Category Archives: 2004

Music composed in 2004

Away in a Manger

[play]Away in a Manger (2004)

If you like this piece, please consider donating to Shelter, a charity that deals with homelessness in the UK.

In 2004, back when I was doing my MA, I had just devised algorithms for automated cutting for Text Sound Poetry. I was mostly using these on political pundits, but when the holidays came around, I thought I could have my mac’s internal voice read some hymn lyrics and then do some cutting. The computer brightly proclaimed, ‘I love you, Lord Jesus!’ and I felt giddy with horror.

My partner at the time listened to it and said it was too cynical. So it sad on a hard drive for these last 11 years. It probably is too cynical for Christmas, but it’s not altogether out of place for this project.

This track is part of a larger project, ’12 days of Crimbo’, which will raise funds for homeless and/or LGBT charities.

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Bell Tolls

Bell Tolls
2004

This piece plays triads with a sound that resembles wind chimes. It uses a spatialization algorithm so that each “chime” sounds like it is coming from a different location. The pitch of each new set of chimes is based on the pitch of the chimes that precede it. The pitches come from a 21-limit tuning table.

I wrote this piece while going through a divorce. It was intended to sound angry, but instead seems sad.

Des triades des cloches fausses.

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In Fifths

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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Et sonnera le baffroy de la ville sans cesser durant l’assault

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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State of Disunion

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

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

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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