CD Program Notes
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CD Program Notes Contents tique du CEMAMu), the graphic mu- the final tape version was done at sic computer system developed by the Stichting Klankscap and the Xenakis and his team of engineers at Sweelinck Conservatory in Am- Part One: James Harley, Curator the Centre d’Etudes de Mathe´ma- sterdam. I would like to thank tique et Automatique Musicales (CE- Paul Berg and Floris van Manen for MAMu). The piece by Cort Lippe, their support in creating this work. completed in 1986, is mixed, for bass Sound material for the tape was Curator’s Note clarinet and sounds created on the limited to approximate the con- It probably would not be too far computer. My own piece, from 1987, fines one normally associates with wrong to state that most composers is also mixed, for flute and tape; in individual acoustic instruments in of the past 40 years have been influ- the excerpt presented here, the pre- order to create a somewhat equal enced in one way or another by the produced material, a mixture of re- relationship between the tape and music or ideas of Iannis Xenakis. corded flute and computer-generated the bass clarinet. Although con- The composers presented on this sounds, is heard without the live trasts and similarities between the disc have been touched more directly flute part. Richard Barrett’s piece tape and the instrument are evi- than most. It was my intention to was entirely produced on the UPIC. dent, musically a kind of intimacy gather a disparate collection of music The sound-world Xenakis created was sought, not unlike our to show the extent to which that in- in his music owes much to natural present-day ‘‘sense’’ of intimacy fluence has crossed styles. These also phenomena, including the raucous with machines in general. happen to be composers I admire, shrilling of the Mediterranean cica- There are five major sections in and I am grateful they have all das. One hears remnants of this the work. The opening dialogue agreed to contribute to this release. sound at the beginning and end of between tape and instrument is Although these composers all his electroacoustic work, La le´gende followed by a section in which the place Xenakis in the top rank of their d’Eer (1977), as well as at the end of tape part dominates. This, in turn, mentors, their program notes do not his orchestral work, Jonchaies (1977). gives way to a bass clarinet solo, necessarily speak to this influence Zbigniew Karkowski has created a whereas in the fourth section the directly. This is probably as it should noise-based work based on record- tape part is dominated by the bass be. Xenakis has no desire to be imi- ings of the Japanese cousins of this clarinet. In the final section, the tated or adulated. He did want to be creature. tape and instrument are again understood, though, and these com- Paul Steenhuisen contributes a somewhat equal, reminiscent of posers, each in their own way, have purely instrumental work to this col- the opening section. deeply assimilated aspects of his lection. In this case, it is a brief, but Music for Bass Clarinet and work into their own aesthetic. concentrated, piccolo solo. He ap- Tape received an honorable men- Gerard Pape and Agostino Di plies the Xenakian notion of arbores- tion in the 1987 15th Annual Elec- Scipio both contributed articles to cence to cryptographic material. tronic Music Competition of Bourges, France. the In Memoriam Iannis Xenakis is- 1. Music for Bass Clarinet and sue of Computer Music Journal (Vol- Tape—Cort Lippe ume 26:1, Spring 2002), and there Cort Lippe (Birmingham, Alabama, they discuss in more detail some of Music for Bass Clarinet and USA; b. 1953), has been active in the the issues that inform their composi- Tape (1986) was commissioned for field of interactive computer music tions presented here. Mr. Pape’s the 1986 International Computer for more than 20 years. He studied piece applies the notion of continua Music Conference (ICMC) by the composition with Larry Austin in to a work for multiple violas, here Dutch Ministry of Culture, and the USA, spent a year in Italy study- presented in a stereo mix of an eight- was written for the bass clarinetist ing Renaissance music, and three track recording. Mr. Di Scipio com- Harry Sparnaay, who premiered it years in The Netherlands at the In- bines live percussion with live at the ICMC in The Hague in Oc- stituut voor Sonologie working with processing and pre-recorded material, tober 1986. The tape part was cre- Gottfried Michael Koenig and Paul also originally on eight channels. ated at CEMAMu, in Paris, using Berg in the fields of computer and There are three works in this col- the graphic-oriented computer- formalized music. He also lived for lection that were created on the music system, UPIC, designed by 11 years in France, where he spent UPIC (Unite´ Polyagogique Informa- Iannis Xenakis. The digital mix of three years at CEMAMu, directed by 122 Computer Music Journal Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/014892602320991428 by guest on 26 September 2021 Iannis Xenakis, while attending Xe- Tarkovsky, the Russian film- James Harley (Vernon, British Co- nakis’s course on formalized music maker who died of cancer in De- lumbia, Canada; b. 1959) worked at the Universite´ de Paris. He cember 1986. Tarkovsky’s work with the UPIC system at CEMAMu worked for eight years at the Institut communicates a deeply personal between 1985 and 1987 while at- de Recherche et Coordination Acous- struggle to break through the con- tending Xenakis’s seminars at the tique/Musique (IRCAM), founded by straints of a material(istic) world Universite´ de Paris. His four-channel Pierre Boulez, where he developed to ‘‘an awareness of the eternal UPIC work, Voyage, is available in real-time musical applications and within the finite, the spiritual its stereo version on the PeP label, gave courses on new technology in within matter, the limitless given and his mixed work, Per Foramen composition. He has attended com- form . Art affirms all that is best Acus Transire, for flute/bass flute position and analysis seminars with in man—hope, faith, love, beauty, and pre-recorded material (including various composers, including: Pierre prayer’’ (Tarkovsky, Sculpting in electroacoustic sounds created on Boulez, Franco Donatoni, Klaus time). the UPIC), is forthcoming on Metier Huber, Olivier Messiaen, Krzysztof Per Foramen Acus Transire, Records (recorded by Nancy Ruffer). Penderecki, Karlheinz Stockhausen, which translates as ‘‘through the Mr. Harley has edited an issue de- and Iannis Xenakis, and has written eye of the needle’’ (Gospel of Luke, voted to Xenakis Studies for Con- for most major ensemble formations. 18:25), attempts to portray this temporary Music Review and has a His works have received numerous struggle in music through the for- book, The Music of Iannis Xenakis, international composition prizes, in- mal structure, the development of forthcoming through Routledge Pub- cluding first prizes: the Irino Prize the musical material, and the rela- lishing. (Japan), Bourges Electroacoustic Prize tionship between the live per- Mr. Harley teaches music technol- (France), El Callejon Del Ruido Com- former and the tape. The ogy at Minnesota State University petition (Mexico), USA League-ISCM electronic material was realized on Moorhead, and serves as an associate the UPIC computer music system Competition (USA), and the Leonie editor for Computer Music Journal. at CEMAMu in Paris. The pre- Rothschild Competition (USA); sec- His electroacoustic works have won recorded flute material was pro- ond prize at the Music Today Com- awards in Austria (Ars Electronica), duced at the Electronic Music petition (Japan); third prize in the Canada (SOCAN Young Composers Studio of City University in Lon- Newcomp Competition (USA); and Competition), France (Bourges), Ja- don in collaboration with Nancy honorable mentions in the Prix Ars pan (Irino Prize), and USA (McKnight Ruffer and Javier Alvirez. The mix- Electronica, 1993 and 1995 (Austria), Composition Fellowship). the Kennedy Center Friedheim ing was completed at the Studio Awards (USA), Sonavera Interna- Eksperimentalne of PRiTV (Polish 3. The Unthinkable— tional Competition (USA), and the Radio and Television) in Warsaw Richard Barrett with Ewa Guziolek. Luigi Russolo Competition (Italy). The Unthinkable was commis- His music has been premiered at ma- The composition was begun in December 1986 and completed in sioned by the Arts Council of jor festivals worldwide, and is re- Great Britain and composed in Jan- corded by ALM, ADDA, Apollon, October 1987. It was written for uary 1989. It was begun at Les At- CBS-Sony, Centaur, Classico, SEA- Nancy Ruffer who gave the pre- eliers UPIC in Paris and completed MUS, MIT Press, Hungaroton Clas- miere on 27 July 1988 at the Elec- a few weeks later at the Barbican sic, Harmonia Mundi, EMF, ICMC tric Music Festival in Newcastle, Centre in London during a UPIC 2000, and Neuma. Presently, he is on England. The piece was awarded educational residency in which I the composition faculty and is direc- 2nd prize in the 1988 Irino Compe- was teaching. In those days, work- tor of the Hiller Computer Music tition in Japan. ing with the UPIC involved not Studios of the University at Buffalo, The excerpt presented here in- only computer-processing speeds New York. cludes the tape part up through the end of the first section, carrying which would seem prehistoric by 2. Per Foramen Acus Transire— through to the end of the today’s standards (although on the James Harley computer-generated material. The other hand I don’t remember the continuation of the tape part con- computer ever crashing) but also Per Foramen Acus Transire, for tains only pre-recorded bass flute recording the sound from each solo flute/bass flute and tape, is music.