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threads:
1970s-electronic
musique-concrète
electro-acoustic-composition
modern-composition
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| | | creel pone (uk) #creelp smalley cd denis smalley “the pulses of time” compact disc recordable - the pulses of time (19:58) 1979
- pentes (12:53) 1974
- chanson de geste (16:25) 1978
| update: november 2007: i’m hereby making the last few copies of this lovely creel pone available to those who missed it the first time around. as per mr. smalley request i will mention that the piece “pentes” is readily available (“direct from master; and relatively recently remastered for reissue”) on disc from the empreintes digitales label... the other two (specifically the title-piece) remain otherwise un-represented in the digital era...
creel pone of a 1981 lp privately released by the university of east anglia containing three sparse musique concrète pieces composed between 1974 and 1979 at the grm and uea studios by new zealand born/bred composer denis smalley.
widely considered to be one the classics of early british electro-acoustic music (alongside trevor wishart’s “journey into space” & “red bird”, desmond leslie’s “music of the future”, and basil kirchin’s “worlds within worlds”), the three pieces on “pulses” each work discrete combinations of synthesized timbres, processed close-mic’ed instrumentation, and slowly shifting/morphing drones...
no shortage of documentation on the modus/practices at work here, so i’ll let the libretto (below) do the talking... those who found favor and/or inspiration within the hilda dianda, jocy de oliveira, and/or “new zealand electronic music” creel pones will be in familiar terrority here...
electro-acoustic music uses electronic technology to create and transform sounds. it harnesses the resources of the recording studio, synthesizers, specialised treatment devices, and computers for musical composition and performance.
the three works on this record represent two types of electroacoustic music. the pulses of time and pentes exist only on stereo tape and were composed using the resources of the studios where they were created, the groupe de recherches musicales, paris, which now forms part of the institut national de l'audiovisuel, and the recording and electronic studio at the university of east anglia, england. both works involve extensive transformation of instrumental and electronic sounds. chanson de geste on the other hand is a live performance piece which needs closely positioned microphones to magnify sounds otherwise inaudible, and to enable detailed sound-balancing.
the three works were composed over a period of five years.
pentes (1974) has been widely acclaimed and with another of denis smalley's works won the fylkingen prize for electronic composition in sweden in 1975. chanson degeste (1978) which uniquely combines new vocal techniques with clavichord sounds was composed for carol plantamura, one of the foremost american sopranos specialising in new music. the pulses of time (1979) has been widely broadcast and performed in concerts and festivals in many parts of the world
denis smalley, born in new zealand, in 1946, now iive:s in england and works in norwich where he is lecturer in music at the university of east anglia. his music displays consummate skill in using electro-acoustic resources in a strikingly imaginative and individual manner. |
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| | creel pone press release... |
| this creel pone edition includes:
1 x crystal-clear resealable polypropylene cd sleeve with a black / 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 page one-color laser-printed hand-cut insert
1 x six-color inkjet-printed compact disc recordable in a high-density round-bottom cd sleeve
...
the pulses of time
electro-acoustic music in perspective
modern man's awareness of music can be attributed to his assimilation and knowledge of a variety of codes of musical expression stretched over several centuries. upon the universal foundations of physical and physiological facts which determine the natural basis of sound and its perception man has constructed instruments and musical languages integrated into the structures and functions of life as an aid to understanding himself and his existence
in the last two centuries the economic and social results of industrialisation have instigated fundamental changes in musical technology and resources, in music's social roles, and therefore in music itself. electronic technology is the most recent medium of change. it has furnished the composer and performer with new creative resources, has made possible the conservation and dissemination of music from the past, and has enabled the colonisation of previously unknown music from other cultures. musical life has become increasingly dependent upon electro-acoustic resources and means.
the recording, or electro-acoustic, studio which has spawned an extensive music industry has also been the focus of the most important changes in western musical composition this century. once tape recorders, amplifiers, loudspeakers and oscillators became available in the nineteen-fifties, musicians were able to harness the new potential suggested and predicted by composers several decades earlier.
today's electro-acoustic music embraces the widest possible variety of sounds and musical styles. sound resources may be voices or traditional instruments, unaltered, or transformed through studio processes. they may be sound objects discovered by chance, or developed rationally or intuitively with a synthesizer or computer. human sound behaviour, environmental sounds, and music borrowed tram our past or trom other cultures can be used. electroacoustic music on tape includes the vocal behaviour of berio's visage, the creaking door of henri's variations pour une porte et un soupir, piano and percussion extended through electronic sounds in stockhausen's kontakte, the music borrowed from other cultures and transformed in stockhausen's telemusik, the invented and borrowed sound objects of kagel's acustica, the environmental sounds of a 'soundscape' work from canada, a psychological and political drama like trevor wishart's red bird, a computer-generated audio-visual spectacle such as xenakis' diatope, and the belter known tonal synthesizer creations of jean-michel jarre, there is no common musical style relating these works. the tonal commercialism of jarre is far removed from the sound masses of xenakis, and the strong behavioural elements of visage are lor the listener a totally diflerent experience from the abstract propositions of kontakte, although in both works there is shared thought about the ways seemingly opposed sounds can be related. as in other musical media - the orchestra, for example - the composer adapts and moulds his medium to suit his musical make-up.
if the variety of musical approaches and styles appears confusing and even contradictory, how has electro-acoustic music influenced music history? it has offered radical steps in the expansion of sound resources. composers now seek out musical potential in all sounds. a more colourful audio-spectrum is available and accepted. this means a change of emphasis in music's values. the composer can draw the listener's altentions to aspects of sound other than the equally-tempered pitches of the major and minor modes and their development into the tonal harmonic system. changes during the twentieth century firstly highlight a shift towards a timbral or spectral approach to sound structures, secondly, we have gradually become aware that temporal and rhythmic perceptions cover a wider domain than that offered through traditional metrical organisation. both trends are represented in the music on this recording
a slgnificant feature of pentes is the slow evolution of a harmonic progression introducing the northumbrian pipes' melody. if played on the piano this progression would appear mundane. however, in this context, its temporal elongation and the careful revelation and control of the internal, fluctuating harmonics extracted through transformations in the studio ensure that many more qualities contribute to its impact than merely the ellect of the chord progression alone. interest focuses on the subtle pulsed shifts in the harmonic spectrum.
the dramatic, metallic attacks and resonances derived from transformations of gongs and metal bars in the pulses of time provide a second example. the attack-resonance is a familiar percussive soundtype. the moment of percussion sets the resonating object in vibrations which gradually decay. once the attack has set the process in motion there is little which can be done to intervene significantly in the evolutionary process except dampening the sound. such sounds are inharmonic - the pitch content of discrete components of metallic masses cannot be predicted. the consequences of unpredictability and the lack of response to useful human control have meant that such sound-types have been relatively neglected in musical compostion over the centuries, more particularly in western europe where instrumental traditions developed a pitch-system based on the predictable and controllable vibrations of strings and columns of air. it is not surprising, therefore, that the seductive timbres of gongs and belts, capable of considerable carrying power, found roles in ceremony and religion, accumulating symbolic connotations which still reverberate today. in electro-acoustic composition the richness of these sounds can be captured and developed. their interior detail can be magnified, controlled, and revealed. the metallic resonances in the pulses of time can appear as a relaxing chord progression (although they would be difficult to translate into conventional musical notation), and are developed in waves of increasing complexity to the stage where the interior character is transformed through multiple superimpositions into noise-like contours. the considerable possibilities of in harmonic spectra are one aspect currently being explored in computer sound synthesis. the real extent of their potential has probably yet to be revealed.
the electronically synthesized bounced sounds in the same work provide a third example of the nature of pitch-time development in electro-acoustic music. a bounce is a series of accelerating pulses which, as they fall closer together, are perceived as timbre as much as a rhythm. if the pulses occur closely enough at a stable rate before the sound stops, and if the collaborating acoustic circumstances cooperate, a pitch will be perceived. such a sound, which to the listener-observer may appear simple, is the result of a complex set of circumstances involving pitch and time. this sound which is not usually recognised for its musical potential can be made musical through composition; its easily recognisable values make it a suitable candidate for development, allowing the composer to control the perception of rates of change and pitch or timbral content.
the above examples could have occurred only in tape composition since the compositional processes involved many steps which must be captured on magnetic tape over a period of time. they cannot easily, if at all, be recreated, at least not with the methods currently available. live compositions, or compositions to be performed in real time, must have recourse to different procedures although within the work of a single composer stylistic similarities wilt often appear. in instrumental and vocal works points of correspondence must occur among the different musical sources if fruitful relationships are to be structured. in traditional music this common ground is provided primarily by a stable pitch system but pitch in terms of keys and harmony is not the only correspondence system available, and in chanson de geste it is not the only system used. the attack-resonance type of sound is prevalent and can be created with great variety among the limited resources through careful orchestration. noise-like attacks are provided by clavichord clusters and resonances struck on various parts of the instrument's body, by voiceless consonants, stones, a wooden ruler, and a tuning fork. these acoustic sources metal, wood, stone, and air - combining the vibration of strings, a column of air, an in harmonic metallic mass, and wooden and stone masses, ensure interesting timbral combinations. natural resonances come from the clavichord and tuning fork but can be extended or decorated by the voice, either using pitches or noise-like air contours. the voice's timbral spectrum is enlarged by the use of harmonics. amplification increases the detail of sound qualities available to the composer, greatly expanding the potential musical language. it is by way of microphones, amplification and mixer that the balancing of otherwise disparate and incompatible sound sources takes place. although an instrumental and vocal work, chanson de geste, both in its approach to musical language and as a performance medium, is an electro-acoustic work.
it is the composer's aim to draw the listener's attention to the expressive powers of these newer qualities. traditional pitch and rhythmic values are not to be discarded but incorporated in an expanding sound medium where a more comprehensive approach to the audio-spectrum and its temporal behaviour has changed and is changing human perception of the nature of sound and music.
denis smalley
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denis smalley was born in new zealand in 1946 where he lived until 1971. after university studies in composition and performance he made a living as a teacher and recital organist before leaving new zealand on a french government bursary to study in paris where he spent a year in olivier messiaen's composition class at the paris conservatoire. but it was while learning the fundamental 'classical' studio techniques in the composition course taught by the groupe de recherches musicales that he discovered the real imaginative possibilities offered by electroacoustic music. he continued specialising in electroacoustic music composition while completing a doctorate at the university of york, england, and in 1975 was appointed composition fellow at the university of east anglia, norwich; since 1976 he has been lecturer in music there. his first major performance took place in the domaine musical series in paris in 1973. since that time his music has been performed and broadcast in more than fifteen countries and has been awarded prizes in international competitions - the fylkingen prize in 1975, and the bourges electro-acoustic awards in 1977.
carol plantamura was born in los angeles. her first major public appearance was in a performance of the boulez improvisations sur mallarmé under the composer's direction. she was a founding member of the center for the creative and performing arts at the state university of new york in buffalo, and in europe has appeared as a concert and opera soloist in major festivals and with distinguished new music ensembles including the ensemble intercontemporain in paris. she is a member of the five centuries ensemble, which has recently made five highly-acclaimed recordings of seventeenth-century italian music for italia records, and is currently a professor in the music faculty at the university of california at san diego.
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side one
the pulses of time
the pulses of time reflects differing approaches to the roles of pulses in time. the main uses of pulse in this piece are the familiar, regular pulses of metre, the broader pulses which regulate the pacing of musical sections, and the pulses which make up the internal behaviour of sounds - the acceleration of pulses in bounced sounds, and the micro-pulses of granular noise-textures
the character of the piece is determined by the contrasting sound sources - the rich clavichord language originally discovered in chanson de geste, a prolific family of electronic 'bounces', metallic resonances associated with dramatic gong-like attacks. noise-like contours, cascades and textures, and both real and synthesized drumming and percussion.
synopsis of events
- slow clavichord clusters and resonances;
- introduction of deep, synthesized bounces;
- clavichord and bounce development over a drone;
- development of bounces;
- percussive dance-like section with clavichord underlay;
- arch-form and noise cascade announcing attack with resonance;
- clavichord and bounces development;
- expansion of atlacks and metallic resonances towards noise-textures;
- arch form and noise-cascade resolving into the closing clavichord development.
the pulses of time was commissioned by the west square electronic music association, london, with funds provided by the arts council of great britain.
side two
pentes
the french title - slopes, inclines, ascents - was suggested by the outlines of broad stretches in the piece, which evoke spacious landscapes. most of the music was composed by transforming instrumental sounds. however, the only recognisible sound source is the northumbrian pipes whose drone is responsible for the slowly evolving harmonies out of which a haunting traditional melody appears.
the main features of pentes are:
- a series of 'explosions' with pulsed decays layered into increasingly complex textures;
- a dramatic attack initiating a series of ascending and descending slopes which develop into pulsing noise contours released in a broad descending sweep;
- slow evolution of pulsed harmonies resolving on to the northumbrian pipes' drone-pitch, out of which the melody emerges;
- pulsing bass drone interrupted by rapid events derived from earlier sound sequences;
- attacked slopes coming to rest on high, circling, metallic timbres
pentes was commissioned by the groupe de recherches musicales, paris, and composed in their studios in 1974.
chanson de geste
chanson de geste is dedicated to carol plantamura whose enthusiasm for new approaches to the use of the voice initiated the work. it is composed for solo female voice, a second subsidiary voice, clavichord, a pair of stones, a wooden ruler, and a tuning fork. the music material can either be performed by two soloists or be distributed among three performers. all sounds are amplilied by closely positioned microphones which magnify detail otherwise inaudible, and allow carefully orchestrated sound-balancing. the vocal style owes little to conventional ideas of singing. the voice is regarded as a collection of sound-sources based on the consonants and vowels of speech and song, produced in a variety of ways - two types of air production, vocal harmonics, air and harmonics sounding simultaneously, and conventional production with or without vibrato. it was important that such a vocal language should be universal rather than belong to the virtuosic technique of one particular performer, that the vocalist's normal singing should benefit from learning the techniques, and that the language should be detailed in articulation and inflexion. such subtleties, which are normally taught or absorbed intuitively as part of the fashions of peformance practice and are not written down, would need to be sensitively shaped if the music were to contain an expressive interior. for the most part there are no words. the few words used are chosen for their sound possibilities as much as their meaning. although specific meanings are therefore absent, the voice in collaboration with the other sound sources traverses a variety of emotional qualities between tranquility and turbulence, light-heartedness and seriousness. the title refers to the performance of epic medieval poems. however, the 'gestes' or events in the context of this chanson de geste are musical and visual rather than the narrated deeds of men. in live performance, hand gestures support and counteract musical action.
a pair of stones, a tuning fork, and a detailed clavichord sound-language complement and extend the voice. the clavichord was chosen because of the wide variety and great subtlety of its sounds. in its ability to 'bend' notes, produce vibrato, change its sound quality by producing harmonics, and articulate a variety of attacks, it ideally matches the voice. the player can also create resonant, percussive sounds by striking or tapping the sound-board, and can stroke and pluck the strings. as well as maintaining its own character the clavichord takes on 'oriental' and guitar-like guises, it was this rich range of expression which suggested the clavichord as a fruitful companion to the electronic sounds in the later taped electro-acoustic work, the pulses of time.
the remaining sound sources are a further enrichment both of the clavichord and the voice. the stones, lor example, can produce an equivalent of the consonant 'k'.
synopsis of events
- establishment of a slow time-base; long silences, percussive clusters; development of air contours, percussive sounds and resonances in longer phrases;
- appearances of pitches, snatches of melodic motives, harmonies and timbres;
- regular, pulsed rhythmic patterns;
- development of internal ornaments - pulses, trills, vibrato;
- slow motion articulation of 'sound' and 'word'; progression towards greater continuity and drones; emphasis on simple harmonies;
- the word 'harmonia' in slow motion harmonics and air contours;
- 'orchestrated' attacks and resonances culminating in a pulsed gong attack with decorated resonance resolving into breaths.
this recording is made with financial assistance from the arts council of great britain. |
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