Concert 1
Waterglass Music
composed by Morgan Greenwood
This piece exclusively uses sounds created with a single cup of water, ice and straw. I tried not to work from a mindset of “less is more” but rather “more from less”. The cup used is one that I regularly have very full of tea and many times throughout the composition process this was no different. The straw itself was “borrowed” from a nearby Chinese buffet where I was struck with the inspiration for the piece during lunch, staving off boredom playing with the straw and cup as I did often as a child.
The term waterglass, while referencing the sound material itself, also brings other associations into play that inform the way materials are used and also the form of the piece itself. Also called sodium.
Patoises: Wave I: Blue
composed by Melody Eotvos
This work began with three film clips I took of the water off the eastern most cliff in Byron Bay. There were three distinguishable patches of water within the one camera view: a silvery, calm but choppy swell; a deep black-blue rising every few seconds with an occasional foam-kissed wave; and one which fell in between these two. These clips were the beginning of the process, especially for the music. The day I filmed them it was habitually windy for this headland and so despite the use of a tripod, the clips retained a sense of jittery movement which, coupled with the maximum zoom, resulted in a constantly moving, grainy texture. This inevitably seeped into the music which most simply put, echoes the natural patience and breathing of the ocean swell captured that day on the Byron Cliffs. The final film clip which I added was a result of an animal like presence I injected into the sound - one day a friend and I found a remarkable little creature, tiny as it was, on the shore of a favourite QLD beach. It had arms and legs, presumably something that resembled a head and tail proportionally, but its body was coloured silver with lines of vibrant blue stretching down its sides and metallic-feathery limbs. We were completely fascinated with it - and never found out what the little thing really.
Dracones Nursery
composed by NIck Hwang
Dracones, the race of giant, toothed serpentine monsters from Greek mythology (for example the Hydra and Hesperian Dragon, the hundred headed dragon which guarded the golden apples of the Hesperides included in Hercules lore,) have a reputation, as adults, of being large and ferocious. This interactive work explores a mind thought of the existence of these monsters as babies and a place to take care of them.
Cross-threaded
composed by Jon Fielder
Creatures Black Bassoon
composed by Kyle Vanderburg
Creatures from the Black Bassoon is an acousmatic work consisting entirely of processed and unprocessed bassoon sounds. The work explores the attributes of a variety of animal-like and environmentalist sounds, including key clicks, reed squeaks, multiphonics, and other traditional and extended techniques. These sounds were organized by similar properties into characters, which were placed in a number of tableaus of length based on the golden section. Certain tableaus in the work are designated as "windows", where developmental method is determined by significant contrast to the surrounding sections.
Electroacoustic Suite #1
composed by Justin Porter
In attempts to create a computer based composition platform for personal use, Electroacoustic Suite #1 was born. The piece, composed between 2012 and 2013 utilizes live computer processing techniques that allows the composer to both perform and compose in real time. As a cellist and composer, I used a combination of Max/ MSP, Ableton Live, and Logic Pro 9 to create a flexible setup that allowed me to improvise and compose electroacoustic music live. With the composer playing the cello and flute while inspired by varying degrees of weather, seasons and nature,
the piece attempts to blur the line between the improvised and strategically planned compositional processes.
Peregrination
composed by Marshall Jones
composed by Morgan Greenwood
This piece exclusively uses sounds created with a single cup of water, ice and straw. I tried not to work from a mindset of “less is more” but rather “more from less”. The cup used is one that I regularly have very full of tea and many times throughout the composition process this was no different. The straw itself was “borrowed” from a nearby Chinese buffet where I was struck with the inspiration for the piece during lunch, staving off boredom playing with the straw and cup as I did often as a child.
The term waterglass, while referencing the sound material itself, also brings other associations into play that inform the way materials are used and also the form of the piece itself. Also called sodium.
Patoises: Wave I: Blue
composed by Melody Eotvos
This work began with three film clips I took of the water off the eastern most cliff in Byron Bay. There were three distinguishable patches of water within the one camera view: a silvery, calm but choppy swell; a deep black-blue rising every few seconds with an occasional foam-kissed wave; and one which fell in between these two. These clips were the beginning of the process, especially for the music. The day I filmed them it was habitually windy for this headland and so despite the use of a tripod, the clips retained a sense of jittery movement which, coupled with the maximum zoom, resulted in a constantly moving, grainy texture. This inevitably seeped into the music which most simply put, echoes the natural patience and breathing of the ocean swell captured that day on the Byron Cliffs. The final film clip which I added was a result of an animal like presence I injected into the sound - one day a friend and I found a remarkable little creature, tiny as it was, on the shore of a favourite QLD beach. It had arms and legs, presumably something that resembled a head and tail proportionally, but its body was coloured silver with lines of vibrant blue stretching down its sides and metallic-feathery limbs. We were completely fascinated with it - and never found out what the little thing really.
Dracones Nursery
composed by NIck Hwang
Dracones, the race of giant, toothed serpentine monsters from Greek mythology (for example the Hydra and Hesperian Dragon, the hundred headed dragon which guarded the golden apples of the Hesperides included in Hercules lore,) have a reputation, as adults, of being large and ferocious. This interactive work explores a mind thought of the existence of these monsters as babies and a place to take care of them.
Cross-threaded
composed by Jon Fielder
Creatures Black Bassoon
composed by Kyle Vanderburg
Creatures from the Black Bassoon is an acousmatic work consisting entirely of processed and unprocessed bassoon sounds. The work explores the attributes of a variety of animal-like and environmentalist sounds, including key clicks, reed squeaks, multiphonics, and other traditional and extended techniques. These sounds were organized by similar properties into characters, which were placed in a number of tableaus of length based on the golden section. Certain tableaus in the work are designated as "windows", where developmental method is determined by significant contrast to the surrounding sections.
Electroacoustic Suite #1
composed by Justin Porter
In attempts to create a computer based composition platform for personal use, Electroacoustic Suite #1 was born. The piece, composed between 2012 and 2013 utilizes live computer processing techniques that allows the composer to both perform and compose in real time. As a cellist and composer, I used a combination of Max/ MSP, Ableton Live, and Logic Pro 9 to create a flexible setup that allowed me to improvise and compose electroacoustic music live. With the composer playing the cello and flute while inspired by varying degrees of weather, seasons and nature,
the piece attempts to blur the line between the improvised and strategically planned compositional processes.
Peregrination
composed by Marshall Jones
Concert 2
Quench
composed by Andrew Selle
Quenching is the process of cooling down hot glass in water. All samples for this piece were taken at the Gathered Art Gallery in Toledo, Ohio while artists were blowing glass.
Taste Test
composed by Nathan Corder
Taste Test was composed using serial processes applied to spatialization and sound types within a 5.1 system. Taste Test employs maximum combinatoriality amongst the speak array, and explores sound worlds ranging from highly discrete tones to noise.
Euthanasia
composed by Dan Tramte
You're on your death bed. The only two sounds you hear—your nervous system and the machine keeping you alive—are now your entire world.
Vox
composed by William Conlin
Do you remember before you learned to read? Trying to look through books? I remember a strange visual sensation, all the letters, looked out of focus, but I would try to understand the strange squiggles and lines, which caused some parts of text to come into focus, but without a linguistic connection, I would get dizzy and quickly everything returned to an unfocused landscape of black smudges on white.
Searching for semantic meaning in music can be difficult. For me, listening to sounds as music causes a departure from the linguistic meaning of sounds normally associated with language. Trying to reconnect with language is part of my journey as a creator. It has been a critical concern since I started writing my own music.
Performed by
William Conlin
Trey Duplantis
Nick Hwang
Yemin Oh
Katachi I
composed by Chin Ting Chan
Katachi is a Japanese term that means form, shape or figure. In the ancient game of Go, the word Katachi is used to describe the formation of stones on a Go board (Go is originated from Ancient China, where it is known as Weiqi). The conception of stone formation in Go is transformed to apply to the circulation and combination of sounds and timbre in the music.
Katachi I uses primarily sounds produced by the Go stones, board and bowls. The circulating effect created by the different panning techniques is a dominant feature in this piece. The stereophonic image thus produced represents a recurring form or shape much similar to an image of a pentagon garden.
Sonance and Excursus
composed by Barry Sharp
When music, whether electronic or acoustic, is rendered to its most basic elements, it becomes simply an organized series of musical tones: the organizer being the composer, and the tones being the clay to be molded. Differentiating between musical tone and noise lies in the inherent abilities as a listener to perceive alterations between sounds. Noise is a series rapid alternations of many different vibrating sounds, while musical tone rises with frequent reappearances of the same sounds. Ideally, Sonance and Excursus (sound and digression) attempts to exemplify the idea of using sounds that are typically associated with noise, and organizing them into a coherent structure. Using a central core of tones throughout, the ideas sound and digress with the hope of showing how musical tones can be created from what are commonly perceived as common noises.
Ocotillo
composed by Thomas Rex Beverly
The video for this piece, captured in summer 2013, consists of time-lapse photographs depicting the extreme dynamics of the west Texas landscape. The majority of the electronics in this piece are fixed, but I also built a computer program that receives data from the McDonald Observatory in west Texas. For each performance, the software translates the temperature data from the prior day into a new layer of audio that colors the piece differently depending on the season. For example, in the summer the software generates a brighter, more vibrant sound and in the winter a darker, denser one. The temperature data is not a metaphor; rather it directly connects the visual and auditory experience with the current natural energy of west Texas.
composed by Andrew Selle
Quenching is the process of cooling down hot glass in water. All samples for this piece were taken at the Gathered Art Gallery in Toledo, Ohio while artists were blowing glass.
Taste Test
composed by Nathan Corder
Taste Test was composed using serial processes applied to spatialization and sound types within a 5.1 system. Taste Test employs maximum combinatoriality amongst the speak array, and explores sound worlds ranging from highly discrete tones to noise.
Euthanasia
composed by Dan Tramte
You're on your death bed. The only two sounds you hear—your nervous system and the machine keeping you alive—are now your entire world.
Vox
composed by William Conlin
Do you remember before you learned to read? Trying to look through books? I remember a strange visual sensation, all the letters, looked out of focus, but I would try to understand the strange squiggles and lines, which caused some parts of text to come into focus, but without a linguistic connection, I would get dizzy and quickly everything returned to an unfocused landscape of black smudges on white.
Searching for semantic meaning in music can be difficult. For me, listening to sounds as music causes a departure from the linguistic meaning of sounds normally associated with language. Trying to reconnect with language is part of my journey as a creator. It has been a critical concern since I started writing my own music.
Performed by
William Conlin
Trey Duplantis
Nick Hwang
Yemin Oh
Katachi I
composed by Chin Ting Chan
Katachi is a Japanese term that means form, shape or figure. In the ancient game of Go, the word Katachi is used to describe the formation of stones on a Go board (Go is originated from Ancient China, where it is known as Weiqi). The conception of stone formation in Go is transformed to apply to the circulation and combination of sounds and timbre in the music.
Katachi I uses primarily sounds produced by the Go stones, board and bowls. The circulating effect created by the different panning techniques is a dominant feature in this piece. The stereophonic image thus produced represents a recurring form or shape much similar to an image of a pentagon garden.
Sonance and Excursus
composed by Barry Sharp
When music, whether electronic or acoustic, is rendered to its most basic elements, it becomes simply an organized series of musical tones: the organizer being the composer, and the tones being the clay to be molded. Differentiating between musical tone and noise lies in the inherent abilities as a listener to perceive alterations between sounds. Noise is a series rapid alternations of many different vibrating sounds, while musical tone rises with frequent reappearances of the same sounds. Ideally, Sonance and Excursus (sound and digression) attempts to exemplify the idea of using sounds that are typically associated with noise, and organizing them into a coherent structure. Using a central core of tones throughout, the ideas sound and digress with the hope of showing how musical tones can be created from what are commonly perceived as common noises.
Ocotillo
composed by Thomas Rex Beverly
The video for this piece, captured in summer 2013, consists of time-lapse photographs depicting the extreme dynamics of the west Texas landscape. The majority of the electronics in this piece are fixed, but I also built a computer program that receives data from the McDonald Observatory in west Texas. For each performance, the software translates the temperature data from the prior day into a new layer of audio that colors the piece differently depending on the season. For example, in the summer the software generates a brighter, more vibrant sound and in the winter a darker, denser one. The temperature data is not a metaphor; rather it directly connects the visual and auditory experience with the current natural energy of west Texas.
Concert 3
Two Headed Coin
composed by Benjamin Klein
Two Headed Coin is a live processing template that is designed to mimic the gestures that I improvise on the tuba. I base my performance on different extended techniques that include small percussive chatter, elongated lip slurs, and multiphonics. I use shifting delay envelopes, clipped delay, and ring modulation to imitate these gestures. The result is an exaggerated electronic mirroring of the original acoustic sounds. Since each processed sound changes with the input I provide, the performance progresses as I react to processing of the tuba signal.
Narval
composed by Sang Mi Ahn
Narval is the name of a French steam and electric submarine built in 1900. In this piece, I wanted to evoke the image of a primitive submarine hovering over the ocean floor. As submarines operate underwater, they adjust their depth by filling themselves with or releasing seawater in the ballast tanks. Through the piece, I explore the varying density of water pressure and the amount of compressed air inside the submarine through its travels under the sea.
The Voice and the Peak
composed by J.P. Merz
Based on Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem of the same name, this electroacoustic work was made using vocal improvisations and dramatic readings from Margaret McNeal and Paul Smirl. However, rather than transparently presenting the poem in its entirety, this piece explores the listener’s perception of the text and the human voice, from fragments to whole stanzas and clear speech to beyond recognition. The imagery of Tennyson’s poem often drives the textures and immersive environments.
Synesthetic Moment
composed by Yemin Oh
I was curious about synesthesia for many years. It is a condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another. Only a few people have the sense, and I am not one of them. Even though most of us do not have the sense, I believe that I can create a similar environment that can connect two senses in one. In this piece I attempted to magnify the meaning of expressive bodily movements and project it to screen with visual effects. We cannot experience synesthesia, but I hope that audience can imagine the condition through this piece.
Woolgathering
composed by Ben Raph
This piece was a project that my peers and I were tasked with this semester that involved some different musical aspects, spacialization, and mainly no clear cut rhythmic backbone. Woolgathering is when you gather the tufts of sheep's wool that get caught in bushes, but the wetter definition denotes indulging in idle fantasies and daydreaming.
The Dusk of a Decent Man
composed by Cory Gehrich
This piece consists mainly of live instruments which have been processed, time-stretched sounds, and a field recording of a church choir that has been unrecognizably convoluted. Among the live instruments are prepared guitar, snare drum with a contact microphone, a typewriter “played” as a percussion instrument, and acoustic piano.
For the guitar part heard at :50, I am playing in a strange tuning, D-G-D-F-C-D, with alligator clips clipped onto the strings at different points so the fundamental note is deadened and the harmonics ring. The guitar part at 4:02 consists of a guitar strung with six A strings all tuned to C, intentionally slightly out of tune. The metallic drone which fades in at 4:10 uses that same tuning, but I am using another string as a bow, slowly dragging it back and forth across the seventh fret of the guitar.
The snare drum (heard also at :50) had a contact microphone taped to the drum head which ran into a small hand built amplifier and out to a speaker. The speaker was on a desk facing upwards, and had a handful of coins in the speaker cone for effect; the speaker was then recorded with another microphone. The snare drum is being hit mostly on the rim with a stick and I am also dragging my nails across the drum head, which produces that overly distorted sound. I also recorded myself playing a typewriter, serving as a percussive backbone to that section.
The piano was played both inside and out (keys and the strings), but in the beginning section, the attack of the notes were edited to confuse the listener as to if they were listening to an acoustic piano or a synthesizer. The typewriter buildup section (beginning at 1:38) contains a slew of little noises created by ripping and crumpling pieces of paper and dragging a contact microphone across the cone of the speaker it was plugged into. The chaotic section at 5:02 was created by dramatically time stretching a very small section of a piece of recorded music and combining it with it's reversed version. During this section the choir fades in. For this part, I bussed the choir field recording track to three different auxiliary reverb tracks, with each one feeding into the next one. In other words, the original track is sent to Reverb1, which is sent to the output as well as to Reverb2, which is sent to the output as well as to Reverb3, which is sent to the output. The original track is muted, so all that is left is a highly convoluted choir. The only computer generated sound is the low frequency drone at :58, which is an oscillator in Pd played in and out of tune with the guitar part.
This piece was made, start to finish, in two and a half weeks in October of this year and is a dedication to my stepfather.
GAP
composed by Trey Duplantis
GAP is a game piece played by a quartet of laptop performers. The performers are playing an audio game where they must form a harmony unknown to them; the timbre of each performer's instrument changes as the performer gets closer to or farther from the desired harmony.
William Conlin
Trey Duplantis
Nick Hwang
Yemin Oh
Ecesis
Jonathan Wilson
"Ecesis" is a biological term for the establishment of a plant or animal in a new habitat. Upon discovering this word, I altered its definition to reflect the premise of this composition. Here, I define Ecesis as the establishment of a sound or motivic material in a new (or different) musical space.
Sonification of San Giovanni Elemosinario
composed by Jon Bellona
Sonification of San Giovanni Elemosinario reconstructs a Venetian church through sound. Architecture students studying in Venice, Italy, sent sketches of axonometric views, floor plans, column details, entrances, and other structural perspectives. Through software, I digitally re-trace these architectural renderings in real time. The re-tracing process outputs data streams, where mappings of the data control oscillators, harmonic resonators, noise filters, as well as other acoustic treatments (panning, reverb, EQ, frequency shifts, etc.)
A huge thank you to Matthew Burtner and Anselmo Canfora, both of whom made the collaboration possible.
Trance
composed by Michael Payen
Dark Star
composed by Seth Shafer
A dark star is a theoretic star-type from the early universe composed of dark-matter particles. These stars would be invisible to the naked eye due to the incredible gravitational forces that prevent light from leaving the star's surface. Somewhat similar in nature to a black hole, these silent, shadowy bodies lurk alone in the great void.
His Master's Voice
Yari Bundy
Computer, Speak! is a piece designed around the idea that all objects sound if you have the means to hear them. For this piece I used an inductor microphone to pick up the electro-magnetic waves generated by the computer during performance. I have chosen four specific regions of the computer that make particularly interesting and musical sounds. The sounds are then sampled, looped and effected so each of the sections creates an auditory biography of the computer. The piece is intended to be improvisatory, therefore each time it is performed it will have its own unique character. The duration is flexible and is solely at the discretion of the performer.
Variations on Jongly.aif: Mvmt 1: Jungle
composed by Doug Atcheson and Phil Smith
The “Amen Break” is one of the most influential and widely used samples. The 6 seconds taken from The Winstons track “Amen, Brother” has been used so much that it is arguably the most sampled drum break of all time. Anyone familiar with the Cycling 74 program, Max, may also be familiar with the audio sample “jongly.aif.” This sample indulges in the “Amen Break” and creates a new two second sample from the original six second one. This piece samples jongly.aif, using it as a theme then branching variations off of said theme to cover memorable points in history of the “Amen Break” using jongly.aif as the medium.
composed by Benjamin Klein
Two Headed Coin is a live processing template that is designed to mimic the gestures that I improvise on the tuba. I base my performance on different extended techniques that include small percussive chatter, elongated lip slurs, and multiphonics. I use shifting delay envelopes, clipped delay, and ring modulation to imitate these gestures. The result is an exaggerated electronic mirroring of the original acoustic sounds. Since each processed sound changes with the input I provide, the performance progresses as I react to processing of the tuba signal.
Narval
composed by Sang Mi Ahn
Narval is the name of a French steam and electric submarine built in 1900. In this piece, I wanted to evoke the image of a primitive submarine hovering over the ocean floor. As submarines operate underwater, they adjust their depth by filling themselves with or releasing seawater in the ballast tanks. Through the piece, I explore the varying density of water pressure and the amount of compressed air inside the submarine through its travels under the sea.
The Voice and the Peak
composed by J.P. Merz
Based on Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem of the same name, this electroacoustic work was made using vocal improvisations and dramatic readings from Margaret McNeal and Paul Smirl. However, rather than transparently presenting the poem in its entirety, this piece explores the listener’s perception of the text and the human voice, from fragments to whole stanzas and clear speech to beyond recognition. The imagery of Tennyson’s poem often drives the textures and immersive environments.
Synesthetic Moment
composed by Yemin Oh
I was curious about synesthesia for many years. It is a condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another. Only a few people have the sense, and I am not one of them. Even though most of us do not have the sense, I believe that I can create a similar environment that can connect two senses in one. In this piece I attempted to magnify the meaning of expressive bodily movements and project it to screen with visual effects. We cannot experience synesthesia, but I hope that audience can imagine the condition through this piece.
Woolgathering
composed by Ben Raph
This piece was a project that my peers and I were tasked with this semester that involved some different musical aspects, spacialization, and mainly no clear cut rhythmic backbone. Woolgathering is when you gather the tufts of sheep's wool that get caught in bushes, but the wetter definition denotes indulging in idle fantasies and daydreaming.
The Dusk of a Decent Man
composed by Cory Gehrich
This piece consists mainly of live instruments which have been processed, time-stretched sounds, and a field recording of a church choir that has been unrecognizably convoluted. Among the live instruments are prepared guitar, snare drum with a contact microphone, a typewriter “played” as a percussion instrument, and acoustic piano.
For the guitar part heard at :50, I am playing in a strange tuning, D-G-D-F-C-D, with alligator clips clipped onto the strings at different points so the fundamental note is deadened and the harmonics ring. The guitar part at 4:02 consists of a guitar strung with six A strings all tuned to C, intentionally slightly out of tune. The metallic drone which fades in at 4:10 uses that same tuning, but I am using another string as a bow, slowly dragging it back and forth across the seventh fret of the guitar.
The snare drum (heard also at :50) had a contact microphone taped to the drum head which ran into a small hand built amplifier and out to a speaker. The speaker was on a desk facing upwards, and had a handful of coins in the speaker cone for effect; the speaker was then recorded with another microphone. The snare drum is being hit mostly on the rim with a stick and I am also dragging my nails across the drum head, which produces that overly distorted sound. I also recorded myself playing a typewriter, serving as a percussive backbone to that section.
The piano was played both inside and out (keys and the strings), but in the beginning section, the attack of the notes were edited to confuse the listener as to if they were listening to an acoustic piano or a synthesizer. The typewriter buildup section (beginning at 1:38) contains a slew of little noises created by ripping and crumpling pieces of paper and dragging a contact microphone across the cone of the speaker it was plugged into. The chaotic section at 5:02 was created by dramatically time stretching a very small section of a piece of recorded music and combining it with it's reversed version. During this section the choir fades in. For this part, I bussed the choir field recording track to three different auxiliary reverb tracks, with each one feeding into the next one. In other words, the original track is sent to Reverb1, which is sent to the output as well as to Reverb2, which is sent to the output as well as to Reverb3, which is sent to the output. The original track is muted, so all that is left is a highly convoluted choir. The only computer generated sound is the low frequency drone at :58, which is an oscillator in Pd played in and out of tune with the guitar part.
This piece was made, start to finish, in two and a half weeks in October of this year and is a dedication to my stepfather.
GAP
composed by Trey Duplantis
GAP is a game piece played by a quartet of laptop performers. The performers are playing an audio game where they must form a harmony unknown to them; the timbre of each performer's instrument changes as the performer gets closer to or farther from the desired harmony.
William Conlin
Trey Duplantis
Nick Hwang
Yemin Oh
Ecesis
Jonathan Wilson
"Ecesis" is a biological term for the establishment of a plant or animal in a new habitat. Upon discovering this word, I altered its definition to reflect the premise of this composition. Here, I define Ecesis as the establishment of a sound or motivic material in a new (or different) musical space.
Sonification of San Giovanni Elemosinario
composed by Jon Bellona
Sonification of San Giovanni Elemosinario reconstructs a Venetian church through sound. Architecture students studying in Venice, Italy, sent sketches of axonometric views, floor plans, column details, entrances, and other structural perspectives. Through software, I digitally re-trace these architectural renderings in real time. The re-tracing process outputs data streams, where mappings of the data control oscillators, harmonic resonators, noise filters, as well as other acoustic treatments (panning, reverb, EQ, frequency shifts, etc.)
A huge thank you to Matthew Burtner and Anselmo Canfora, both of whom made the collaboration possible.
Trance
composed by Michael Payen
Dark Star
composed by Seth Shafer
A dark star is a theoretic star-type from the early universe composed of dark-matter particles. These stars would be invisible to the naked eye due to the incredible gravitational forces that prevent light from leaving the star's surface. Somewhat similar in nature to a black hole, these silent, shadowy bodies lurk alone in the great void.
His Master's Voice
Yari Bundy
Computer, Speak! is a piece designed around the idea that all objects sound if you have the means to hear them. For this piece I used an inductor microphone to pick up the electro-magnetic waves generated by the computer during performance. I have chosen four specific regions of the computer that make particularly interesting and musical sounds. The sounds are then sampled, looped and effected so each of the sections creates an auditory biography of the computer. The piece is intended to be improvisatory, therefore each time it is performed it will have its own unique character. The duration is flexible and is solely at the discretion of the performer.
Variations on Jongly.aif: Mvmt 1: Jungle
composed by Doug Atcheson and Phil Smith
The “Amen Break” is one of the most influential and widely used samples. The 6 seconds taken from The Winstons track “Amen, Brother” has been used so much that it is arguably the most sampled drum break of all time. Anyone familiar with the Cycling 74 program, Max, may also be familiar with the audio sample “jongly.aif.” This sample indulges in the “Amen Break” and creates a new two second sample from the original six second one. This piece samples jongly.aif, using it as a theme then branching variations off of said theme to cover memorable points in history of the “Amen Break” using jongly.aif as the medium.
Concert 4
Virginia Tech Linux Laptop Orchestra (L2Ork) all program info is in the keynote/guest speaker page.
Concert 5
Swamp-Castle of Destiny
composed by Laura Staffaroni
Swamp-Castle of Destiny was conceived of as a sort of live-action video game, wherein the improvisational choices the two flutes make are the actions and the fixed media tracks are the levels. The two flutists must make their way through the various environments (the swamp and the castle) and "defeat" two bosses in order to reach their triumphant ending.
Performed byJani Smith - Flute
Aidan Rogers - Flute
Bits & Pieces
composed by Aaron Anderson
Bits and Pieces is primarily a granular piece conceived in 5.1-surround sound. Grains were individually crafted and placed in time. The B section brings a change in texture, implementing long clouds of grains. All sonic material, in some way, is related to 3 source sounds. The video is a visual interpretation of the sonic elements. After Effects was the primary tool used in the creation of this video. At times, sonic elements directly affect what plays on the screen.
Mira Bella
composed by Jason Charney
Mira Bella is the brand of Dominican cigars once housed in the body of this kalimba, crafted by a Baltimore artist who began making them as gifts for his wife.
Dark Rain
composed byZachary McKinley
I have played guitar since the 4th grade and have always wanted to do something different. I love rock and roll and play in a band back home but I like to take it to a whole new level of expressiveness when I combine my guitar playing with my electronic pieces. Whenever I've listened to some electronic piece I have often thought "Wow a guitar lead of some sort would sound great here!" And like my songwriting with my band, I try to write something that I myself would listen to. And so we have "Dark Rain". When I listen to it myself, I imagine a dark and cold night in the rain lit up by the green neon light of a nearby store. Where does it take you?
Gates
composed by John Nichols
Completed in 2013, Gates (Kedesh-Naphtali) is a stereophonic composition that was partly inspired the Pleiades constellation. A musical mapping of an image of the constellation occurs in the middle and at the conclusion of the composition. One can hear this depiction in the “wood block” timbres. The composition begins with a complimentary relationship between periodic and non-periodic sounds; the sustained sonorities are engraved with a variety of successive fleeting noises. The idea to overlay, or “etch” sustained sonorities with a variety of successive ephemeral noises was partly inspired by Luigi Russolo’s use of the term “sound” to describe an audio signal with periodicity and “noise” as the lack thereof. Although some of the “noises” in this composition may not be entirely in accordance with his definition, the contrast between the two ideas is apparent. In addition to this relationship, the composition generally balances active and static components between the first and second half. Finally, this work is meant to sonically express the salvation of individuality through the renunciation of egoism.
Kettledrum Organ
composed by Mitchell Hermann
Kettledrum Organ was conceived of as a musical translation of Paul Klee’s 1930 cubist painting of the same name. The piece explores the physical causality of musical sound, deconstructing the timbral envelopes inherent in instruments such as the organ, marimba, and vibraphone to create a series of transformed gestures combining characteristics from each of the source sounds.
Khalid in the Salt Pit
composed by Nathan Withham
"Khalid in The Salt Pit" is a concrete piece that was inspired after reading about the story of Khalid El-Masri, an innocent German citizen who was mistaken for a terrorist with a similar name, then abducted and tortured while in CIA custody. All of the samples except one (see if you can find it) come from bowing, picking, scraping or tapping a banjo.
Ucluelet Suite
composed by Keenan
"…here and there from some lucky point of view you will catch passing glimpses of the profiles of whales defined along these undulating ridges…if you wish to return to such a sight again, you must be sure and take the exact intersecting latitude and longitude of your stand-point, else – so chance-like are such observations of the hills – your precise, previous stand-point would require a laborious re-discovery."
-Herman Melville
Performed by
Taylor Skelton - Flute
Lillia Sanchez - Cello
composed by Laura Staffaroni
Swamp-Castle of Destiny was conceived of as a sort of live-action video game, wherein the improvisational choices the two flutes make are the actions and the fixed media tracks are the levels. The two flutists must make their way through the various environments (the swamp and the castle) and "defeat" two bosses in order to reach their triumphant ending.
Performed byJani Smith - Flute
Aidan Rogers - Flute
Bits & Pieces
composed by Aaron Anderson
Bits and Pieces is primarily a granular piece conceived in 5.1-surround sound. Grains were individually crafted and placed in time. The B section brings a change in texture, implementing long clouds of grains. All sonic material, in some way, is related to 3 source sounds. The video is a visual interpretation of the sonic elements. After Effects was the primary tool used in the creation of this video. At times, sonic elements directly affect what plays on the screen.
Mira Bella
composed by Jason Charney
Mira Bella is the brand of Dominican cigars once housed in the body of this kalimba, crafted by a Baltimore artist who began making them as gifts for his wife.
Dark Rain
composed byZachary McKinley
I have played guitar since the 4th grade and have always wanted to do something different. I love rock and roll and play in a band back home but I like to take it to a whole new level of expressiveness when I combine my guitar playing with my electronic pieces. Whenever I've listened to some electronic piece I have often thought "Wow a guitar lead of some sort would sound great here!" And like my songwriting with my band, I try to write something that I myself would listen to. And so we have "Dark Rain". When I listen to it myself, I imagine a dark and cold night in the rain lit up by the green neon light of a nearby store. Where does it take you?
Gates
composed by John Nichols
Completed in 2013, Gates (Kedesh-Naphtali) is a stereophonic composition that was partly inspired the Pleiades constellation. A musical mapping of an image of the constellation occurs in the middle and at the conclusion of the composition. One can hear this depiction in the “wood block” timbres. The composition begins with a complimentary relationship between periodic and non-periodic sounds; the sustained sonorities are engraved with a variety of successive fleeting noises. The idea to overlay, or “etch” sustained sonorities with a variety of successive ephemeral noises was partly inspired by Luigi Russolo’s use of the term “sound” to describe an audio signal with periodicity and “noise” as the lack thereof. Although some of the “noises” in this composition may not be entirely in accordance with his definition, the contrast between the two ideas is apparent. In addition to this relationship, the composition generally balances active and static components between the first and second half. Finally, this work is meant to sonically express the salvation of individuality through the renunciation of egoism.
Kettledrum Organ
composed by Mitchell Hermann
Kettledrum Organ was conceived of as a musical translation of Paul Klee’s 1930 cubist painting of the same name. The piece explores the physical causality of musical sound, deconstructing the timbral envelopes inherent in instruments such as the organ, marimba, and vibraphone to create a series of transformed gestures combining characteristics from each of the source sounds.
Khalid in the Salt Pit
composed by Nathan Withham
"Khalid in The Salt Pit" is a concrete piece that was inspired after reading about the story of Khalid El-Masri, an innocent German citizen who was mistaken for a terrorist with a similar name, then abducted and tortured while in CIA custody. All of the samples except one (see if you can find it) come from bowing, picking, scraping or tapping a banjo.
Ucluelet Suite
composed by Keenan
"…here and there from some lucky point of view you will catch passing glimpses of the profiles of whales defined along these undulating ridges…if you wish to return to such a sight again, you must be sure and take the exact intersecting latitude and longitude of your stand-point, else – so chance-like are such observations of the hills – your precise, previous stand-point would require a laborious re-discovery."
-Herman Melville
Performed by
Taylor Skelton - Flute
Lillia Sanchez - Cello
Concert 6
Prayer For Soprano
composed by Ioannis Andriotis
Prayer (2012) is a composition for solo soprano and live electronics. It is based on the poem “Gebet” by Reiner Maria Rilke, translated into English by Edward Snow. The text is treated in an abstract way whereby the semiotics, semantics, and sonorities of the words interact with the electronics, shaping a conceptual form of dialogue. The electronics consist of prerecorded samples and real time processing. Additionally, the staging and physical gestures of the performer contribute to the dramatic effect of the work.
Putrefaction
composed by Joshua Marquez
Putrefaction - the act or process of putrefying; the anaerobic decomposition of organic matter by bacteria and fungi that results in obnoxiously odorous products; rotting. The few sounds that make up the source material of Putrefaction were broken down into smaller segments, stretched, and disintegrated until harsh sonorities were produced.
Titan
composed by Russel Wilcox
Titan is a piece for electronic fixed media based on the music of Mahler’s Symphony Number One. This piece explores themes and material from the first, third, and fourth movements of the symphony. By utilizing techniques such as convolution, time stretching, pitch shifting, and layering, a unique, new piece has evolved from Mahler’s original masterpiece. All of the source material for this project came from two different recordings of the first symphony. The first recording was a 1999 Deutsche Grammophon release with Pierre Boulez conducting the ChicagoSymphony Orchestra. The second recording was a 1995 Digital Masterworks release of Arpad Joo conducting the Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.
Figurehead
composed by Ian Clarke
Figurehead is the multi-purpose war protest song I have needed since I was a child growing up among activists and hippies. It is inspired by one of my favorite pieces in the electroacoustic repertoire, Salvatore Martirano's L's GA for Gass-Masked Politico, Helium Bomb, and Two Channel Tape, in my opinion one of the most effective theater pieces of all time (I urge you to check it out; it's hilarious, devastating, and deeply disturbing all at once!). Figurehead attempts to emphasize the sad comedy inherent in the nihilistic sameness of all wars by featuring a single live performer delivering a jumbled mishmash of excerpts from famous military speeches spanning millennia, consequently exposing the similarities in their trite, rabble-rousing clichés. As the speech starts and stops; all around the room atop a stage of fluid, accelerating, and expanding sounds; a battle plays out between overwhelming cacophony and a tired old Sousa march (aptly entitled Bullets and Bayonets); barely puttering on despite being completely destroyed, spectrally re-synthesized, re-tuned, morphed, and sliced up every which way. Lastly, as evinced by the title, Figurehead deals with themes on the illusion of control and propagandization. Regardless of what the speaker says and when the speaker says it, I will always have a microphone on him, and I can always twist and distort his words before sending them back out to the audience, or I can shut off his microphone altogether. The speaker is merely a Figurehead.
Ambient Variation
composed by Todd Kitchen
"Ambient Variation was composed for the SEAMUS Miniatures “Re-Caged” competition in 2012 and was selected for inclusion on the “Re-Caged” CD. It is a small set of variations that take the subtractive approach that John Cage used at times, and explores the possibilities of such an approach in electronic music. In this case, the “theme” is – in keeping with Cage's interests in both ambient sounds and the city of New York – a field recording from Central Park. Filtering, wave shaping, and phase cancellation are among the methods employed to remove certain materials. Then, as in Cage's subtractive variations, the remaining material is expanded upon in a variety of ways. Additionally, some sounds related to those found in the recordings are “grafted” into the variations at times and interact with the original materials."
Dance Music 20
Jaesong You
The Dance Music series is an ongoing project through which Jaeseong You experiments with a stylized notion of dance music. The composer borrow from a wide spectrum of idiomatic elements of Electronic Dance Music (e.g., EDM synth tones, drum samples, musical gestures, etc.) in order to generate new musical contexts for their academic electro-acoustic pieces.
Dance Music 20 embodies a Feldmanesque musical structure with idiosyncratic EDM/IDM synths and beats. The contractions and swells of time are contained in rigid carpet-like patterns, but at the same time, they conjure up an organic and seamless flux of sounds within their carefully predetermined proportions.
I Don't Know What To Do With Those
composed by Carter Rice
Inspiration of Intrigue is based on the creative process itself. What sort of challenges and mental obstacles occur, and recur when composing a new piece of music? And more importantly, how can they be expressed through sound? Large passages of guided improvisation with variably calculated electronics allow the performer to react and adapt in real-time to a changing musical landscape, much as is done when composing. Musical material is repeated and augmented with varying degrees of success, as if parodying itself. The piece encapsulated the frustration, inspiration, depression, and intrigue that occupy my mind whilst composing a new work.
n.d.pawp
composed by Matt Bryant
"Beauty in music is too often confused with something that lets the ear lie back in an easy chair. Many sounds that we are used to do not bother us, and for that reason we are inclined to call them beautiful. Frequently -- possibly almost invariably -- analytical and impersonal test will show that when a new or unfamiliar work is accepted as beautiful on its first hearing, its fundamental quality is one that tends to put the mind to sleep."
-Charles Ives
Seance
composed by David Mendoza
Séance was composed in May and finished in June of 2012. I wanted to write an ornamented melody similar to traditional Arabic violin music, but what came out was something darker, yet still beautiful. Like most of my electro-acoustic music prior to this piece, the presence of the supernatural seemed to take over once again, and visions of whispering spirits wandering a barren windswept earth began to translate itself into music. A random panning module moves the sound from left to right, and is suppose to represent the spirits moving around a table similar to the one used is a traditional séance. For the record, I am not a Spiritualist nor do I believe in séances, but I thought it would be a fun piece for me to compose and perform.
Other Side
composed by Justin Houser
This piece revolves around attempting to realize the emotional stress of an individual at the beginning of an interrogation that will end with waterboarding. This does not actually reach the point of waterboarding; instead it implies the initial experiences of a detainee. The feeling of anxiety and sever mental stress as would be induced prior to any form of intense interrogation. Specific events attempt to emulate the sensation of mental breakdown, with the audience feeling the shift towards the feelings of insecurity.
The concept for this piece originated after seeing an interview with Phillip Mudd, the former FBI Senior Intelligence Advisor. Mudd’s seemingly cold, merciless demeanor inspired the composer to consider how Mr. Mudd, or anyone else, would have reacted if they were on the other side of the enhanced interrogation techniques being used.
A portion of this work was designed to serve as a sound environment for a theatrical production. The piece is based on the use of randomized systems, allowing for a slightly different performance each time and requires a computer capable of running Max MSP. All sounds have been combined, processed, and designed by J. F. Houser. Programming also designed by J. F. Houser. Some sounds used with permissions from www.freesound.org. All rights reserved, copyright by J. F. Houser, © 2013
(dys)functions
composed by Samuel Wells
Ahh, the trumpet. Now there's an instrument on which one can truly embarrass himself! -Garrison Keillor
(dys)functions for trumpet and fixed presents the potentiality of functionality where traditionally dysfunctionality is the quality. Also, its construction is based entirely noises from a trumpet.
The Art of Siphoning Souls
composed by Chris Poovey
You are about to experience an aural representation of the sensation known to some as soul siphoning. If you are not familiar with the art of soul siphoning a more common term you may recognize is photography. This fixed media work will aurally simulate your soul as it travels within the depths of a Nikon F2 film camera. The simulation is in three parts: the capturing of a soul, the imprinting of a soul, and the loss of a soul. All samples used to create this simulation where authentically captured from a Nikon F2 camera. I would also like to give credit to Devinesound’s NI Reactor patch GrainCube which was heavily used.
Miasma
composed by Seth Messier
Surrounded by life,
Life I breathe,
Lungs fill with death,
For life has turned on me,
Gasping for dear life,
I soon begin to fade,
I shall die in beauty,
For death is a beautiful thing,
When life turns on thee,
-Seth Messier
composed by Ioannis Andriotis
Prayer (2012) is a composition for solo soprano and live electronics. It is based on the poem “Gebet” by Reiner Maria Rilke, translated into English by Edward Snow. The text is treated in an abstract way whereby the semiotics, semantics, and sonorities of the words interact with the electronics, shaping a conceptual form of dialogue. The electronics consist of prerecorded samples and real time processing. Additionally, the staging and physical gestures of the performer contribute to the dramatic effect of the work.
Putrefaction
composed by Joshua Marquez
Putrefaction - the act or process of putrefying; the anaerobic decomposition of organic matter by bacteria and fungi that results in obnoxiously odorous products; rotting. The few sounds that make up the source material of Putrefaction were broken down into smaller segments, stretched, and disintegrated until harsh sonorities were produced.
Titan
composed by Russel Wilcox
Titan is a piece for electronic fixed media based on the music of Mahler’s Symphony Number One. This piece explores themes and material from the first, third, and fourth movements of the symphony. By utilizing techniques such as convolution, time stretching, pitch shifting, and layering, a unique, new piece has evolved from Mahler’s original masterpiece. All of the source material for this project came from two different recordings of the first symphony. The first recording was a 1999 Deutsche Grammophon release with Pierre Boulez conducting the ChicagoSymphony Orchestra. The second recording was a 1995 Digital Masterworks release of Arpad Joo conducting the Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.
Figurehead
composed by Ian Clarke
Figurehead is the multi-purpose war protest song I have needed since I was a child growing up among activists and hippies. It is inspired by one of my favorite pieces in the electroacoustic repertoire, Salvatore Martirano's L's GA for Gass-Masked Politico, Helium Bomb, and Two Channel Tape, in my opinion one of the most effective theater pieces of all time (I urge you to check it out; it's hilarious, devastating, and deeply disturbing all at once!). Figurehead attempts to emphasize the sad comedy inherent in the nihilistic sameness of all wars by featuring a single live performer delivering a jumbled mishmash of excerpts from famous military speeches spanning millennia, consequently exposing the similarities in their trite, rabble-rousing clichés. As the speech starts and stops; all around the room atop a stage of fluid, accelerating, and expanding sounds; a battle plays out between overwhelming cacophony and a tired old Sousa march (aptly entitled Bullets and Bayonets); barely puttering on despite being completely destroyed, spectrally re-synthesized, re-tuned, morphed, and sliced up every which way. Lastly, as evinced by the title, Figurehead deals with themes on the illusion of control and propagandization. Regardless of what the speaker says and when the speaker says it, I will always have a microphone on him, and I can always twist and distort his words before sending them back out to the audience, or I can shut off his microphone altogether. The speaker is merely a Figurehead.
Ambient Variation
composed by Todd Kitchen
"Ambient Variation was composed for the SEAMUS Miniatures “Re-Caged” competition in 2012 and was selected for inclusion on the “Re-Caged” CD. It is a small set of variations that take the subtractive approach that John Cage used at times, and explores the possibilities of such an approach in electronic music. In this case, the “theme” is – in keeping with Cage's interests in both ambient sounds and the city of New York – a field recording from Central Park. Filtering, wave shaping, and phase cancellation are among the methods employed to remove certain materials. Then, as in Cage's subtractive variations, the remaining material is expanded upon in a variety of ways. Additionally, some sounds related to those found in the recordings are “grafted” into the variations at times and interact with the original materials."
Dance Music 20
Jaesong You
The Dance Music series is an ongoing project through which Jaeseong You experiments with a stylized notion of dance music. The composer borrow from a wide spectrum of idiomatic elements of Electronic Dance Music (e.g., EDM synth tones, drum samples, musical gestures, etc.) in order to generate new musical contexts for their academic electro-acoustic pieces.
Dance Music 20 embodies a Feldmanesque musical structure with idiosyncratic EDM/IDM synths and beats. The contractions and swells of time are contained in rigid carpet-like patterns, but at the same time, they conjure up an organic and seamless flux of sounds within their carefully predetermined proportions.
I Don't Know What To Do With Those
composed by Carter Rice
Inspiration of Intrigue is based on the creative process itself. What sort of challenges and mental obstacles occur, and recur when composing a new piece of music? And more importantly, how can they be expressed through sound? Large passages of guided improvisation with variably calculated electronics allow the performer to react and adapt in real-time to a changing musical landscape, much as is done when composing. Musical material is repeated and augmented with varying degrees of success, as if parodying itself. The piece encapsulated the frustration, inspiration, depression, and intrigue that occupy my mind whilst composing a new work.
n.d.pawp
composed by Matt Bryant
"Beauty in music is too often confused with something that lets the ear lie back in an easy chair. Many sounds that we are used to do not bother us, and for that reason we are inclined to call them beautiful. Frequently -- possibly almost invariably -- analytical and impersonal test will show that when a new or unfamiliar work is accepted as beautiful on its first hearing, its fundamental quality is one that tends to put the mind to sleep."
-Charles Ives
Seance
composed by David Mendoza
Séance was composed in May and finished in June of 2012. I wanted to write an ornamented melody similar to traditional Arabic violin music, but what came out was something darker, yet still beautiful. Like most of my electro-acoustic music prior to this piece, the presence of the supernatural seemed to take over once again, and visions of whispering spirits wandering a barren windswept earth began to translate itself into music. A random panning module moves the sound from left to right, and is suppose to represent the spirits moving around a table similar to the one used is a traditional séance. For the record, I am not a Spiritualist nor do I believe in séances, but I thought it would be a fun piece for me to compose and perform.
Other Side
composed by Justin Houser
This piece revolves around attempting to realize the emotional stress of an individual at the beginning of an interrogation that will end with waterboarding. This does not actually reach the point of waterboarding; instead it implies the initial experiences of a detainee. The feeling of anxiety and sever mental stress as would be induced prior to any form of intense interrogation. Specific events attempt to emulate the sensation of mental breakdown, with the audience feeling the shift towards the feelings of insecurity.
The concept for this piece originated after seeing an interview with Phillip Mudd, the former FBI Senior Intelligence Advisor. Mudd’s seemingly cold, merciless demeanor inspired the composer to consider how Mr. Mudd, or anyone else, would have reacted if they were on the other side of the enhanced interrogation techniques being used.
A portion of this work was designed to serve as a sound environment for a theatrical production. The piece is based on the use of randomized systems, allowing for a slightly different performance each time and requires a computer capable of running Max MSP. All sounds have been combined, processed, and designed by J. F. Houser. Programming also designed by J. F. Houser. Some sounds used with permissions from www.freesound.org. All rights reserved, copyright by J. F. Houser, © 2013
(dys)functions
composed by Samuel Wells
Ahh, the trumpet. Now there's an instrument on which one can truly embarrass himself! -Garrison Keillor
(dys)functions for trumpet and fixed presents the potentiality of functionality where traditionally dysfunctionality is the quality. Also, its construction is based entirely noises from a trumpet.
The Art of Siphoning Souls
composed by Chris Poovey
You are about to experience an aural representation of the sensation known to some as soul siphoning. If you are not familiar with the art of soul siphoning a more common term you may recognize is photography. This fixed media work will aurally simulate your soul as it travels within the depths of a Nikon F2 film camera. The simulation is in three parts: the capturing of a soul, the imprinting of a soul, and the loss of a soul. All samples used to create this simulation where authentically captured from a Nikon F2 camera. I would also like to give credit to Devinesound’s NI Reactor patch GrainCube which was heavily used.
Miasma
composed by Seth Messier
Surrounded by life,
Life I breathe,
Lungs fill with death,
For life has turned on me,
Gasping for dear life,
I soon begin to fade,
I shall die in beauty,
For death is a beautiful thing,
When life turns on thee,
-Seth Messier