| $15.21
back in stock as of
december 19th, 2008
first in stock on
november 28th, 2007
threads:
modern-composition
electro-acoustic-composition
live-electronic
analogue-synth
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| | | new world (usa) #nw 80563 cd “works by robert erickson, harvey sollberger, peter westergaard, phillip rhodes, edwin dugger” compact disc - phillip rhodes - duo for violin and cello (12:43)
- harvey sollberger - grand quartet for flutes (7:56)
- robert erickson - ricercar for 5 trombones (12:39)
- peter westergaard - variations for six player (9:15)
- edwin dugger - music for synthesizer and six instruments (6:58)
| | ... mainly for the edwin dugger piece, which i discovered when i ran across the acoustic research lp containing it a few years back ... a nice, obscure blip in the early “synthesizer with ensemble” radar ... |
| | new world press release... |
| edwin dugger’s 1966 music for synthesizer and six instruments represents another development of the sixties avant-garde, experiments in electronic sound. as computers and synthesizers increasingly dominate pop idioms—often with a mechanical, homogenizing effect—it is useful to recall their poetic, largely unrealized potential. as a colorful example of their unresolved status in the past, dugger’s piece raises tantalizing questions: is electronic sound the music of the future, or is it all too often, in pierre boulez’s phrase, the music of science fiction? do synthesizers constitute, as edgard varèse hoped, new materials for a new music, or do they merely enhance traditional ensembles with an illusion of revolutionary novelty?
dugger’s music for synthesizer and six instruments plays with all these possibilities. as with the other works on this recording, instruments imitate and blend into each other, distributing among themselves individual notes in the melodic line—yet the electronic element creates a different sound and sensibility. in the first movement, the instruments and synthesizer act independently, alternating in an antiphonal pattern that emphasizes the independence of each. only in a single tutti shortly before the end do the two forces come together. in the somber second movement, the synthesizer and six instruments play simultaneously, reinforcing their similarities, teasing the ear into deciding just where electronic music ends and acoustic begins. in the finale, an elaborate cadenza for synthesizer alone steals the show. the expressive content is similarly varied: hisses, squawks, and gurgles—the loopy “science fiction” sound associated with electronic music—gradually elongate into a more chordal, lyrical discourse. a final sigh from the strings ends the music on a note of quiet mystery. |
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