daria semegen / bülent arel “electronic music for dance” compact disc-recordable

• daria semegn - arc: music for dancers (13:40) 1977
  
• bulent arel - mimiana i: flux (10:40) 1968
  
  
• bulent arel - mimiana ii: frieze (13:02) 1969
  
• bulent arel - mimiana iii: six & seven (12:23) 1973

creel pone press release...

this creel pone edition includes: 1 x crystal-clear re-sealable polypropylene cd sleeve with a green / gold foil stamp affixed to the exterior 1 x double-sided professionally printed full-color semi-gloss photo-stock booklet 1 x six-color inkjet-printed compact disc-recordable in a high-density round-bottom anti-static cd sleeve the myriad, diverse sonorities, expressions, and articulations of the electronic music medium provide a remarkable array of musical colors especially suitable for combination with the visual medium of dance. the electronic music works on this recording were composed expressly for modern dance and were commissioned by choreographer mimi garrard in the span of nearly a decade. each individual musical work is uniquely related to its own choreography. collectively, the compositions reflect varying degrees of complexity and diversity of both an aesthetic and technical nature, and a wide range of emotional expression. in creating a dance work, often the choreographer may chart out a meticulously detailed plan of action on stage, including each beat or count of the dance in exact tempos, descriptions of dancers' movements which may form essential and recurring motives in the dance, and elaborate lighting effects. then, the musical score is composed to synchronize with these aspects of the choreography. the dancers, in turn, synchronize their own movements to the music throughout the choreography, and the composer's musical score must be lucid, technically precise, as well as a sensitive aesthetic interpretation of the dance. sometimes, the situation is reversed and the choreography is based on an already composed, previously commissioned electronic work, perhaps itself based on an overall expression or programmatic idea suggested by the choreographer, or else created by the composer as a work purely abstract in nature. in any event, the composer's intention is to create a work which complements the dance and is one of its essential components, and which can exist also as a complete musical work in its own right in this recording, the composers' virtuosity and musical mastery of the medium is unmistakably evident in these singular and engaging works of electronic music for dance. bulent arel's series of mimianas was produced at the columbia-princeton electronic music center, and daria semegen's arc: music for dancers was realized at the electronic music studios at the state university of new york at stony brook, long island. the complete works combining choreography, music, and lighting images have been performed by the mimi garrard dance theatre initially in new york city and subsequently on tour. arel - mimiana i: flux [1968] the dance work includes a film which projects changing colors, patterns, and numbers on the dancers, creating continuously changing abstract designs. this first electronic music score of the mimiana series was composed after the choreography was completed, and consists of purely electronic sound phrases which parallel the overall gestures of the dancers, without indicating any specific beats or metric patterns, as such. arel - mimiana ii: frieze [1969] the choreography for frieze was completed some time before the musical score was composed. after seeing the dance, the composer's general impression was that of early egyptian reliefs in which the human faces are seen in profile, while their torsos are facing outward. the dance suggested a feeling of a completely ritualistic procession consisting of slow and deliberate movements of the dancers. except for a few contrasting short bursts of fast, active sequences, the dance never lost its hypnotic character. in the musical score, all sounds are electronically produced and, coincidentally, the work reflects some tonal feelings. from the middle part of the score, where "pure sounds" or sine waves are used, microtones are introduced and begin to give a descending character to the previously existing pitches by gradually shifting the pitch structure downward-creating an intentionally blurred pitch relation. the sound colors and articulations are restricted only to those which seemed to best reflect the feeling of the dance. arel - mimiana iii: six & seven [1973] the music is buoyant in nature and was composed following a list of various rhythms and tempos previously designed by the choreographer mimi garrard. the dance consists of a total of seven dancers, numerically identified by changeable neon-light number displays on the helmets of their costumes, and grouped into a set of six against the single seventh dancer. throughout the dance, the six reject the seventh dancer by either ganging up on, or retreating from her. the music opens with an exposition of the numbers from 1 through 7. as #1 appears, the single basic beat is heard in the music. when #2 and #3 arrive, the beat is subdivided into two and three (triplet) pulses respectively. so it continues, in the manner of an inventory of numbers through the introduction of the work. when a certain number is highlighted in the dance, its musical motive reappears. this beginning section uses overlapping phrases of these subdivisions of the main beat forming smooth layers of sounds. the music progresses toward a gradually introduced double-bass type sound which outlines each beat clearly and dominates the ending section of the work. in the end, as the seventh dancer finally expires, repetitions of a high seven-tone ostinato are heard, as the music ends by gradually fading away. mimiana iii was composed using electronic sounds including the buchla synthesizer as an elaborate source material generator in combination with tape mixing and editing techniques. semegen - arc: music for dancers [1977] the music was composed following the choreographer's detailed graph-diagram indicating each beat of the dance and descriptions of dancers' motions on stage, combined with a plan of synchronous stage lighting effects. the dance itself does not suggest a specific programmatic idea throughout, but each section of its arc pattern seems to feature motivic gestures ranging from slow, graceful movements to rapid motions involving solo, duet, and trio combinations of the seven dancers. sometimes, the lighting effects themselves are featured in precise synchronization with the music, and create elaborate silhouette designs as they play across symmetrical groups of stationary dancers. the piece consists of five parts whose themes, tempos, and "orchestrations" are arranged in the shape of an arc (a b c b a). each section is itself divided into a smaller arc ( a b a ). after a brief introduction of phrases in groups of three beats each, the first part begins with two motivic elements arranged in a simple question-answer idea: lower range sounds on the beat, and contrasting high echoed flourishes in alternation. section b introduces both a new tempo and "orchestration" or sound texture, as well as a new motive featuring a tremolo effect on harsh sounds alternated in various patterns from one channel to the other. a six note ostinato appears toward the middle of this section and is gradually integrated into a polyphonic passage. section c's theme resembles an orchestral "tutti" and is followed by a variation of the tremolo idea and echo figurations heard previously. although the music is essentially tonal and establishes various temporary tonal centers throughout, microtones and the characteristically rich textures of electronic sound sources provide dissonant impressions counterbalancing the tonal aspects. the work was composed using a buchla series 200 synthesizer and classic studio techniques. the music tape was synchronized at bell telephone labs with the program of the mimi garrard dance theatre's portable computer-controlled lighting system by mimi garrard and james seawright in preparation for arc's first presentation in may of 1977. biilent arel (b. 1919, istanbul, turkey) graduated from and taught at the ankara state conservatory. he was the first musical director and tonmeister of radio ankara and pioneered in the field of electronic music combined with conventional instruments with his music for string quartet & oscillator (1957). in 1959 he was invited to the united states as the recipient of a rockefeller research grant to the columbia-princeton electronic music center and contributed significantly to the field as an innovator, teacher, and composer of over a dozen major works. he taught composition at yale university where he designed and installed the electronic music studio in 1962, and at columbia university as a frequent visiting lecturer. since 1971, he has been professor of music and director of the electronic music studios at the state university of new york at stony brook, long island. his works include instrumental, vocal, and symphonic music as well as music for the ballet, theatre, television, and film. he is a recipient of several national endowment for the arts grants and commissions from the new york cultural council foundation and the columbia-princeton electronic music center. daria semegen (b. 1946, bamberg, germany) studied at the eastman school of music, yale and columbia universities, and in warsaw, poland as a fulbright scholar. her composition teachers include samuel h. adler, robert gauldin, butrill phillips, witold lutoslawski, biilent arel, and vladimir ussachevsky. she has received numerous awards in composition including two bmi awards, chautauqua, macdowell colony, and tanglewood fellowships, fulbright grant, two national endowment for the arts commissions, prizes from yale university, mu phi epsilon, and the iscm int'l. electronic music competition for her work electronic composition #1 . she is author of instrumental and electronic music and has published articles on electronic music in the music journal. since 1972, she was on the teaching staff of the columbia-princeton electronic music center and also worked as technical assistant to v. ussachevsky and otto luening. in january 1974, she joined the dept of music of the state university of new york at stony brook where she is asst professor and associate director of the electronic music studios.

“columbia-princeton electronic music center 1961-1973” compact disc

• bülent arel - postlude from “music for a sacred service” (3:56) 1961
  
• charles dodge - earth’s magnetic field (14:01) 1971
  
• ilhan mimaroglu - prelude no. 8 (to the memory of edgard varese) (3:54) 1966
  
• bülent arel & daria semegen - out of into (16:32) 1972
  
• ingram marshall - cortez (8:30) 1973
  
• daria semegen - electronic composition no. 1 (5:47) 1971
  
• alice shields - dance piece no. 3 (5:46) 1969
  
• alice shields - study for voice and tape (5:17) 1968