Pierre Boulez – Repons

My first (and somewhat belated) listening study for the year is Repons, by Pierre Boulez. I am unsure why I chose this, I think I thought to grab the two Boulez works and well, work on them. It is a good thing that I did choose this particular piece though, as it relates quite strongly to what I wish to do for one of my projects.

Repons is the first piece by Boulez to come from IRCAM (IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique) is a European institute for science about music and sound and avant garde electro-acoustical art music. It is situated next to, and is organizationally linked with, the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The extension of the building has been designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers. [ Thanks Wikipedia! ])), an institute which he founded. It is an electroacoustic piece for chamber orchestra, six soloists and electronics. Boulez has seamlessly blended electronics and acoustic instruments together both spatially and materialistically, and it is this that I wish to examine in more detail, with some nods to other compositional techniques.

Boulez’s primary intention is to spacialise and ‘blend’ the acoustic and electric aspects of the composition.

Spacialisation diagram (from http://www.themodernword.com/joyce/music/boulez_repons.html)

We can see the projection of sound here, and a more detailed view of how the audience is placed in regard to the sound generators is below:

Placement of sound objects and audience in Repons, c/- http://lebbeuswoods.files.wordpress.com

As can be seen, the soloists (harp, piano, glock, etc) are placed through the audience surrounding the central orchestra, from these diagrams it is obvious that both the acoustic and electronic sound generators are spacialised, leading to the interesting observation that every single audience member will perceive the piece in drastically different ways depending where they’re situated relative to each sound source.

What is fascinating about this piece is the integration of electronics with acoustics, for example, there are moments when the piano will play a gesture which is ‘mimicked’ by the electronics and sent flying around the performance space. It’s as though the electronics are ‘attaching’ themselves to the soloist and then acting out their part based on the material presented by the acoustic performer. This level of orchestrated integration has the effect of creating a giant mass of sound, related in gesture. The composition seems to be through-composed in the sense that Boulez repeats a lot of gestures in various ways, and the electronic ‘augmentation’ follows similar ideas of repetition through imitation.

This brings me to another point about the general use of compositional techniques; the piece can be described as ‘modernist’ due to its fragmented yet cohesive presentation. You hear fragments of sound ideas presented all around you in the stereo space, and these ideas are gestural primarily, rather than ‘melodic’ or ‘harmonic’, similar perhaps to Varese, Takemitsu and even some of Frank Zappa’s orchestral works. Boulez has this to say about his use of metre and harmony:

Oh yes, there is a metre, slightly irregular on one level but very regular on another. There are so many irregular things in this piece that at one point you need to have a regular metre as you say – a bass and a regular pulse anyway – but also a series of harmonies which are all symmetrical. The harmony always gives this impression of something followed by its inverse; there is always a centre – an axis of symmetry. This symmetry of harmony corresponds in harmonic terms to a regular metre. This is very important. There are three types of time. That which is chaotic and irregular such as you have in the beginning (in the speed I mean). Then you have, in the speed, the very regular rapid repeated notes – always in semiquavers. Finally at the end there is a regularity, a kind of metre – but with much ornamentation. The ornamentation is in fact very irregular, but the metre itself is very regular.

(Thanks Wikipedia!)

This makes sense to not only the use of harmony, but also the spacialisation; everything is balanced and symmetrical throughout the performance. If something happens rear-left, there is a counterpoint front-right, and so on.

I’ve been listening to this piece over and over for about three weeks now trying to work on ways to integrate the ideas with my own compositions, particularly one electro-acoustic piece this semester (ongoing).

Vince

Alien, M. Eggert

“I have always been fascinated with concepts of a totally “alien“ music, whose laws are different from the one’s that we know and accept. Even though there are always people who try to formulate “generic” laws how music should function and who try to explain concepts of beauty with a view mostly derived from the Western European history of music, even the most cursory glance at the different musical cultures of our planet will show that there is incredible diversity and difference most of all.” Moritz Eggert on “Alien”

“Alien” is a mysterious piece, which I suppose is it’s intention; an attempt to emulate music of a culture unmet and unknown to us. The piece exists as not just music, but a story of fictional culture. “Alien” is it’s own entity with it’s own rules, performing technique, intricacies and philosophy which makes it both difficult to figure out and charming.

The piece is written for Garklein, Sopranino, Soprano, Renaissance Alto (in G notated in C). The set-up itself is notated in the score, in that, three microphones are used and each microphone has it’s own stave. At certain parts throughout the piece the player will play two recorders simultaneously and use a separate microphone for an individual instrument. Each microphone is attached to a different effect pedal. 1. Chorus 2. Harmonizer (adds a tritone above played tone, this is always in the middle of the three mics) 3. Octave pedal, a loop pedal is used as well. Eggert also specifies an Alien type light show be displayed with the performance.

I feel slightly disappointed in that this piece has a huge performance component and I was only able to access an audio file, though it did make me focus more on the music as opposed to the electrics.

Perhaps I’m reading too much into it but I did come up with, what I think is, a structure of some sort for this piece.

1. It begins with vocals performing a percussive phrase (like an alien form of beat boxing) that is looped and the recorder plays a musical interpretation of this with the vocals twice, I call this the main theme. The vocals continue and the recorder improvises over the top, this is the introduction. Followed by a silence.
2. The rest of the piece is a succession of climaxes, each slightly different and each climax increasing as the piece continues. The first climax uses scale runs (of what scale I’m unsure) and a call and response section. A rhythmic pulse is looped and layers are added. Followed by a silence.
3. This section begins with a variation on the scale runs heard in the previous section, a rhythmic pulse is looped and a climax, slightly louder than the last one, is reached again. Followed by a silence.
4. This section uses much fewer notes and a lot more silence. Both staccato and long overblown notes are used, this time it takes longer to reach a climax section. Followed by a silence.
5. The last 3 sections used mostly recorder decorated with percussive vocals. Now the vocals are the lead instrument. A call and response occurs between the vocals and recorder run through an octave pedal, this section is broken up with the phrase “A stranger in a strange land” run through the harmoniser mic. This reaches a small climax, then them volume dies down and it’s quickly followed by the final and loudest climax.
6. The piece ends with a long glissando upward and a sort of “pop” sound at the end. The ending is fantastic.

Although this piece is at times confusing and completely foreign, it works because many of the elements are constantly being recycled i.e. call and response, scale runs, main theme and structural mimicry.

I think this piece is a little bit magical.

- Jamie

Lonh – Kaija Saariaho

Lonh is composed for soprano voice and electronics, a strange but very effective musical combination.

Throughout the work the soprano sings a text (Lonh) written in an old French language by a poet and composer named Jaufré Rudel. According to the performance notes, no one knows for sure how this language is pronounced, although Saariaho followed the pronunciation given to her by a specialist in French medieval literature. The poem itself is a tale about someone aching for a distant love (Lonh means ‘from afar’).

The best words to describe the soprano vocalist in the recording I listened to are chillingly beautiful. Through the process of setting Lonh to music, the emotional qualities already associated with the poem are now enhanced tenfold by this mesmerising vocal line. Saariaho has also chosen the articulation of the soprano very carefully; the voice is required in various passages to whisper, to sing with as much air as possible, to employ a speaking voice, even to move as slowly as possible from a breath tone to a normal tone. Dynamics in the soprano part are just as significant, with the addition of al niente, where the dynamics fade to nothing, and dal niente, where notes are brought out of silence and a crescendo rises seemingly from nowhere. The result of these carefully planned dynamics and articulations is contrast after contrast; notes with heavy vibrato and air will leap out at you, before a sudden drop to a half-spoken whisper is barely able to be heard. Combine these elements with a lot of rhythmic freedom and you have yourself an incredibly stunning vocal experience.

If the soprano part was not haunting enough, in come the electronics. These consist of nine quadraphonic sound files (quadraphonic was an early version of surround sound, where speakers were positioned at the four corners of a listening space, reproducing signals that were independent of one another). These sound files are set off and played throughout the piece, one after the other. Often a new sound file will begin before the previous one has concluded. The electronic sounds include things such as a mixture of wind and whispering voices, singing voices and pitched bells, rain, processed girls’ voices and filtered bird and forest sounds. Obviously each of these sound files would have been carefully created and altered to the composer’s desire. The overall effect created is one of a surreal, almost otherworldly atmosphere. Perhaps this is why I could not stop seeing images of space as I was listening to the piece.

Pitched and non-pitched percussion are also employed throughout, adding a mysterious metallic timbre to the work. Although on the score the percussion seem to play rhythmically in time, they do not effect the piece’s overall freedom.

Anyone eager to sample a breathtaking soprano performance should try this piece. Combined with the hypnotic electronics, Saariaho has created an amazing new way of interpreting the good old romance poem.

Please listen to my radio show,

Signing off,

Tully

Nodal @ HandsFree 3 @ Guildford Lane Gallery

Dear Students

I’m performing some improvsed computer music on Wednesday night using Nodal. There will be some interesting and talented people playing – it would be nice to see you if you can make it.

Peter Mcilwain

Hands Free III – 17/03/2010

Hands Free is a night about software doing things. Musicians and programmers come together in duets between instrumentalists and pieces of software, along with other experiments in autonomy.

This month we have works by Peter McIlwain, Mark Pederson, and Isambard Khroustaliov, who will be delivering a live system from the UK, and performances by Brigid Burke, Adrian Sherriff and Melike Ulgezer.

Works

Mark Pederson: Invisible Territory, generative music work (with performance by Adrian Sherriff)

Peter McIlwain: live performance using Nodal

Isambard Khroustaliov: Axiom, generative music work (with performance by Brigid Burke)

Mark Pederson: Fragments of Sainthood, generative music work (with performance by Melike Ulgezer)

Ollie Bown, Ross Bencina, Brigid Burke, Adrian Sherriff: Double Prosthetic Duo, improvisation.

Details

Date: 17th March 2010.

Location: Guildford Lane Gallery, Guildford Lane, Melbourne 3000.

Time: doors 6pm, music 7 – 9pm.

Entry: free / donations.

‘La Voliere’- Randall Smith (1994)

What’s there to say about this piece? It’s a never ending series of minature bites of sound, with some very nice production flourishes. There’s lots of nice bleeps and bloops, fragments of sourced sounds weaving in and out, panning left to right, birds chirping, rushes of water droplets, filtered white noise, pulsating synths, a rolling bass drum, pipes(?), cymbals, it goes on and on.

So, what does it all mean? The relationship between the natural, organic sounds contrasting with the mechanized, industrialized sounds are obvious, perhaps a metaphor portraying the consumption of nature by man (a notion supported in the linear notes, this idea of control over nature via some sort of ‘machine universe’).

Social commentry aside,  every sound used is manipulated and fragmented in some way, be it filter effects, panning, emphasizing certain dynamics, reversing, plus more. The craftmanship of an artificial world, where the relationship between nature and machine becomes blurred and almost unrecognisable, is a fascinating vision and the true beauty behind this piece.What can be taken away from this experience is the sole focus on timbre, which is given personality and depth by manipulating our perception on reality as we see, feel and hear it. Alienating our insticts with sounds that are all too common to us, that are re-shaped and altered to challenge our familiarility with the world around us.

A brilliant showcase of the psychological possibilities behind electronic music and a good introduction to electro-acoustic music.

Shannon

Paul Lansky: Night Traffic – A Listening Study

Paul Lansky’s Night Traffic. This makes me look back on the tutorials we had where Peter taught us the various ways to interpret and use Computer Music to create soundscapes. It sounds to me like Lansky has recorded a plethora of background noise from a freeway or something where traffic is the sole producer of audible material, and run it through processors. The effect almost sounds like chords/pitches are being hit, creating a sonic vibration that’s being phased in and out, perhaps due to the vehicles passing by at different speeds/distances.

The processing effects applied to the base audio file used creates an almost multi-instrumental feel. I’m hearing a timbre somewhere in the large sounds created that bears great resemblance to that of a digital organ. It goes to show just how composers, especially in the present day, are able to take their ideas to new heights thanks to the technology supplied in today’s post processing-effects boards, to create music and soundscapes that would have taken much more effort in the past, or perhaps even been impossible to produce.

- Rey

Something I’m working on…..

This is a short sketch for a piece that I’m working on. It’s made in MaxMSP and using simple oscillators but with detailed control (as you can see). The piece is for multi-channel but the sketch sounds OK in stereo.

Its a small texture that bobs out from under static sustained sounds. Anyway you might find it interesting. There is a birdlike reference – which for me always amounts to a reference to Messiaen .

Peter Mc