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Tran(ce)sients for large chamber ensemble and audio track with accompanying document
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- Author(s) / Creator(s)
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The purpose of Tran(ce)sients is to find ways to engage an audience in concentrated listening during a concert hall performance of challenging chamber music. For some time now, a point of great interest to me has been what could or will hold one’s attention during a performance, particularly one of challenging music? To answer this question, a search into my own past experiences yielded results which proved to be helpful. This led to a synthesis of influences from three musical styles (namely onkyô, spectral music, and musique concrète instrumentale) and their philosophies, and past compositional processes that have shaped my current aesthetic.
In Tran(ce)sients, a 25:13 long work, I attempted to produce concentrated listening by way of analysis of electronically manipulated field recordings and their orchestration for a large chamber orchestra augmented by a small rock ensemble and pre-recorded audio track. The recordings used for Tran(ce)sients represent an abstracted “soundwalk” of my journey from my former apartment in Edmonton to the University of Alberta campus. Using Max software and a USB MIDI controller, the recordings were first manipulated in an improvised manner, and subsequently used in two ways: (1) to supply a set, intermittent recorded background that is an essential part of the score; and (2) to be transcribed and orchestrated for large, acoustic chamber ensemble.
The title Tran(ce)sients represents a combination of two words that I feel best explains what this piece is about: a focus on noises we tune out on a day-to-day basis (unwanted, much like transients in the world of studio recording) and the trance -like state that can be experienced while listening to extreme music and the kind of “state of other consciousness” one can experience listening to it.
The accompanying document is a paper that will take the form of a brief overview of (1) onkyô, (2) spectral music and (3) instrumental musique concrète followed by a detailed analysis of the entire process behind the piece, starting with manipulating the sounds in Max, moving on to their transcription into notated music and their orchestration for large chamber ensemble, and ending with a summary of the process and the future of the piece. -
- Date created
- 2016-01-01
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- Type of Item
- Research Material