COMPEL Omeka Dev

Browse Items (868 total)

  • At the Crossing of Five Paths consists of five connected short pieces for flute which have been fragmented and rearranged, connected by processed flute sounds. The rearrangement of these elements produces a non-linear temporal experience. All of the elements of a progression remain, but their reordering forces the listener to reconstruct the original linear progression of the pieces after the sound has stopped.

    At the Crossing of Five Paths represents a journey from complexity to simplicity. As the original pieces (in their original order) move from low to high, dissonant to consonant, and rapid to slow, the listener is left with a high, mysterious melody that recedes into the distance. The confusion caused by the fragmentation of these different pieces falls away as a decision is made and a path is chosen.

    This piece was finished in 2008 and written for Wayla Chambo.

  • Mystification is an exploration of the juxtaposition between simplicity/complexity, consonance/dissonance, and clarity/distortion. This piece consists of two contradictory trajectories. The acoustic instruments move from a highly complex and dissonant texture to a relatively simple and consonant one. At the same time, the computer processing begins by simply amplifying the instruments. Over the course of the piece the computer begins to alter the sounds of the instruments, processing them with increasing complexity. The result is a kind of mirror form with different versions of simplicity/complexity, consonance/dissonance, and clarity/distortion at either end.

  • Anticenter Stream, composition: Old Stars was written in collaboration with astronomer Jeff Carlin, who's research focuses on the streams of stars left behind by these dwarf galaxies when they venture too close to our much more massive Milky Way galaxy. One of these streams, known as the Anticenter Stream, was thought to be part of a much larger ring of stars, but Jeff has shown that it is likely a distinct entity. This discovery adds to our understanding of how large galaxies like the Milky Way are built up over time. Kemper’s composition, Anticenter Stream, composition: Old Stars is a meditation on Carlin’s research as well as astronomy’s role in explaining the construction of the universe.

  • Mythical Spaces explores the intersection of myth and place. Mythical spaces are imaginary, real, natural and human-made. They are the sites of mythical events and bridges to the spiritual world. Sonically, Mythical Spaces captures the essence of each space as well as its mythical significance by reproducing material physicality through the use of a different featured “vessel” in each movement.

    i) Underground
    People and gods used to live underground until they emerged from the depths and into our world. These myths are prevalent in the American southwest as well as the Trobriand Islands. This movement explores the idea of the subterranean world as primordial, where the emergence into our world represents a journey from darkness to light.

    ii) Water
    The “earth-diver” myth, where a being dives to the bottom of the ocean to grab a particle of sand that will be used to create the Earth is one of the most diffuse and common origin myths in the world. This movement sonically retells the narrative of the creation of the Earth—from a single particle to shimmering harmonic landscape.

    iii) Forest
    From Sub-Saharan Africa to Japan, forests are viewed as sacred by cultures worldwide. Animist beliefs imbue the individual elements of the forest with living spirits. These forests may be viewed as natural temples, places where humans can enter the supernatural world. Wind rustling through the trees and an environment rich with the energy of spirits pervade this movement.

    iv) Mountain
    Valhalla, Mt. Everest, Mt. Olympus, Mt. Denali, and Mt. Fuji are examples of mythical and real mountains that are considered sacred. Mountains are home to the gods. Evoking a sense of heroism, this movement contains the sounds of dramatic rumbling gestures broadcast over great distances.

    v) Temple
    Earthly temples have their duplicates in the transcendental sphere—the heavens. The temple represents the efforts of more centralized societies (more “civilized” in the non-pejorative sense) to build a bridge to a mythical place. This movement employs sounds of sacred instruments and a strong element of ritual that constructs a ceremony of transcendence.

    Mythical Spaces was written in 2010 for percussionist Shawn Savageau.

  • Vidéomusique

    Piano Roll takes inspiration from Conlon Nancarrow and his studies for the player piano. While composing the work, I was interested in convergent and divergent distributions and different ontological problems that emerge when visualising and sonifying them. While the eye can be used to survey histories of consequence, the ear is only concerned with the immediate. Thus, I wanted to draw attention to the ear via the eye. To do so, I generated different distributions from a statistical feedback model and used them to sequence material, playing with ideas of ratio and space. Piano Roll was commissioned by the Laboratoire Musique et Informatique de Marseille.

  • embed (live) is a recorded improvisation for electric guitar and interactive electronics. When faced with a new electric guitar sound, some audience listeners might brush it off as just another effect. However, it is the effect itself that is the focus of their attention, which, in turn, minimizes the electric guitar and its role as a sound producer. Thus, in a sense, the effect supersedes its source. One way to get listeners to distinguish the instrument from that which is being processed is to invite them to confront the discrepancies between live and recorded sound. While recorded sound is a fixed representation or history of some sonic event, live sound is (sometimes) heard for the first and only time. In embed (live) the electric guitar acts as both an instrument that produces sound and a controller of another. While one sound is a live product of electromagnetism, the other, although composed in real-time, is a fabrication of fixed recordings contingent on the electric guitar input.

  • “BabyBirdBeat” is an étude inspired by a quote from artist Bruce Nauman: “And sometimes the question that you pose or the project that you start yourself turns into something else, you know, but at least it gets you started.” (Art21, 2001)

  • “Densité” was written in the audio software languages of SuperCollider and Paul Koonce’s PVC. “Densité” documents the interactions between the density of samples being selected and the dimensions of the space in which they are realized. Depending on particular sets of heuristics, different exponential models and soundscape audio files determine percussion sample playback parameters which are, in turn, recorded. These audio segments are then convolved with varying types of impulses responses, resulting in different sonic spaces. “Densité” focuses on subverting the inherent sonic qualities of percussion instruments as a result of temporal sequence and their individual placement within particular spaces.

  • “OSCines” focuses on the process of translating melodies found in birdsongs. The nightingale belongs to the clade Passeri also commonly known as Oscine, from the Latin root oscen meaning “a songbird.” Its birdsong is composed of a wide range of whistles, trills, and gurgles, which create a rich and vibrant melodic contour. Nightingale and clarinet samples serve as source and target materials (interchangeably) for spectral information collected via signal-processing detection systems. “OSCines” explores the alignment and collisions of distinct timbre features and melodic topologies within the virtual aviary of the speaker space.
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If you see an error or would like to add content to COMPEL, please leave a comment or contact Hollis Wittman at hollisw@vt.edu.