Browse Items (868 total)

• OverDrive

  As early as high school, I had fallen in love with the toy piano. I resolved to purchase one as soon as possible, and midway through college, I finally purchased my first Schoenhut “concert grand” toy piano. A 37 key wonder, the instrument was a very diminutive grand piano, striking metal rods instead of strings, and reminding everyone who saw it of Schroeder from Peanuts. I quickly immersed myself in the (then) small toy piano repertoire, and composed two pieces myself for toy piano.

  Several years later, I commissioned composer Matthew McConnell to write a concerto for toy piano and orchestra – one that would challenge the notion of the toy piano as a cute, quaint, humorous toy. He succeeded with this challenge better than I could have ever hoped, and I have since had the honor of performing this piece twice. The last time was in 2005. Since then, though his concerto has ballooned in popularity thanks to the wonders of YouTube, my toy piano has sat relatively unused in my studio.

  Then in 2010 I received an unexpected flurry of toy piano related requests. Three different pianists (in the USA, Canada, and Australia) scheduled performances of my earlier toy piano compositions. Two different pianists (in the USA and Germany) commissioned me to write new toy piano pieces. French pianist Jérémie Honnoré contacted me regarding an article he was writing on toy piano music, and Polish author and multi-instrumentalist Pawel Romanczuk interviewed me for inclusion in his upcoming book chronicling the history of the toy piano. Perhaps there was something in the water, but it became clear the toy piano was on the rise.

  With this much attention suddenly on the instrument, I wanted to write something that challenged the notion of what a toy piano could or could not do. By now, nearly everything has been explored on this instrument, including various keyboard and extended techniques. What I felt had been explored very little was the instrument’s unique overtone structure and the potential in fusing this with electronics. This piece, then, explores the percussive capabilities of the toy piano and the rich overtones created when the keys are violently struck. Roughly 75% of the electronic material heard is derived directly from the toy piano.

• Local Equilibrium Dynamics

  Written for SPLICE Ensemble
  Local Equilibrium Dynamics is a work for two musicians, working both within and around a single piano. These sounds are processed in real-time both algorithmically by the computer, and by a small chamber ensemble of electronic musicians. The duo performs a number of interactions throughout the piece, including collaboration, disruption, and dispersion of the sound each produces. The live processing complicates this relationship even further as the sound is transmitted to the audience. As these two musicians perform within such an intimate space, they variably help and hinder each other as the work progresses. This creates increased moments of tension in both the musical output and the performance dynamic between these two musicians. The title refers to a principle in thermodynamics, whereby the thermal state of a system can be determined if the variations within it happen slowly enough in space and time. This concept serves as a metaphor for the system formed by the interplay between the two performers and the live processing.
  
  Score and Pd patch available at www.vidiksis.com.

• synapse_circuit

  What is the voice inside the machine? While computers perform tasks that extend the abilities of our own minds, they increasingly act as independent entities. Synapse_circuit serves not as a direct analogy between these two ideas, but rather as a symbol of human-machine interaction. The computer augments the percussionist’s performance, and improvises sounds based on his or her playing using algorithmic processes in Pure Data. The percussion performance consists of glasses, bottles, and a bowl, which the performer hits, scrapes, blows and sings into. All sounds produced by the computer are derived from the real time performance. Both human and machine performers work from a score, but listen and respond to the performance of the other. Synapses and circuits – human and computer – together find the music inside the machine. This work honors the complexity both of the human mind and its digital counterpart, taking us from wonder, to discovery, to celebration.

  Score and Pd patch available at www.vidiksis.com.

• 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.

• Resonances

  (Score and electronics available upon request – jacob.sudol@gmail.com)
  
  quad and stereo versions also available
  
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  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

• …approaching a prayer

  SCORE AND ELECTRONICS AVAILABLE BY REQUEST – jacob.sudol@gmail.com

  multichannel and stereo versions available (multichannel version preferred…)

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  Program Note

  …approaching a prayer for piano and electronics was written for composer and pianist Chen-Hui Jen. The work is the second work written by the composer in 2009 and 2010 for piano and electronics. Whereas the other work deals with abstract spiritual concepts, …approaching a prayer work deals with personal meditations and reflections on loss and eternity.

  Chen-Hui Jen and the composer premiered the work at Chapman University in January 2010.

• "…wash yourself of yourself"

  (SCORE AND ELECTRONICS AVAILABLE BY REQUEST – jacob.sudol@gmail.com)

  stereo and multi-channel versions available

  Program Note

  “…wash yourself of yourself” incorporates two electronics techniques that I developed in 2008 and 2009. One technique uses real-time spectral analysis to create timbres by both subtractive and additive synthesis. These timbres imitate the original sounds as well as the combination tones our brains create when hearing these sounds. The other technique uses real-time spectral analyses to create statistically transforming clouds of microtonal samples. In the case of my recent piano works, the samples used to create these clouds are also piano sounds. Both of these techniques aim to provide the listener with novel methods to explore his or her own listening.

  “…wash yourself of yourself” is the second modular part to my other recent work for piano and electronics “Be melting snow…” While the latter work explores strictly notated algorithms, “…wash yourself of yourself” presents the same techniques in an open and structured improvisational manner. The combined quote “Be melting snow, wash yourself of yourself” comes from a poem by Rumi. Both these works along with a third work for piano and electronics – “…approaching a prayer” – comprise a trilogy of works that explore similar electronic techniques and contemplative interests.

  Pianist Xenia Pestova and composer Jacob David Sudol premiered “…wash yourself of yourself” in the Experimental Music Theatre at the University of California, San Diego in November 2009. The entire collection of works was written for and is dedicated to Taiwanese pianist and composer Chen-Hui Jen.

  -Jacob David Sudol
  January 8 and 9, 2010
  La Jolla, CA and New York City, NY

• Trefoil Knots (総角)

  SCORE AND ELECTRONICS AVAILABLE BY REQUEST – jacob.sudol@gmail.com

  stereo and quad versions available.

  “Trefoil Knots (総角)” (2014 – 15) is the second work in a series of four works based on the ancient Japanese novel “The Tale of Genji.” The last three works of this series, of which this is the first, are each based on one chapter from the final third of the book – often referred to as the Uji Chapters. Rather than directly drawing narrative from these chapters I am more interested in reflecting on the complexity of the crossed relationships and consistently denied passion in these chapters.

  The work is my second piece for cello and electronics for cellist Jason Calloway. It was premiered at the ISCM New Music Miami Festival on January 29, 2015.

• Wind in Spring

  (SCORE AND ELECTRONICS AVAILABLE BY REQUEST – jacob.sudol@gmail.com)

  stereo and surround versions available

  – Recording Carla Rees (alto flute) and Jacob David Sudol (electronics); Recorded February 2011 at the University of California, San Diego

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  Program Note

  Wind in Spring (2010-2011) is the third in a series of works for different instruments and electronics. All of these works use the same electronic techniques and explore nearly identical structural progressions. The first two pieces – “…wash yourself of yourself” (2009-2010) for piano and electronics and From Silence, I Rise (2010) for zheng and electronics – use open notations that allow the performer great flexibility in realizing the material. Wind in Spring, on the other hand, is notated with far more attention to specific details.

  Wind in Spring was composed for flutist Carla Rees and the rarescale duo. It was premiered and recorded by Carla Rees, with the composer on electronics, in February 2011 at the University of California, San Diego

  –Jacob David Sudol
  March 2011
  La Jolla, CA

• The Floating Bridge of Dreams (夢浮橋)

  (SCORE AND FULL RECORDING AVAILABLE BY REQUEST – jacob.sudol@gmail.com) 

  The Floating Bridge of Dreams (夢浮橋) is the fourth and final piece of a cycle of works for solo string instruments for live electronics based upon chapters from the Japanese novel Tale of the Genji. The work takes its title from the last chapter of the novel and, like the last three pieces of the cycle, it is based on the unresolved relationships and cycles of desires and disappointment that form the emotional core to the later Uji chapters. Following this constantly progressing yet cyclical form, this movement contains multiple transformations of materials from the previous pieces in the cycle as well as suddenly introduces and leaves unresolved multiple new transitional materials.

  The work was written for the violinist Mari Kimura and who premiered it at the Miami Beach Urban Studios as part of the ISCM New Music Miami Festival on March 20, 2015.

  Jacob David Sudol
  August 7, 2015
  Taipei, Taiwan