Browse Items (868 total)

• "…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

  * * * * *

  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

• Vanished into the Clouds (雲隠)

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

  stereo version also available for rehearsal and performance

  Vanished into the Clouds (雲隠) takes its title from a chapter in the ancient Japanese novel The Tale of Genji. This chapter is significant because it has no content. There are two theories about this chapter. The first theory is that the chapter is lost. The second theory, and the one that I prefer, is that the chapter was left intentionally blank so as to express the narrator’s sorrow about the death of Genji which occurs between the end of the preceding chapter and the following chapter.

  Unlike the aforementioned chapter, this work for cello and live electronics is not left blank. This said, many conventions of music such as melodic or motivic development, clear phrase structure, and rhythmic motion are regularly obscured and ignored. The resulting work instead focuses on exploring the inner sonic regions of the cello’s open and muted C string, sudden ruptures in motion, and the gradual degradation of material. The goal of this approach is to create a sort of new musica povera that reflects on both a narrators’ or authors’ difficulty of writing as well as the sort of inequalities of wealth that pervade our world.

  The work was written for and premiered by cellist Jason Calloway and is dedicated to him.

  – Jacob David Sudol Kaohsiung, Taiwan July 28, 2013

• Peculiar Galaxies: UGC 4881

  a digital emulation (on a Kyma system) of woodwind multiphonics

• descent #7

  brought to you by Carl's Jr.
  

  One piece in six parts. There are no gaps between parts.

  Sampled piano in loops. Reverb. Random panning and amplitude according to a predetermined behavioral framework. Everything made in Pd.

  There exist a quadraphonic and stereo version.

• Dystopia

  Dystopia is a work for laptop ensemble that uses Max/MSP. There are 5 parts and a score. The piece is performed with a conductor that cues different gestures the performers should do with the patches. While the composition follows a score, time is not indicated and the conductor can choose to extended sections when they choose.

• White Turbulence

  When I first started thinking about this piece, I thought it might be interesting to have water as a unifying theme. I recorded many sounds involving water with microphones and hydrophones and processed them using phase vocoding, convolving, and extreme equalization. As I started putting the piece together, I thought it might be playful to incorporate some obvious quadraphonic effects (the convolved airplane at the beginning) in addition to the more subtle spatialization techniques I used such as continuously varying phase relationships. Other sounds include waves lapping against the shore, an old toilet tank slowly filling with water, a brass ball spinning very fast in a stainless steel bowl with a small amount of water, etc. There is a mix of recognizable (although processed) sounds and sounds processed beyond recognition. While working on this piece I recalled the difficulty of layering complex sounds which were spatially oriented with other complex sounds of another spatial orientation. The space tends to become confused or to simply collapse when layering the sounds. This piece is therefore reminiscent of many of my early quadraphonic pieces (1973-1985) which are more episodic rather than thickly layered.

• Moiré

  Moiré is the soundtrack for Jordan Belson’s 2001 video Bardo. It also appears on Asphodel label’s Swarm of Drones CD set. Most of the source materials are derived from natural sounds that are highly processed using extensive layering, resonant filters, equalization and SoundHack algorithms, resulting in a complete disassociation from their origins. Spatial location and modulation are of primary concern.