Archivi categoria: Contemporanea

Freeman Études

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John Cage, Freeman Études for solo violin (1977). A piece whose form is due to a set of misunderstanding.

In 1977 Cage was approached by Betty Freeman, who asked him to compose a set of etudes for violinist Paul Zukofsky (who would, at around the same time, also help Cage with work on the violin transcription of Cheap Imitation). Cage decided to model the work on his earlier set of etudes for piano, Études Australes. That work was a set of 32 etudes, 4 books of 8 études each, and composed using controlled chance by means of star charts and, as was usual for Cage, the I Ching. Zukofsky asked Cage for music that would be notated in a conventional manner, which he assumed Cage was returning to in Études Australes, and as precise as possible. Cage understood the request literally and proceeded to create compositions which would have so many details that it would be almost impossible to perform them.

In 1980 Cage abandoned the cycle, partly because Zukofsky attested that the pieces were unplayable. The first seventeen études were completed, though, and Books I and II (Études 1-16) were published and performed (the first performance of Books I and II was done by János Négyesy in 1984 in Turin, Italy). Violinist Irvine Arditti expressed an interest in the work and, by summer 1988, was able to perform it at an even faster tempo than indicated in the score, thus proving that the music was, in fact playable. Arditti continued to practice the études, aiming at an even faster speed, apparently misreading Cage’s indication in the score to play every measure in “as short a time-length as his virtuosity permits”, in which Cage simply meant that the duration is different for each performer. Inspired by the fact that the music was playable, Cage decided to complete the cycle, which he finally did in 1990 with the help of James Pritchett, who assisted the composer in reconstructing the method used to compose the works (which was required, because Cage himself forgot the details after 10 years of not working on the piece). The first complete performance of all Études (1-32) was given by Irvine Arditti in Zurich in June 1991. Négyesy also performed the last two books of the Etudes in the same year in Ferrara, Italy. [wikipedia]

PLOrk

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Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk) is a visionary new ensemble of laptopists, the first of its size and kind.

Founded in 2005 by Dan Trueman and Perry Cook, PLOrk takes the traditional model of the orchestra and reinvents it for the 21st century; each laptopist performs with a laptop and custom designed hemispherical speaker that emulates the way traditional orchestral instruments cast their sound in space. Wireless networking and video augment the familiar role of the conductor, suggesting unprecedented ways of organizing large ensembles.

In 2008, Trueman and Cook were awarded a major grant from the MacArthur Foundation to support further PLOrk developments. Performers and composers who have worked with PLOrk include Zakir Hussain, Pauline Oliveros, Matmos, So Percussion, the American Composers Orchestra, and others. In its still short lifetime, PLOrk has performed widely (presented by Carnegie Hall, the Northwestern Spring Festival in Chicago, the American Academy of Sciences in DC, the Kitchen (NYC) and others) and has inspired the formation of laptop orchestras across the world, from Oslo to Bangkok.

“Connectome” Performed by the Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk) (Director Jeff Snyder), PLOrk[10] concert, May 3 2017 Composition: Mike Mulshine Neuron model audio synthesis: Jeff Snyder and Aatish Bhatia Projection: Drew Wallace

Excerpt: Autopoetics I by Ted Coffin: listen to or watch a video

Other multimedia materials here.

140 chars of music

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A twitter. An SMS. That’s the challenge. Writing a piece of electronic digital music using only 140 chars of code.

It started as a curious project, when live coding enthusiast and Toplap member Dan Stowell started tweeting tiny snippets of musical code using SuperCollider. Pleasantly surprised by the reaction, and “not wanting this stuff to vanish into the ether” he has recently collated the best pieces into a special download for The Wire.

Of course, to satisfy such a constraint, you need a very compact programming language and SuperCollider is the best choice (see also here). It is an environment and programming language for real time audio synthesis and algorithmic composition. It provides an interpreted object-oriented language which functions as a network client to a state of the art, realtime sound synthesis server.

SuperCollider was written by James McCartney over a period of many years, and is now an open source (GPL) project maintained and developed by various people. It is used by musicians, scientists and artists working with sound. For some background, see SuperCollider described by Wikipedia.

You can download the code snippets here. Note that many of these pieces are actually generative, so if you have a working SuperCollider environment and re-run the source code you get a new (i.e. slightly different) piece of music.

Some excerpts:

The artists notes are here.

The Fauxharmonic Orchestra

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The Fauxharmonic Orchestra produces concerts and recordings of orchestral music at the highest level of aesthetic and technical quality. This “orchestra” consists of the world’s finest sample-based instruments, performed in concert halls and recording studios, directed by conductor Paul Henry Smith.

Using digital instruments The Fauxharmonic Orchestra’s mission is to bring fresh and artistically meaningful experiences of orchestral music to a diverse, world-wide audience.

The conductor, Paul Henry Smith studied conducting with Leonard Bernstein at Tanglewood and with Sergiu Celibidache at the Curtis Institute of Music and in Munich. He has studied orchestration and composition with Richard Hoffmann, Lukas Foss and Steven Scott Smalley. His career is devoted to promoting and improving the digital performance of orchestral music.

Since 2003 he has been perfecting his digital orchestra, accompanying soloists, performing live concerts and creating recordings for composers and filmmakers. His live performances have been supported by Bang & Olufsen and the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra.

Now listen to

  • Edgar Varèse – Ionisation, performed live by The Fauxharmonic Orchestra at Brandeis University on October 4, 2009. Paul Henry Smith conductor.

Daphne of the Dunes

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Daphne of the Dunes, by Harry Partch, is here recorded for the first time live. Originally the sound track for Madeline Tourtelot’s film Windsong, Partch recorded it alone, by the process of overdubbing. The film, a modern rendering of the ancient myth of Daphne and Apollo, is a classic of the integration between visuals and sound. Partch explains his approach to the score:

“The music, in effect, is a collage of sounds. The film technique of fairly fast cuts is here translated into musical terms. The sudden shifts represent nature symbols of the film, as used for a dramatic purpose: dead tree, driftwood, falling sand, blowing tumbleweed, flying gulls, wriggling snakes, waving grasses.”

Melodic material is short, haunting, and reoccurs motivically. Arpeggiated harmonic texture contrasts melodic sections. Meter is ever changing, almost measure for measure, with pulse sub-divisions of five, seven, and nine common. A trio of the Bass Marimba, Boo. and Diamond Marimba written in 31/16 meter is structured with 5 unequal beats per measure, the beats sub-divided into sixteenths of 5-5-7-9-5. A duet of the Boo and Harmonic Canon is written in a polymeter of 4/4-7/4 over 4/8-7/8. – Notes by Danlee Mitchell

The instruments heard in this recording:

DAPHNE OF THE DUNES

Adapted Viola
Spoils of War
Kithara II
Gourd Tree
Surrogate Kithara
Diamond Marimba
Harmonic Canons II and III
Boo (Bamboo Marimba)
Chromelodeon I
Bass Marimba
Cloud-Chamber Bowls
Pre-recorded Tape
(Note: No more than four instruments are used simultaneously.)

Anthèmes 2

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Anthèmes 2 (1997), by Pierre Boulez, has evolved from Anthèmes, a substantially shorter piece for solo violin.

Andrew Gerzso has for many years been the composer’s chief collaborator on works involving live electronics and the two men regularly discuss their work together. He describes the way in which all the nuances in this nucleus of works were examined in the studio in order to find out which elements could be electronically processed and differentiated. As a result, the process of expanding these works is based not only on abstract structural considerations (such as the questions as to how it may be possible to use electronic procedures to spatialize and to merge or separate specific complexes of sound),but also on concrete considerations bound up with performing practice: in a word, on the way in which the instrument’s technical possibilities may be developed along figurative lines.

As a result, Anthèmes 2 provides us with both an analysis and an interpretation of Anthèmes: it is a text in its own right and the same time a sub-text of the earlier piece.

[notes from the CD]

Other Minds

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Dall’Internet Archive vi segnalo l’Other Minds Archive che contiene materiale storico e contemporaneo, registrato in più di 50 anni di attività e accomunato dall’etichetta di avanguardia.

Da questa collezione vi faccio ascoltare Touch di Morton Subotnick. Composto nel 1969 per il Buchla Electronic Music System, quadrifonico in originale, questo brano si distingue per la qualità audio, notevole per l’epoca e riascoltandolo a tanti anni di distanza, non sembra così invecchiato come molte produzioni di 40 anni fa.

Other Minds Archive is a unique new music resource providing access to historical and contemporary material recorded over a fifty year-plus span. This collection is a not-for-profit service presented by Other Minds, Inc. of San Francisco.

From the Other Minds Archive

  • Morton Subotnick – Touch (1969, Buchla Electronic Music System, stereo from original quad)

Rain Tree Sketch

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Toru Takemitsu: “Rain Tree Sketch” (1982) – Roger Woodward, piano.

Di Takemitsu abbiamo già parlato. anche perché, sebbene non sia un compositore fondamentale per la musica occidentale (anche se è un personaggio chiave nel suo paese), mi piace. Il suo è uno strano caso: quello di un autore che riesce ad esprimere l’animo orientale utilizzando un linguaggio così lontano dall’oriente come è quello della musica contemporanea occidentale. Ne risulta un’atmosfera che non è né occidentale né orientale, ma conserva dei tratti di entrambe le culture.

L’origine di questo brano per pianoforte solo risale ad un’altra opera di Takemitsu: Rain Tree, per trio di percussioni, del 1981. Quest’ultima, a sua volta, si ispira a una novella di Kenzaburo Oe in cui è descritto un albero con molte piccole foglie, in grado di trattenere l’acqua della pioggia mattutina, tanto da rilasciarla gradualmente durante il giorno, cosicché, anche se il temporale è passato, sotto quell’albero piove (頭のいい雨の木, racconto del 1980 non tradotto; il titolo significa L’intelligente albero della pioggia).

Rain Tree Sketch è fortamente influenzato da Messiaen, compositore che Takemitsu ha sempre amato, tanto da dedicargli un Rain Tree Sketch II dopo aver appreso della sua morte.

Qui Takemitsu usa i modi a trasposizione limitata del compositore francese per definire le altezze. Dinamiche e accenti, così come la pedalizzazione, sono precisamente notati al fine di creare una varietà di sfumature e di risonanze.