Airwaves No. 1
2002
Airwaves is a series of tape music featuring the sounds of analog modular synthesis. It primarily uses a MOTM modular synthesizer. Because the sound of this synthesizer is so naturally big, pieces in this series try to give the listener some space by creating music with more air in it.
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In Fifths
2004
This piece is inspired by Terry Riley’s In C. In “In Fifths,” the musicians play the piece at their own pace, repeating measures as they see fit. They creep this way around the circle of 5ths, playing rhythms in 7/8.
This performance is by the Flux Quartet in 2004.
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Morpehus’ Snare
2005
In this piece, I have detuned the left and the right channels. As the piece starts, the detuning falls randomly in between 2 Hz and 20Hz. As it progresses, the range narrows until the left and the right always differ by 10Hz. Alpha brain waves are generally around 10Hz. There are rumors that listening to pitches detuned between the left and right ear at 10Hz will make the listener sleepy and cause them to enter an alpha state.
Dans cette pièce la droite et la gauche ne sont pas en accord. Au début, il y a un écart de 2 à 20 Hz d’accord. Dans la conclusion, l’écart est toujours de 10 Hz, la même fréquence des ondes alpha dans le cerveau.
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Et sonnera le baffroy de la ville sans cesser durant l’assault
2004 – 2005
This recording is of a reading of this piece by the Wesleyan University Orchestra, conducted by Aaron Siegel during their annual Symphonic Workshop in 2005.
This piece takes it’s title from a stage direction in a 15th century French mystery play about Joan of Arc called Le Mystère du Siège d’Orléans. The play is one of only two secular plays of the era and is one of very few with stage directions that include musical cues. The title means “And the bells of the town ring without ceasing during the attack.”
Instrumentation of the piece is piccolo, flute 1 & 2, clarinet 1 & 2, horn 1 & 2, trumpet 1 & 2, trombone, tuba, percussion (tubular bells, xylophone, glockenspiel, tom-tom), violins, viola, cello, double bass. Contact me for a score, if interested.
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This piece explores the controversy surrounding Buster the Bunny. In one episode of this children’s show, the cartoon rabbit goes to visit a Vermont family headed by two moms. He says hi to the moms once in an extremely brief scene. This caused a controversy as the United States government withdrew funding for the show.
This piece uses clips of the controversy being discussed on Frontline, of Bill O’Reilly and other pundits discussing the controversy, and of Fred Phelps preaching some gospel truth.
Il y a un emission pour des enfants aux Etats-Unis que s’appelle “Buster the Bunny.” Une fois, le lapin animé, Buster, est allé au Vermont et a vu une famille lesbienne avec des enfants. Il a dit «bonjour» aux mères dans une scène breve. Il y a eu une grande dispute et le gouvernement a donné une réprimande à PBS.
Ce morceaux contient des extraits des nouvelles à propos de cette dispute, la voix de Bill O’Reilly (un présentateur), et de Fred Phelps qui prêche le vérité de l’évangile.
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No No Nonette
2002
This piece was written for a MIDI-controlled installation of 9 toy pianos, created by Trimpin. It was at the Jack Straw Productions Media Gallery in Seattle in the early part of 2003, when this performance was recorded.
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State of Disunion
2004
The timbres of human voice, specifically, George Bush’s voice fascinate me. His inflections are almost musical. While I disagree with nearly everything he says, he says it in a beautiful manner. He is very talented and must have a fantastic elocution coach. His voice has the musical timbres of the south and the drawl of Texas. His speechwriter’s careful word choices coupled with his pan-heartland accent make him seem immediately trustworthy. I did this piece with his voice in the spring of 2004. I took his weekly radio address from right before the state of the union. Approximately half the speech was made of up lies about Iraq. The second half was lies about domestic issues. (Our economy has been turning around for so long now, it must be dizzy.) I started by playing the file straight and then slowly added a sine-tone that was phase modulated with the same file. . . . More Information
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Coulter Shock
2004
The piece starts with Anne Coulter’s unaltered quote, calling Clinton a scumbag, which is then followed with re-ordered phrases from her many media appearances. The second part of the piece takes a snapshot of the last pass of word reordering. That snapshot is broken into grains all of equal size. The play back algorithm plays back the grains in a moving window, making her stutter. On the second pass, the grains are four times smaller and the window is five times bigger. This goes on in a loop of decreasing grains and increasing window for about six minutes, until only the timbre of her speech remains audible.
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Rush to Excuse
2004
Rush to Excuse applies granular synthesis to a 47″ sample of Rush Limbaugh’s radio oratory. There are two processes involved. The first cuts Mr. Limbaugh’s voice into hundreds of samples of equal length. These samples, or grains, are then analyzed to determine the average pitch for each. The second process cuts the same clip into unequal pieces based on silences, or pauses in speech. I mix the output of these processes together, repeating the first process several times with longer and longer grains. Content and pitch material are then juxtaposed.
In the sample used, Mr. Limbaugh excuses torture at American-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and mocks the Geneva Convention. He describes a photograph of a naked prisoner being threatened with a dog, and justifies it by claiming there’s no actual assault, the prisoner is merely being frightened. As it happens, a subsequent photograph shows the actual attack. On being apprised of this later in the program, Mr. Limbaugh offered a correction and a weak apology.
I use pundits as source material for text-sound composition both to explore the sounds of the human voice and to highlight the words and meanings in political speech. It’s harrowing work sometimes, but somebody’s got to do it.
Additional offsite comments for this piece
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This uses the voice of Jean Sirius reading her text “Meditations for Women,” copyright 1981.
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