Seven electronic tape works composed at
The Cleveland Institute
of Music,
Rutgers University,
or 5 Jones Street, New York
Twilight Flight
1977
Duration 6:56
Premiere: "Eventworks" Show, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA, 26 April 1978.
Too solemn for day,
too sweet for night,
Come not in darkness,
come not in night;
But come in some twilight
interim,
When the gloom is soft
and the night is dim.
The foregoing excerpt, which reflects the mood and feeling of the work, was taken from Too Solemn for Day by William Sidney Walker (1795-1846). An English poet who is now primarily remembered as a Shakespearean critic, his studies on Shakespearean prosody and syntax contain a vast wealth of illustrative references to Elizabethan literature. He was also a versatile writer of poetry and prose, especially philological essays.
PRODUCTION NOTES
The first step in composing Twilight Flight was to produce a 17-minute tape of 4 tracks of Moog synthesizer tones that were gradually and constantly changing in frequency, filtering, and echo. Slow variations in rhythm were a natural result of recording each of the tracks separately and each in one continuous operation. Very slight drifts in the tape-recorder speed and the synthesizer pulse were unavoidable and were used as a method of producing rhythm shift. The next step was to create a mixdown of the 4-track tape, adding tape feedback and natural outdoor cricket sounds. Four 2-to-3-minute segments were extracted from the 2-track mixdown and were edited into two tapes. Finally, these were mixed to create the master. The piece was created at the electronic music studios of the Cleveland Institute of Music.
PLAYER FOR MP3 AUDIO FILE (16 MB) (Bitrate 320 KBPS) 6:56
Duration 4:44
Premiere: Rutgers--The State University of New Jersey, Camden, NJ, 16 February 1979.
Close Harmony is a display of a single four-tone chord (do, re, sol, si) at its original pitch on the left channel and transposed down a major second on the right channel. The piece begins with staccato, low-pitched notes at four different tempi, building up to the full chord. This is supplanted by sustained chords, thinning out to the highest tones alone. A brief coda concludes the work.
PRODUCTION NOTES
Eleven oscillators on a Synthi 100 were tuned to do, re, and sol at various doublings. A unison non-synchronous tuning of four oscillators at the lowest pitch (do = 60 Hz, about a quarter-tone between Bb and B-natural) yielded the scale-like sweeps typical of phase addition and cancellation. The eleven oscillators were routed, in various combinations, to three envelope shapers. Two of them were set to produce rapid staccato notes, at slightly different rates, and the third was adjusted to create sustained chords. This circuit was used to produce a tape of staccato notes building to the full chord and then to the highest tones. This tape was re-recorded along with additional chord tones (adding si) being performed on the synthesizer. The new tape was edited and re-recorded, first at original speed (left channel) and then 12% slower (right channel) to create the final piece. The large number of oscillators with slight sawtooth-type harmonic distortion, held to precise pitch relationships, the speed and pitch difference between the two channels, and the staccato tones at multiple tempi, all unite to provide a rich sound-texture of pulsation, scaling, heterodyning (beating), vibrato, and tremolo. The piece was created at the Rutgers Center for Electronic Music in Camden, made available thanks to Ronald M. Surak, and at the composer’s studio on Jones St. in New York City using a Korg MS-20.
PLAYER FOR MP3 AUDIO FILE (11 MB) (Bitrate 320 KBPS) 4:44
Duration 4:06
Premiere: New York University, New York, NY, 8 March 1979
Cadenza is made up of instrumental and electronic sounds. The instrumental sounds were taken from a 1973 recording of a work by the composer, Sextet, for clarinet, trumpet, and string quartet. The sounds were extensively edited, but not otherwise processed. Thus they retain their acoustic quality while progressing in an electronic fashion. The piece is in three parts, the second being an extended repetition of the first with added electronic voices. These move in the rapid filigree manner sometimes found in a concerto cadenza. The third part is a brief coda, repeating the final phrases of the second section, but in the style of the first section.
MUSICIANS: Allen Blustine, clarinet; Ronald Anderson, trumpet; Joel Berman, violin 1; Robert Marks, violin 2; Mary James, viola; Christopher Finckel, cello. Composers' Conference, Johnson State College, Johnson, VT.
PLAYER FOR MP3 AUDIO FILE (9 MB) (Bitrate 320 KBPS) 4:06
Pathways I: Eight Sonic Variations
1979
For Synthesizer, Multi-tap Digital Delay Reverberation Processor, and Tape
Duration 9:50
Premiere: Theatrium Studio, All-Weidenaar Program (for M.A. Degree),
New York, NY, 29 November 1979.
SECTIONS OF THE WORK
Descriptions apply only to the tape part.
0:00 Variation I (varying tremolo and amplitude modulation).
1:16 Variation II (quiet, reflective).
2:26 Variation III (woodblock sounds and location changes).
3:34 Variation IV (silences, slower tempo, more static).
4:50 Variation V (varying echo-send durations, source tape played on two decks simultaneously).
6:05 Variation VI (flanging).
7:09 Variation VII (varying echo-send durations, cross-channel echo, location changes, spaced reverberation, faster tempo).
8:07 Variation VIII (original ZBS recording, has the least amount of processing).
9:13 Extension (rapid digital-delay changes).
9:36 Coda (phasing, flanging).
9:50 End.
EQUIPMENT LIST
At ZBS Studio: 2 Wahrenbrock pressure-zone microphones, 1 Otari 7800 8-track tape recorder, 1 Eventide harmonizer, 1 Advent graphic equalizer, 1 Philips 12x4 mixer, 1 Nagra IV-SL 2-track tape recorder.
At 5 Jones St. Studio: 3 Otari MS-5050B 2-track tape recorders, 1 Uher 500 5x2 mixer, 1 Ursa Major Space Station digital delay, 1 Korg MS-20 synthesizer, 1 Teac 1 8x2 mixer, 1 Nagra IV-SL 2-track tape recorder.
PLAYER FOR MP3 AUDIO FILE (23 MB) (Bitrate 320 KBPS) 9:50
Pathways II: Seven Sonic Variations
1980
Duration 8:36
Premiere: International Gaudeamus Music Festival, Vredenburg Music Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands, 7 September 1980.
This is a tape-only version of Pathways I. The score is presented in its least altered form in the last variation, which is the only original stereo mix used directly in the final work. Each variation is continuous and unedited. Throughout the entire production process, attention was paid to preserving the natural stereophonic ambience and perspective of the original recordings.
SECTIONS OF THE WORK
0:00 Variation I (varying tremolo and amplitude modulation).
1:13 Variation II (woodblock sounds and location changes).
2:22 Variation III (silences, slower tempo).
3:38 Variation IV (varying echo-send durations, source tape played on two decks simultaneously).
4:50 Variation V (amplitude modulation, right-channel delays).
5:58 Variation VI (varying echo-send durations, cross-channel echo, location changes, faster tempo).
6:56 Variation VII (Theme) (original, unprocessed).
8:02 Extension (rapid digital-delay changes).
8:22 Coda (phasing, flanging).
8:36 End
PLAYER FOR MP3 AUDIO FILE (20 MB) (Bitrate 320 KB) 8:36
Pathways IV: Fibonacci Loci
1980
Duration 6:16
Premiere: Kinematic Dance Company (Tamar Kotoske, choreographer/dancer), music for Raid, Antioch College, Antioch, OH, 14 November 1980.
This is a tape-only version of Pathways I, organized in sections in which the numbers of beats correspond to the Fibonacci series. This idea was carried further with Night Flame Ritual; for further information, please see the notes for that piece.
SECTIONS OF THE WORK
Part I, contrasts in echo, near/far presence, and loudness: 144 beats, duration 1:42.
Part II, contrasts in stereophony: 89 beats, duration 1:05.
Part III, slow tempo, 144 beats, duration 3:29.
PLAYER FOR MP3 AUDIO FILE (14.5 MB) (Bitrate 320 KBPS) 6:16
Imprint: Footfalls to Return
1981
Duration 5:04
Premiere: American Society of Composers Region II Conference, Manhattan School of Music, 2 October 1981.
Lauren Paul, Recorded Dancer
Pamela Hinchman, Recorded Soprano
PLAYER FOR MP3 AUDIO FILE (11.8 MB) (Bitrate 320 KBPS) 5:04
