North Carolina Computer Music Festival
Rodney Waschka II, Director
Mellipse 2 (1999) by Mara Helmuth and Allen Otte
Mellipse 2 is concerned with transformations between timbre and pitch, and live percussion and electronically generated sound. The 1989 tape composition Mellipse by Mara contained five sound masses created by sampling a spoon hitting a pot lid, and much layering and windowed processing. These materials were then transformed primarily by a Cmix elliptical filter, which has a particularly sharp rolloff so that individual pitches can be pulled out of complex sounds. The filter software was extended so that it moved in time, allowing pitches to turn into the sound mass, and the sound mass thin into a pitch, all the while changing color. Perhaps this reflects Buddhist ideas of a connection between the one, and its many manifestations in the world. The piece was transformed into a video work involving animation by Mary Beth Haggerty, and later choreographed by the Guang Dong Modern Dance Company for a performance in Hong Kong. Allen Otte created the percussion part for Mellipse 2 with an expanded set of metal timbres, which generated many extensions to the "tape" part. A "score" for the tape part including a sonogram and spectral analyses of the percussion instruments were a starting point for this new piece. --MH/AO
Mara Helmuth composes for computer and acoustic instruments, often using her own software. She is Associate Professor in Composition and the director of (ccm)2, the College-Conservatory of Music Center for Computer Music at the University of Cincinnati. She holds a D.M.A. in music composition from Columbia University, a B.A. and M.M. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and taught at Texas A&M University and New York University. She has had numerous performances in the United States and internationally. Collaborations for percussion and computer with Allen Otte are heard on the Electronic Music Foundation compact disk Implements of Actuation (EMF 023) and in the first Internet2-streamed opera, Clotho: the Life of Camille Claudel. Her software includes Patchmix a Cmix/RTcmix graphical code-generating instrument builder, StochGran, a granular synthesis composition application, and Soundmesh, for Internet 2 network improvisation. She also plays the qin, a Chinese zither.
Otte was a founding member of the internationally recognized Blackearth Percussion Group (1972-79) and the founder of The Percussion Group Cincinnati. He studied percussion with Richard Weiner and Michael Rosen, and composition with Herbert Brun. Formerly he was a percussionist with the Toledo Symphony and extra percussionist with the Cleveland Orchestra. A percussion instructor at Northern Illinois University and the Saskatchewan Summer School for the Arts, he has recorded for CRI, Opus One, AR and Advance Records.
LIGHTFORMS 2: StarSpectra (1993) The works of Texas artist/photographer Carlotta Corpron explore imagery of shape and shadow that metaphorically mirror my sense of musical form and structure. Several of my compositions have borrowed titles from Corpron's photos, such as LIGHT FOLLOWS FORM, a multimedia work for computer music and "light-sculpted" dancer. Light in space makes a compelling metaphor with music in time. The LIGHTFORMS project began as a study of star constellations, more remote two-dimensional points of light. Star map tracings were converted into pitch/time patterns, then transformed by re-scaling and shifting operations, generating streams of related but distinct note "constellations". The resulting pointillistic sound textures, constantly varying in density, provided material for the piano part of a multimedia composition, LIGHTFORMS 1: Constellations. (Visual imagery consisted of photographic details of color and abstract geometric shape in stained glass windows made by Texas artist John Kebrle.) Although different registers of the piano and different pitch intervals in chords made subtly different sound colors, the spectrum was comparatively narrow, as was the variety of articulations possible with the piano.
Readings in astronomy impressed me with the idea that stars are fascinating to observe not just for their unique distances and positions in the sky but for the unique light spectrum and intensity of each. LIGHTFORMS 2 continued the exploration in a computer music realm where distinct sound color and articulation differences could be controlled and planned to shape form. The pitch/time structures of Constellations were processed, analyzing dyadic pitch proximities to determine the selection of computer instrument from an array of available bright, resonant timbres. Pitch registers determined articulation envelopes and spatial distributions of sounds; time-point intervals shaped large-scale amplitude curves. In this way, a complex network of relationships amongst a large variety of unique sound colors enrichs a pointillistic, star-like spatial texture. Time form unfolds as in LIGHTFORMS 1, reminiscent of the seasonal procession of constellations across the night sky but framed in the time scope of breathing musical phrases.
Thomas Clark, born 1949 in Michigan, earned three degrees from The University of Michigan, including a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 1976. He studied composition with Pulitzer Prize winner Leslie Bassett, Eugene Kurtz, electroacoustic music with George Balch Wilson, conducting with Sydney Hodkinson, and music theory with Wallace Berry and Richmond Browne. ClarkÕs compositions have been performed at festivals throughout the U.S.A., in Canada and Japan, three times at the Brno International Music Festival in the Czech Republic, and at the Festival Internacional Alfonso Reyes in Monterrey, Mexico. Several of his works, affiliated with BMI, are published by Borik Press and recorded on Centaur Records. His writing has appeared in Perspectives of New Music, In Theory Only, Computer Music Journal, New Groves Dictionary of American Music, and Contemporary Composers (published by St. James Press of London). He is currently Dean of Music at the North Carolina School of the Arts.
John explains... by Larry Austin
John explains... (2007) is composed as octophonic computer music, dedicated to the memory of composer John Cage. The piece was completed on September 5, 2007, on what would have been his 95th birthday; it is ten minutes long and based in large part on an excerpted portion of a July, 1966, interview that writer Richard Kostelanetz recorded at John's home in Stony Point, New York. I thank Richard for granting me permission to use the recorded interview as the composition's central narrative. Note: Kostelanetz and Cage were joined toward the end of the interview by writer Susanna Opper, whom I thank as well for her contribution. The questions/comments and responses/explanations concern Cage's octophonic tape composition, Williams Mix (1951-53) and Cage's use of I Ching chance operations to compose the piece. Enjoy.
Larry Austin is composer of more than seventy works incorporating electroacoustic and computer music media: combinations of tape, instruments, voices, orchestra, live-electronics and real-time computer processing, as well as solo audio and video tape compositions. He composed his first electronic music compositions in 1964 at the American Academy in Rome electronic music studio, on Paul Ketoff's prototype synthesizer, the Synket. Highly successful as a composer for traditional as well as experimental music genres, Austin's works have been performed and recorded by the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, the Cincinnati Philharmonia, the National Symphony orchestra, the National Philharmonic of Warsaw, the Ensemble Neue Musik and the Academy of Music, Cologne, as well as many other major ensembles in North America and Europe. He has enjoyed extended associations with composers John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and David Tudor. He has also worked with the San Francisco Tape Music Center, and the Artificial Intelligence Center at Stanford University.
Dark Wood by Benjamin Broening
for solo cello and computer music, Nicholas Photinos, cellist
I wrote Dark Wood this past spring when I was in Estonia. The forests there are filled with very tall and straight pine trees that creak and groan in the wind. The resulting mix of the susurrus of the branches and the groaning of the trunks reminded me of the cello and of Nick Photinos, for whom I was writing this piece. Nick does this wonderful thing where he loosens the hair on his bow and bows the back of his cello. The resulting sound is arresting - it sounds like the cello is cracking and splintering mixed with the soft sound of bow noise. So I started making connections between the beauty of being in the woods, Nick's playing, the dark wood of the cello itself and the sense of being alone in the vast, dark wood. Maybe because the piece wasn't going all that well at the time or because I was about to pass a certain age, I was also reminded of the opening lines of Dante's Inferno: "In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself in a dark forest for the straight road was lost." The resulting association of ideas - some contradictory, some seemingly unrelated, all stemming from the experience of being alone in the dark forest - emerged somehow as Dark Wood. The piece is in three distinct sections: an opening that moves from noisy harmonics to melody and back to noise is followed by a moto perpetuo middle section that then gives way to a long, elegiac coda.
Benjamin Broening is a composer of acoustic and electroacoustic music. His numerous commissions include works for the Charlotte Symphony, the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, the Band and Orchestral Division of Yamaha Corporation of America, the Arts Now Series at North Carolina State University and the James River Singers, among many others. A recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to Estonia, Broening has also received recognition and awards from the American Composers Forum, Virginia Commission for the Arts and the Presser Music Foundation. His music has been recorded on the Centaur, everglade, Equilibrium, MIT Press and SEAMUS labels. Broening is founder and artistic director of Third Practice, an annual festival of electroacoustic music at the University of Richmond, where he is Associate Professor of music. He holds degrees from the University of Michigan, Cambridge University, Yale University and Wesleyan University.
In addition to serving as cellist of the internationally renowned new music ensemble eighth blackbird, Nicholas Photinos has performed recitals throughout California and the Midwest and has appeared with orchestras in California and Ohio, including the world premiere of the Cello Concerto in D Minor by Grace Vamos. He has toured with Bjrk as part of the Icelandic String Octet and performed as a member of the Canton and Columbus Symphony Orchestras. His interest in jazz had led him to perform with several jazz artists, including Chicago violinist Zach Brock and vocalist Grazyna Auguscik. His principal teachers include Hans Jorgen-Jensen, Lee Fiser, Andor Toth, Jr., Irene Sharp and Grace Vamos. Nicholas Photinos is a graduate of Northwestern University, the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
SIM4 (System in Motion) (2007) by Ioannis Kalantzis
The sound material of this piece is totally made with software I developed called "Vima" in MaxMSP environment. "Vima" provides the implementation of algorithms that can extend the technique of "glitch and slice" into new aesthetic areas. In SIM4 I use four algorithms that trigger by repetition, small slices of samples and then move their start and end points to variable positions according to the type of the algorithm. As a result, this process can express a particular type of sound energy that I was interested to develop as a formal element. The form follows a strict scheme of "stuck" repetitive slices and energetic gestures at a level that the listener can feel the intensity of energy and at the same time distinguish the fast alterations of sound information.
Ioannis Kalantzis is a native of Chalkida, Greece. He obtained a diploma in classical guitar from the National Conservatory in Athens studying with Evangelos Asimakopoulos. At the Nakas Conservatory he studied music theory and composition with Yannis Ioannidis. His work in electroacoustic music was guided by Henri Dergomard in Athens. He continued his studies of composition and computer music at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique of Lyon, France with Philippe Manoury, Marco Stroppa, Dennis Lorrain and Robert Pascal receiving a DNSEM diploma with distinction.
Afterimages 6 for guitar and computer by Ronald Parks
Afterimages 6, for guitar and computer, was written for guitarist Dr. L.H. Dickert. It is the sixth in a series of works for instrument and computer processing. The guitar portion of Afterimage 6 moves between a sound world of pitched and un-pitched sounds. The computer's role is that of extending the timbral resources of the guitar while also processing the guitar input to create an autonomous but related sound resource. Formally, the piece moves through two sections, the second marked by relative stability and a more sparse texture. Special thanks to L.H. Dickert for this assistance and support.
Ronald Keith Parks, born in Waynesville, NC, is an active composer of acoustic and electronic music. His music is available on the Electronic Music Foundation label (CD 031) and the Society of Composers, Inc. Student Chapter CD Volume 1 from the University of Florida. His electroacoustic works, non divisi and Sul C are featured on the 2005 and 2006 60X60 CD. Dr. Parks received the BA in composition from the North Carolina School of the Arts, an MM in composition from the University of Florida, and a Ph.D. in composition from the University at Buffalo. He is currently an assistant professor of music technology, theory, and composition and Director of the Winthrop Computer Music Labs at Winthrop University.
L. H. Dickert is an Associate Professor at Winthrop University responsible for teaching guitar, jazz history, theory, and directing the guitar ensembles as well as the jazz combos. His academic background includes a B.M. degree from Winthrop University, a diploma from the Berklee College of Music, an M.M. degree from Wichita State University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Memphis. Performing credits include work with Natalie Cole, Lou Rawls, Charlie Rouse, the Diamonds, Ronnie Milsap, Dixie Carter, Ray Charles, Johnny Mathis, the Guy Lombardo Orchestra, Randy Brecker, Frank Sinatra, and Wayne Newton.
Notturno by Antonio Scarcia
Notturno was realized in several sessions from March to April, 2007 and was first conceived as a study of consonance. Sound, perception, and consciousness are the keys to this work for stereophonic digital media. It has been performed as part of the 2007 International Computer Music Conference in Copenhagen.
Antonio Scarcia graduated in Electronic Engineering at the University of Padua and took a Higher Diploma as a specialist in signal processing at the University of Bari. He is a fulltime teacher of Electronics at high schools and collaborates with educational agencies and academic institutions. He currently studies music at the Bari Conservatory with Francesco Scagliola. Since 2004, he has been a member of the research and performance group Sin[x]Thesis as both a composer and performer.
No. 7 for gyil and computer by Allen Otte and Mara Helmuth
This collaborative work was inspired by Allen Otte's Ghanaian xylophone and handcut logs. Ga Da Yina, a traditional Dagara funeral music, is quoted, enveloped, and digitally extrapolated to a music that reveals contemplations on and new impulses from the original sound.
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