by instruments, electronically produced sounds, and the sounds made by the human voice or mouth to create an integrated sound world.
  
  Integrated Elements No. 3 “Divide by Five” was commissioned by Kyle Maxwell-Doherty. Kyle has taken several trips to Ghana to study African drumming, dance, and gyil playing with the famed master xylophonist, Bernard Woma. Knowing that there is a well established gyil tradition, I wanted to create a new context for the gyil as opposed to writing more traditional melodies with electronic accompaniment.
  
  The gyil is a fourteen note, pitched, wooden percussion instrument. It is tuned to a pentatonic scale. Thus, the instrument contains two full octaves and a partial octave. It was this idea that lead me to the title, Divide by Five. Underneath the wooden bars of the gyil are suspended, hollowed out gourds that act as resonators. Each gourd contains small holes in its body that are covered with paper. Air forced into the gourds by striking the bars is pushed through the paper which gives the instrument a buzzing sound. This is an odd instrument, from the western perspective, because by definition, its purest sound contains distortion. I took this idea of distortion and applied it to the electronic elements.
  
  The fixed media contains five categories of sounds. Sounds from the instrument itself (shaking the gourds, rubbing the bars, ascending and descending glissandi), electronically produced sounds, sounds from my voice, a series of notes from a prepared piano, and various sounds from the piano itself (knocking on the body, letting the lid drop, and sounding all 88 keys at once). The prepared piano acts as a counterpart to the gyil due to both the inherent distortion in the pure form of the sound and the tuning abnormalities. Many gyils are tuned differently because they are made by different people. There is no such thing as equal temperament in the gyil making community. To make sure this piece has a life beyond the premier performance I made sure not have any specific tonal references to any gyil or any specific tones for that matter. All of the pitches heard in this piece are “out of tune” to accommodate for multiple gyils and multiple tunings.
  
  Lastly, I used the notational system for the gyil presented in the dissertation “Performance Practice of the Dagara-Birifor Gyil Tradition Through the Analysis of the Bewaa and Daarkpen Repertoire” by Dr. Michael Vercelli. As in all other West African traditional music, gyil music is passed through an aural tradition which does not conform to any notational practices. There is a shorthand notation common to Woma’s students but, I think that this notation best displays the harmonic and melodic possibilities of the instrument.

• Integrated Elements No. 2 "Not a Haiku"

  The Integrated Elements series features solo instruments and pre-recorded sound. The aim of this series is to use the sounds created by instruments, electronically produced sounds, and the sounds made by the human voice or mouth to create an integrated sound world.
  
  Integrated Elements No. 2 “Not a Haiku” was written after many conversations with Scott Shinbara about the possibility of the composition. The multiple percussion set up consists of the following which were chosen based on Scott’s personal collection of instruments; 4 double-headed toms (8” 10” 12” 14”), pedal bass drum, 2 mini timbales (6” and 8”), 2 woodblocks, log drum, and a wooden-headed tom. The pre-recorded sounds are organized into three categories: metal sounds (opera gongs, nipple gongs, tam-tams, cymbals, metal pipes), electronically produced sounds (static, pitches, clicks), and sounds created from using my own voice (yells, humming, pitches).
  
  The piece is constructed in three large parts and breaks down further into a 5-part arch form. I took the ratio 5:7:5 to devise the length of these three large sections. Also, this ratio determines the metric scheme using bars of 5/8, 7/8, and 5/8, which increase exponentially. This scheme is used for the first large section and then run in reverse for the last large section. The ratio also constructs a gong cycle that is run throughout the entire piece, as it would be in traditional gamelan music. And finally, even the instrument selection shows the ratio of 5:7 with wooden instruments to drums respectively.
  
  This piece was not inspired by the Japanese form of poetry, “haiku” which has a 5-7-5 syllable structure. It does not try to incite imagery of nature. Despite the numeric connection to the poetic art form, this piece is not a haiku. This piece was written for and is dedicated to Scott Shinbara.

• Insomnia

• Innerchange III: To T.E.N.

  Recorded from a Casio 1000-P synthesizer. Based upon earlier Innerchange works. Premiered Community College of Aurora, April 14, 1985, Thomas E. Noonan, guitar.

• Innerchange II: To D.G.

  In 4 movements. Based upon the composer’s Innerchange I (1974), for viola and electronic piano. Premiered University of Denver, May 21, 1984, David Genova, piano; Composer, synthesizer (Casio 1000-P).

• Infernum: Images from the Solar Dynamic Observatory

  While Infernum is 100% an electronic work, its surface texture recalls acoustic instruments in real spaces — transformed and heightened in ways only possible through digital means. Fleeting moments of nervous calm alternate with a terrifying wall of brass glissandi (up to 60 trombones!), creating the effect of a fear-response oscillating between the conscious and subconscious.

• Infantasy

  Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. Tape music techniques using infant voices and produced in the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center.