8 p.m.
Georgia Tech Alumni House
190 North Avenue
Directions to the Alumni House (PDF).
Sonic Generator will launch its first season in November 2006, programming music that combines interaction of technology, media, and sound, in varying techniques and dimensions, ranging from Mario Davidovsky’s Pulitzer-prize-winning “Synchronisms No. 6” for Piano and Electronic Sounds, to Gil Weinberg and Scott Driscoll's interactive composition for robotic drummer and live musicians. The first concert will also include the US premiere of Joshua Fineberg's “Paradigms” for sextet and electronics.
Complete program:
Rand Steiger: 13 Loops for quintet and live electronic processing
Mario Davidovsky: Synchronisms No. 6 for piano and tape
Joshua Fineberg: Paradigms for sextet and electronics
Gil Weinberg / Scott Driscoll: Jam'aa for robotic percussionist and human musicians
Jonathan Kramer: Renascence for clarinet and live electronics
David Felder: Partial D for sextet and electronics
This concert is free and open to the public. It is presented in conjunction with the SEAMUS Electroacoustic Music Month.
Read the full press release [PDF].
In Paul Griffiths’ Introduction to Modern Music, he writes: “To every age it may appear that artistic development is unprecedentedly rapid, unforeseeably strange, and yet there seems good reason to believe the changes which have taken place in music since World War II have been quite unusually radical. In the first place, Pierre Schaeffer’s invention of musique concrete in 1948 made electronic composition at last a practical possibility…and subsequent advances in the field, including the development of electronic music synthesizers, the progressive refinement of computer techniques for handling sound and the growth of live electronic music, have all opened wide new areas to the composer.”
The program this evening demonstrates some of the ways in which technology has impacted how composers write music, and how it has enabled them to explore new possibilities for timbre, both acoustic and electronic. In Synchronisms No. 6, a synthesized audio recording expands the acoustical properties of the piano. In partial [dist]res[s]toration, an electronic recording adds textures and resonances to the sound of an ensemble, and in Paradigms, acoustic and electronic sounds are fused into “one global timbre.”
Real-time audio processing enhances and varies the timbres and textures of each live musician in 13 Loops, while a real-time digital delay system in Renascence gradually turns the music of a solo clarinetist into a dense wash of sound. Finally, in Jam’aa, technology is used to create an independent and intelligent robotic musician within a drumming circle, rather than to enhance and process the sounds produced by human musicians.
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“13 Loops (1988) reflects my interest in attempting to create a synthesis of an extended serial pitch language with repetitive and transformative techniques usually associated with minimalism. In the outer sections the flute begins looping passages which are taken up by the rest of the ensemble. As the loop texture evolves, a transition occurs from elaborate aperiodic material to a simpler motoric music that then serves as an accompaniment, as the flute assumes the role of soloist. The center section begins with a flute cadenza, then develops a series of solos for all the instruments. The solos are then compressed gradually into a dense contrapuntal texture that evaporates, once again leaving the flute alone to play a cadenza. All the musicians play into microphones which are connected to a computer controlled mixer and signal processor. This allows for a variety of digital effects (delay, flanging, chorusing, reverb, etc.) to be assigned to the instruments at different times throughout the piece.” — Rand Steiger
“Synchronisms No. 6 (1970) for Piano and Electronic Sounds was written for the pianist, Robert Miller, and was performed at the Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival in August 1970. This piece belongs to a series of compositions for electronically synthesized sounds in combination with conventional instrument(s). In this particular piece, the electronic sounds in many instances modulate the acoustical characteristics of the piano, by affecting its decay and attack characteristics. The electronic segment should perhaps not be viewed as an independent polyphonic line, but rather as if it were inlaid into the piano part.”— Mario Davidovsky
“Most of my music is based on models: acoustic, physical, energetic, or simply poetic. Over the years all of these kinds of models have come to overlap and blend for me. In Paradigms (1993), I wondered whether I could push this a step further, if I could use the realization as the model; if a work could derive its timbres not from a sound, but from an ensemble recreating a sound…in which each individual instrument playing in a precise way is fused together in one global timbre. This global timbre then, once understood, could serve as my new model, to be re-interpreted, re-evaluated and again transformed into a new musical structure: Paradigms.”— Joshua Fineberg
“Jam'aa (2006) (“gathering” in Arabic) is an interactive piece for two darbuka players and one robotic percussionist. The composition builds on the unique communal nature of the Middle Eastern percussion ensemble, attempting to enrich its improvisational nature, call-and-response routines, and virtuosic solos with algorithmic transformation and human-robotic interactions. Haile, Georgia Tech's robotic percussionist, listens to audio input from each drum and detects aspects such as note onset, pitch, amplitude, beat, rhythmic density and stability. Based on these features, it utilizes six different interaction modes that are inspired by improvisatory aesthetics of the Middle Eastern percussion ensemble.”— Gil Weinberg
Kramer’s Renascence (1974) creates a trance-like sense of suspended time by working with a limited set of pitches and durations played over a constant drone. Yet the work simultaneously progresses through time, as the density of sound gradually increases. Thus Renascence is an attempt to superimpose motion on stasis. In the original version, a tape delay system records music played by the clarinetist and allows it to be played back some twenty seconds later, at which time it may again be recorded for later playback, etc. Tonight’s performance utilizes an implementation of that delay system in computer software, developed by Scott Driscoll and Travis Thatcher and based upon an earlier version by Brad Garton and notes by David Wetzel.
“partial [dist]res[s]toration (2001-3) was written on a commission from the Fromm Foundation for the extraordinary musicians of the New York New Music Ensemble. It is in seven brief ‘movements’, with some of these joined directly together.
“Numerous materials are brought together in this composition: both newly composed fragments and those rescued from older sketch pads — all are subjected to both ‘restoration’ (making the older appear refreshed), and ‘distressing’ (newer materials are treated to ‘age’ them). And the word ‘partial’ refers both to incomplete presentation, and to the harmonic series, which serves overtly to harmonize the different things.
“Each movement is subtitled and reflects a poetic image:
1. a puro sol escribo... (I write in the pure sun...) Pablo Neruda
2. I remember, I remember Memory the great pretender Robert Creeley
3.a. I sing...
3.b. because I sing...
3.c. and because I sing Pablo Neruda
4. Ris de ton nom... (laugh at the sound of your name) Rene Daumal
5. Die Felder sind grau... anonymous
“The electronics were realized by David Kim-Boyle (textures) and Benjamen Thigpen (resonances) in 2001 and 2003.”— David Felder
About the Composers:
Mario Davidovsky (b. 1934) is widely recognized for his pioneering work in electroacoustic music. His Synchronisms are early examples of successful integration of acoustic instruments with electronic sound; he received the Pulitzer Prize in 1971 for Synchronisms No. 6. Davidovsky was born in Argentina and began to compose at the age of 13. In 1958 he was invited by Aaron Copland to study at the Berkshire Music Center; two years later he settled in New York and began a long association with the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. Davidovsky has taught at the University of Michigan, Instituto Torcuato di Tella of Buenos Aires, Manhattan School of Music, Yale University, City College, Columbia University, and Harvard University.
Scott Driscoll (b. 1981) received his undergraduate degree from Carnegie Mellon in Mechanical Engineering with minors in computer science and robotics. He then obtained a M.S. in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech before joining the music technology program, where he is currently pursuing an undesignated Masters degree in Architecture. After graduation, he plans to take part in the development of an amateur robotics company.
David Felder’s (b. 1953) work has been broadly characterized by its highly energetic profile, through its frequent employment of technological extension and elaboration of musical materials. Felder has received numerous grants and commissions, including awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Guggenheim, Koussevitzky, Fromm, and Rockefeller Foundations. Felder is Professor of Composition at SUNY Buffalo and has been Artistic Director of the “June in Buffalo” Festival since 1985.
Joshua Fineberg (b. 1969) studied composition at the Peabody Conservatory, then moved to Paris where he studied with Tristan Murail and took the composition and technology course at IRCAM. He completed a doctorate in musical composition at Columbia University in 1999 and is currently the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. Besides his compositional and pedagogical activities, Fineberg actively collaborates with computer scientists and music psychologists to help develop tools for computer assisted composition, acoustic analysis and sound modification and in music perception research.
Jonathan D. Kramer (1942-2004) studied music at Harvard University and the University of California at Berkeley and taught composition at Columbia University, Oberlin Conservatory, Yale University, and University of Cincinnati. His music has been played in twenty-three countries by groups such as the London Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony, Seattle Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, and the Seoul Philharmonic. Active as a theorist, Jonathan wrote numerous books and articles, including The Time of Music (Schirmer Books) and Postmodern Music, Postmodern Listening (forthcoming).
Composer/conductor Rand Steiger’s (b. 1957) compositions have been performed and commissioned by many leading ensembles and organizations including the American Composers Orchestra, Fromm Foundation, IRCAM, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Of late, his work has centered on the combination of traditional instruments with real-time digital audio signal processing and spatialization. Steiger is also active as a conductor specializing in contemporary works. He is currently a Professor in the Music Department at the University of California, San Diego.
Gil Weinberg (b. 1967) is an assistant professor and the director of the music technology program at Georgia Tech. In his work Weinberg attempts to expand musical expression, creativity, and learning through technology. His research interests include new instruments for musical expression, musical networks, machine and robotic musicianship, sonification, and music education. His music has been featured in festivals and concerts such as Ars Electronica, SIGGRAPH, ICMC, and NIME, and with orchestras such as Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the National Irish Symphony Orchestra, and the Scottish BBC Symphony. His interactive systems were presented in museums such as the Smithsonian Museum, Cooper-Hewitt Museum, and Boston Children's Museum. Weinberg received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT.