SeSemester 1-2015
This is the introduction for a piece written in collaboration with choreographer Tia Hockey. Her piece is based off of a painting called 'Dark Tide' by William Robinson. Tia had heard some of my previous works and liked particular sounds that I regularly use, such as walked on glass and my brass object collection. For this piece however, I treated those elements in ways that I have not previously done before. As well as the usual application of compression and reverb on the glass and reversing of the brass, I began to pick and choose particular, short instances of sibilances and sustained sounds in the waveforms and repeat them rapidly to create a sense of anarchy or play them in isolation to draw attention to their nuances. Using this I developed some thematic material through repeated uses of extremely short instances of noise.
The second part of this piece uses short instances of sine waves to create clean, isolated sounds that draw attention to themselves as a feature of the piece. Low frequencies are employed to induce speaker clicking giving a sibilant yet full sound and high frequencies are used with delays and pitch shifting to create a sense of air. Electric organ is added to soften and familiarise the sound palette moving the piece into a new area. This part is not finished but an example of the sound palette can be found here.
Adding procoagulants or hemotoxins in several layers of pill capsules has been considered to make the work function on a smaller timescale as it causes blood to clot very quickly. |
Based off of a previous installation piece (Tooth Grinder) 'Coagulant' follows the same themes of decay of a physical human and machine mortality. I smaller scale piece than the tooth grinder, 'Çoagulant' places 200cc's of blood into a tumbler with spade like agitators. The tumbler slowly turns pouring the blood from one agitator to the next. Over time as the blood clots it will fall over the spades onto the next creating a more transient sound of a different nature.
Aesthetically this piece will be more refined and less grungy than the tooth grinder, contrasting the bloods vivid colour against stark whites. This piece is still in development, I am currently experimenting with coagulation times. The next stage is to experiment with the acoustic properties of different materials to finalise which ones will be used to make the tumbler. A quiet electric motor will be used to turn the tumbler which will be coated with a hydrophobic film so that the blood may maintain its mobility at all stages of the process. |
A semi-graphically scored solo for electronics and percussion utilizing feedback which runs through the physical body of a horizontal tam tam which has small pieces of thick broken glass sitting in it. A speaker below the tam tam causes the glass to rattle and settle in nodal points on the tam tam. Using modulation, the nodal points may be altered re-agitating the glass causing it to rattle at deliberate instances throughout the piece. The glass may also be physically manipulated with the brushes as well as playing instruments which are selected fur there timbrel relationship with one another. The choice of brushes helps to homogenise the sound sources and make their interactions with one another seem more subtle and nuanced.
Utilizing complex rhythms and a relatively high level of rhythmic virtuosity this piece derives aesthetic styling from 20th century music. |
My Involvement with Bury the heard has traditionally not been a very composition based one, mostly coming up with drum parts for works written by Michael Daines. This recording however was left to me to produce. Apart from the drum parts, and some minor structural input I was responsible for the intro and outro which I did using a very familiar sound palette to me. At 3:31 I made a feature of a sample to disguise a timing error in the guitar parts which could not be re-recorded as we were on a tight schedule. I also added a guitar melody line in the chorus' where I recorded the guitar part twice panning each take hard left and right. There is a pitch bend in this part which is deliberately played out of synchronisation with the other guitar part to create 'beating' in the sound and make a feature of dissonance. This recording was taken primarily in my home and mastered at Soundfeild Studios.
Recital Plans
I am in the process of planning an opera based on a girl institutionalized in the early 20th century. This was the dark age of psychological treatment when lobotomies and sterilization of inmates was common place. The story begins with a girl thrown into an institution for unclear reasons.
Piece 1
Spatialised, whispering choir
Piano
Electronics
I think semi-graphic notation consistent with my previous works would be suitable here though the employment of a conductor would be mandatory to keep a spatialised and scattered choir synchronized with a proportional (if not scrolling) score.
Piece 2
Here we see our main character struggle with her new and unfamiliar surroundings. We as the audience should question whether her claims of sanity are baseless or whether she is (as her charts dictate) schizophrenic.
Pieces 3 and 4 happen simultaneously in the narrative.
In piece 3 we see our main character converse with her silent super ego (behind a fractured mirror about whether she should remain consciously present present throughout the ordeal or indulge in escapism to lo lessen her anguish at her situation. We as the audience should be questioning whether this is her justified self consultation on the best way to deal with her situation or whether it is a symptom of her insanity.
Prerecorded vocal parts will interact with her live performance. A microphone behind the mirror will serve to electronically process her voice.
Piece 4 happens from the wardens perspective, watching our main character consult with a mirror. Instances of her singing from the previous piece will interject this piece with great tonal contrast to try to illustrate the non-linearity of the narrative and to better portray the contrasting opinions.
Piece 5 (the ambiguous conclusion)
Mostly instrumental
Our main character has embraced escapism. A multi disciplinary showcase taking place inside her mind as she decides her imagination would be a better place to reside than her subjective reality. Onlookers see this act as deeply sad despite her new feelings of empowerment.
I have to aim to capture a sense of hyper-reality and bliss, contrasting the darker tone of the rest of the opera.
Piece 1
Spatialised, whispering choir
Piano
Electronics
I think semi-graphic notation consistent with my previous works would be suitable here though the employment of a conductor would be mandatory to keep a spatialised and scattered choir synchronized with a proportional (if not scrolling) score.
Piece 2
Here we see our main character struggle with her new and unfamiliar surroundings. We as the audience should question whether her claims of sanity are baseless or whether she is (as her charts dictate) schizophrenic.
Pieces 3 and 4 happen simultaneously in the narrative.
In piece 3 we see our main character converse with her silent super ego (behind a fractured mirror about whether she should remain consciously present present throughout the ordeal or indulge in escapism to lo lessen her anguish at her situation. We as the audience should be questioning whether this is her justified self consultation on the best way to deal with her situation or whether it is a symptom of her insanity.
Prerecorded vocal parts will interact with her live performance. A microphone behind the mirror will serve to electronically process her voice.
Piece 4 happens from the wardens perspective, watching our main character consult with a mirror. Instances of her singing from the previous piece will interject this piece with great tonal contrast to try to illustrate the non-linearity of the narrative and to better portray the contrasting opinions.
Piece 5 (the ambiguous conclusion)
Mostly instrumental
Our main character has embraced escapism. A multi disciplinary showcase taking place inside her mind as she decides her imagination would be a better place to reside than her subjective reality. Onlookers see this act as deeply sad despite her new feelings of empowerment.
I have to aim to capture a sense of hyper-reality and bliss, contrasting the darker tone of the rest of the opera.
I shall look at employing psychological principles of phonemes and morphemes in the music. The difference between the smallest recognisable difference in fragments of speech (The difference between the pronounciation of letters "t" and "x" for example) and the smallest fragments of speech that make sense (small words) I think shares interesting parallels with music that should be explored.
Fechners Law - A bigger more intense stimulus requires a bigger change for contrast to be noticed. (Interesting contrast to my fascination with subtleties.)
Gestalt principles of grouping - Proximity, Similarity, Common Fate, Simplicity, Connectedness, Synchrony, Common Region, Cosure, Texture, Continuity and Location
Subliminal and supraliminal stimulation
Habituation vs Sensetization (perhaps not for recital)
Fechners Law - A bigger more intense stimulus requires a bigger change for contrast to be noticed. (Interesting contrast to my fascination with subtleties.)
Gestalt principles of grouping - Proximity, Similarity, Common Fate, Simplicity, Connectedness, Synchrony, Common Region, Cosure, Texture, Continuity and Location
Subliminal and supraliminal stimulation
Habituation vs Sensetization (perhaps not for recital)
Liquid City
I have recently developed a new technique for pitch bending drum-kit parts in a polyphonic manner which I think gives the instrument a certain kind of liberation. I have begun to write a percussion ensemble piece featuring drum-kit to showcase this style though the complexity of the notation is still under consideration. The constant and static application of pitch bending techniques to hold a drums pitch in position makes using glissando and inflections on individual notes impractical while the tradition of drum-kit notation makes me apprehensive to notate different pitches of one drum on different lines. The polyphonic nature of the work also makes the use of extra staves difficult (though it is done by organ players using part books it is not expected of drum-kit players to know this skill.) I am experimenting with superimposing translucent lines over an opaque stave and combining different notation techniques on the one stave to try and condense and simplify is to one stave though the clutter inhibits the legibility. While systems I have worked out would be possible, I feel there is some work to be done before I can deliver a very concise, and as easy to read as possible version of the score.
Performances
July 6 - I am Me, We are Us, Week One Opening Night. (solo)
June 26 - Dinner with the Pharaoh- The Ellington Jazz Club
June 18 - Bury the Heard (headlining)- Rosemount hotel
April 26- Bury the Heard-Rosemount Hotel
April 2 -Bury the Heard- Herdsman Lake
March 21 -Bury the Heard- Amplifier-Capitol
March 12 - Bury the Heard -Herdsman Lake
March 11 - Dinner With the Pharaoh - The Ellington Jazz Club
March 7 - Bury the Heard -Railway Hotel
March 6 - Bury the Heard - Herdsman Lake
March 1 - Bury the Heard - Herdsman Lake
February 28 - Bury the Heard - Herdsman Lake
February 21 - Bury the heard - Herdsman Lake
February 14 - Bury the Heard - Civic Hotel
January 28 - Un (Jazz Trio) - Nedlands Golf Course
January 25 - Bury the Heard - Rosemount Hotel
December 6 - Innovation in Art (solo) - Scitech
June 26 - Dinner with the Pharaoh- The Ellington Jazz Club
June 18 - Bury the Heard (headlining)- Rosemount hotel
April 26- Bury the Heard-Rosemount Hotel
April 2 -Bury the Heard- Herdsman Lake
March 21 -Bury the Heard- Amplifier-Capitol
March 12 - Bury the Heard -Herdsman Lake
March 11 - Dinner With the Pharaoh - The Ellington Jazz Club
March 7 - Bury the Heard -Railway Hotel
March 6 - Bury the Heard - Herdsman Lake
March 1 - Bury the Heard - Herdsman Lake
February 28 - Bury the Heard - Herdsman Lake
February 21 - Bury the heard - Herdsman Lake
February 14 - Bury the Heard - Civic Hotel
January 28 - Un (Jazz Trio) - Nedlands Golf Course
January 25 - Bury the Heard - Rosemount Hotel
December 6 - Innovation in Art (solo) - Scitech