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new to stock as of
january 20th, 2006
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1960s-electornic
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early-electronic
sound-research
text-sound
electro-acoustic
lo-fi
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| | | creel pone (usa) #creelp knight cd morris knight “after guernica” compact disc recordable - after guernica (1969)
- the origin of the prophesy (1964)
- luminescences (1967)
- refractions for clarinet and tape (1962)
| welcome to 2006! once again the boxes from reykjavik have started arriving on thursday mornings like clockwork (i hope you enjoyed the break!) let’s start up again not with an outright explosion of lost tape-psych damage (to give us all time to recover) but with a rather remarkable set of subtle, lo-fi electronic compositions composed throughout the 60s & originally released in the early 70s on the private-press “golden crest records, inc.” label.
of the past creel pones, this one has the most in common with the george engler “inside of the outside” title; long, dynamic stretches of dissant ensemble/tape-sound, mired in cavernous murk and questionable engineering practices suddenly erupt in rising waves of feedback, field-recorded clanks and whirrs, and piles of distortion. the second piece, “the origin of the prophesy”, has a continuous voice-over; heavy stereo & echo over a bit of backwards bell-chains and metal clangs that comes across as a rural american intersystems “cover band”
the bottom line; if you’re into lo-fi mid-60s bedroom-tape-music-studio antics i can’t imagine how you’ll be let down by this; it’s crawling with the sort of signifiers that all creel pones possess... |
| | creel pone press release... |
| this creel pone edition includes:
1 x crystal-clear resealable polypropylene cd sleeve with a red / gold foil stamp affixed to the exterior
1 x single-sided six-color inkjet-printed hand-cut photo-stock booklet
1 x double-sided six-color inkjet-printed hand-cut & folded card-stock insert
1 x one-color inkjet-printed compact disc recordable in a high-density round-bottom cd sleeve
in 1952, while an undergraduate at the university of georgia, morris knight was actively continuing his career as a professional instrumentalist and arranger in both symphonic and jazz organizations in the atlanta area. that year he met h. ray warren, a guitarist and physicist, who was exploring the then new field of tape recording. mr. warren, who has numerous patented inventions and refinements in the electronic field to his credit, introduced the composer to the possibilities and potential of these new developments in tape recording as a resource for serious composition. knight credits this initial exposure and friendship with ray warren as one of the prime influences in his development as a composer of tape music.
since advanced recording facilities were available only at commercial radio stations, the composer joined the staff of wrfc in athens, georgia, after his graduation in 1956, so that he could continue his work with this new resource for composition. although he continued to write for traditional ensembles and instruments, these early years were primarily devoted to exploring this new medium and resulted in his first experimental tape works. if we recognize the fact that electronic music was largely unknown until the early 60s even in the most sophisticated musical circles, it is not difficult to believe the composer's statement that he was completely unaware of european and american developments when he completed his first extended tape composition in 1960. recognition of this fact adds considerable significance to his first efforts in this medium. what is important for our purposes is the fact that the composer completed refractions and the origin of the prophesy while under the impression that he was doing pioneering work in this medium. today, the history of the last twenty years of electronic music in europe and america is well enough known that it need not be recounted here.
knight continued to work in radio until 1964 when he joined the theory and composition department at ball state university. together with dr. robert sherman: chairman of this department, the composer began work on a project designed to facilitate the development of ear-training through the medium of recorded musical examples. this project was aided by a large grant from the federal government which enabled the two composers to design and have installed a tape laboratory equipped with the finest professional recording facilities. luminescences and after guernica were realized on this equipment. the four works on this recording help in completing the picture of morris knight as a composer.
refractions for clarinet and tape was completed in 1962 and is dedicated to the soloist, david sweetkind. the three movement work, ,which exhibits rhythmic characteristics which recur in later works, is ostensibly in free or open form, with some of the tape sounds apparently related to clarinet sonorities. in fact, all the tape material is taken from the solo part, but is often transformed beyond the point of recognition. in addition, each of the movements uses one of the traditional classical formal procedures, and the entire work might well be entitled sonata for clarinet and tape!
the opening movement follows the structural principles of sonata form closely. after the opening tape 'theme" (admitting that this traditional term has connotations which are clearly not applicable to most of the music on this recording), the subsidiary theme is given to the soloist. the influence of jazz is clearly present in the brief ascending diatonic scale motif. the development is primarily devoted to intervalic and rhythmic transformations of this motif. a descending chromatic passage built on the interval of the major third leads to the recapitulation, which is abridged by simultaneous soundings of both the primary' and subsidiary themes. the second movement, in modified song form (aba') opens with the soloist and tape exchanging brief motifs. the b section is dominated by the clarinet, which becomes progressively more rhapsodic and intense, leading to an impassioned outburst in the instrument's highest register. after a brief transition, the 'opening material returns but in highly modified form. the concluding movement is in rondo form, with the refrain emphasizing tape sounds. there are three couplets, dominated by the clarinet, which alternate with returns of the refrain. at the end of the final couplet the clarinet clearly states the first theme of the opening movement. the traditional additive rondo form (abacada) is most apparent if the listener focuses on change and contrast of textures. in refractions, the pervasive atmosphere is one of jaunty good spirits, with irony tempered by good humor.
the origin of the prophesy was completed in 1964 while knight was on the staff of ksfr-fm in san francisco and is based on the first section of an extended poem by chan sieg, a close friend of the composer. in almost all respects this work differs from refractions which clearly belongs to the class of "absolute" or non-programatic music. origin, for speaker and tape, is closer to the tradition of program music, since the composer considers the text of primary importance. since the realization of the earlier work, a new device known as a "paning" control had been invented. this allows the composer to create the illusion of an infinite number of sound sources between the two speakers, resulting in a much more sophisticated use of stereophony than was previously possible. in addition to this very obvious improvement, the listener may notice a considerable broadening of the frequency spectrum, which reflects the fact that the radio station had recently been equipped with the most advanced circuitry then available.
while in san francisco, knight had access to an incred. ible variety of oriental and near-eastern musical instruments. for the sound material in this work, more than fifteen different types of cymbals, a variety of bamboo flutes and numerous stringed instruments, predominantly those intended to be plucked, were used. the recorded sou nd of these instruments was subjected to varying degrees of electronic transformation. the acute listener may recognize a brief segment of piano sound, which the composer incorporated from an earlier score. this is the only western instrument used. in addition, the composer, who was the speaker in this realization, has manipulated and mutated the sound of his voice, which in some sections has been multiplied to suggest a large male chorus. this technique, in addition to sprechstimme (a cross between singing and reading with pitches notated but not intended to be sung in the traditional manner, invented by schoenberg in 1912) was used in two earlier versions of the work, which have been performed. since he values the poetry to such a high degree, and the earlier versions occasionally distorted the text to the point of unintelligibility, knight has withdrawn these versions from his catalog.
origin is essentially through-composed, although the work is divided into two sections to correspond to the mood of the poem which begins in a philosophical and somewhat mystical vein but concludes in a rather more objective and ironic tone. the work displays both greater inventiveness and a more economical use of tape material than refrac. tions. these qualities demonstrate that while the composer had superior equipment with which to work, he had achieved greater control and sensitivity to the medium in a remarkably short period of time. by the time he had joined the faculty at ball state, his growing reputation as a composer resulted in numerous invitations to participate in symposia and concerts of new music. he freely admits to the effect that these experiences have had on his work but emphasizes the fact that most of the electronic music he heard interested him predominantly in terms of the materials chosen and the techniques utilized rather than the formal procedures followed.
luminescences, completed in 1967, was written for the ball state ballet which is directed by the composer's wife, who choreographed the premier performance. unlike the two preceding works, this composition utilizes predominantly electronically generated sound and consists of five sharply differentiated movements each of which explores the potentials of a particular body of sound. the opening movement uses isolated high frequence pitches which are subjected to rapid reverberation. although there is no apparent symetrical repetition scheme, the rate of change is rapid, generating the feeling of a fast tempo. the dynamic level throughout this movement is relatively constant, and the aural effect is remarkably 'analagous to the sight of aerial fireworks exploding. this is followed by a strongly contrasting movement in which very low frequency pitches and an extrem'ely slow rate of change are coupled with an extended gradual crescendo. the result is a pulsating continum of sound which is rather dirge-like in effect.
following the opening pair of movements, both of which use recognizable pitches, the third movement employs an electronic sound called "white noise". this sonority is an aggregate of slightly differentiated pitches, with each successive tone recorded over the preceding conglomerate. the effect is not dissimilar to "tone clusters", which were used in early experimental piano music. in this movement, each successive section has a strong feeling of internal symetry, although again no consistant repetition scheme is apparent. the fourth movement uses highly percussive non-pitch sound. here the formal organization is much more apparent, resembling the second movement of refractions (aba'). the contrast is achieved by using a higher frequency level for the middle section.
the final movement is more extensive than the preceding four and uses the concept of continuous variation, with the entire movement based on transformations of the opening material. with the continual addition of new variants, a polyphonic texture is achieved which undergoes a rapid crescendo, in the process becoming compressed into a series of tone clusters with five-fold reverberation and rapid intensity decay. these clusters gradually become symetrically arranged with the level of activity continuing long enough to project a feeling of completion of the variation process. accompanied by a reduction in reverberation and volume, the clusters are progressively "atomized", and the movement ends in silence. the composition projects a strong feeling of organic unity, not unlike the natural process of germination, growth, florescence, decay and death.
in this writer's opinion, after guernica (1969) is knight's most successful electronic composition. historically, it belongs to the tradition of program music, with works by liszt, tschaikowsky and richard strauss as its most obvious pre. cursors. unlike this earlier genere, the guernica music was inspired by picasso's painting rather than by literature. this canvas, now in the museum of modern art in new york, is considered by many to be the artist's most powerful and evocative work. we know how strongly picasso reacted to the news and photographs of the destruction of the spanish town and its inhabitants. the result was a mural on canvas, in black, white and grey, which is an overwhelming evocation of the agony of war. like countless others who have studied the painting only in reproductions, the impact of the 26 foot long canvas on the composer when he first saw it in 1968 was both profound and disturbing. it is the continuing memory of these sensations which prompted this composition. like picasso, knight limited his choice of materials, using only isolated pitch tones and pitchless clusters, however the resulting composition is not an "aural" equivalent of the canvas since the painting literally explodes into reality when viewed. the composer has chosen a technique which achieves a similar end but through different means. to use a pictorial analogy, the composition resembles a newsreel of the event frozen in the last frame, long after the height of the bombing. gradually, the film is run in reverse, slowly at first, but accelerating continuously until the peak of the disaster is reached.
the composition begins at a very low dynamic level, with isolated sounds widely separated by silence. almost imperceptibly, the volume and level of activity increases, and with it the frequency of recurrence of the sound material. the percussive sounds begin to resemble the explosions of bombs and machinegun fire, and the pitch sounds resemble a threnody of human anguish, while the dynamic level approaches the threshold of pain. having generated aural and emotional tension of almost unbearable intensity from which there must be some release, the sound abruptly ceases. the composition concludes with wisps of sound a muffled moan, the echo of a distant explosion reduced to a murmur and finally, silence. for those fortunate enough to have seen the canvas, the expressive intensity reached in the com. position is remarkably similar to that of the painting. the music is a compelling and evocative experience even for those who are unaware of either the painting or the events which prompted picasso to paint it.
on a more abstract level, the composer has incorporated in his recent tape compositions a growing awareness of the expressive quality of silence (which can be thought of as "negative" sound) in the musical experience. all too often, composers who work with tapeseem to feel that they must have continuous waves of sound engulfing the listener. in their zeal to leave no stone unturned in their investigation and development of the materials, they leave the listener buried under an avalanche of sound. silence not only provides a point of relaxation for the listener but can also function as a powerful source of suspense and anticipation for the music to follow.
with more than 20 years experience in writing for all media, morris knight has obviously learned this important lesson, and it is a pleasure to imagine what powerful yet sensitive music the composer will create in the future. |
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