sign in sign up
<<
Home , Electric violin, Prepared piano

6756.trueman 8/23/06 12:04 PM Page 116

MY , MY LAPTOP, MY SELF [ by dan trueman]

Every —from the Stone Age to the laptop computer— is a piece of technology that simultaneously drives and limits the creative process.

When I was four or five years old, I used to rest my with the keyboard, a love and a need which violin on my bed and gaze at it with a mixture of awe may be connected with a love of music but and lust. (I also wore every new pair of sneakers to are not by any means totally coincident bed the first night I had them—and sometimes the with it. This inexplicable and almost second night as well.). fetishistic need for the physical contact My need to bed down with brand-new footwear with the combination of metal, wood, and has long passed, of course; but I am still capable of ivory...that make up the dinosaur that the falling in love with an instrument. A photo of a nearly concert has become is, indeed, finished electric violin—sent to me by its maker to conveyed to the audience and becomes keep me abreast of its progress—is currently the necessarily part of the music....” [“On screen saver on my laptop. I stare at this image often, Playing the Piano,” The New York Review of imagining how the finished instrument will feel Books, October 21, 1999] under the chin. In a similar musing about the piano, ViolinCharles Rosen writes: Musical compositions particularize this fetish. To imagine playing the opening of the Bach Chaconne, Pianists do not devote their lives to their for instance, or Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” instrument simply because they like music: inspires a particular kind of physical response—we that would not be enough to justify a drea- can feel the way the instrument would sit in our ry existence of stuffy airplanes, uncomfort- hands, how our fingers, deriving energy from the able hotel rooms, and the hours trying to shoulders and spine, would drive the strings. Turn get the local piano technician to adjust the it around, and this sense of physicality becomes a soft pedal. There has to be a genuine love compositional motivator; we imagine a particular simply of the mechanics and difficulties of kind of physical engagement and discover the music playing, a physical need for the contact and instrument combination that will inspire it.

Opposite: The author, plugged in 117 6756.trueman 8/23/06 12:04 PM Page 118

We tend to forget that the beautiful traditional I learned that Norway’s Hardanger fiddle (or hard- stop. Eventually, he staggers off into the woods, still lin is that one has no illusions about its “complete- instruments we play were once—like the electric ingfele) has been around about as long as the fiddling, and is never heard from again; hence, the ness”; this is definitely a work in progress, and it violin—works in progress: unrefined, provisional. In “conventional” violin has. It has a nearly flat Devil’s tuning. invites us to imagine how it might be better. My early some ways they still are, or can be understood as such, and set of sympathetic strings that run underneath Much of my creative work for the past decade has work with it was in rock bands and ensembles, if we set aside our reverence for a moment. And it’s the and through the bridge. These been framed by my experiences with the Hardanger and I did what most electric violinists do—plugged easy to underestimate how much the design of these “understrings” are not bowed; they simply sing along, fiddle. It has informed my sense that musical instru- into an amplifier or PA system and had instruments has determined the history of composi- providing a kind of built-in reverb unit that generates ments are more than vehicles for expression, that they a ball. As I returned to quieter, more intimate cham- tion, even the very essence of how tonal music works. a beautiful pentatonic glow. The neck is a bit shorter embody musical values that are specific and historical. ber music settings, plugging in became less and less Rosen takes this idea further: “the traditional and at a gentler angle than those on today, To this day, whenever I pick up a conventional violin, satisfying. In fact, I find it hard to imagine anything of the keyboard…has had a largely and the strings are thus under slightly less I feel Bach, Mendelssohn, less conducive to chamber tension. Virtually all the tradi- Schubert, even Stravinsky. Wired for a Princeton performance music as I know it (both tional music for hardingfele For me, it is almost an sonically and socially) And it’s easy to underestimate how much the design of these features constant double- equation: Violin = Mozart than a PA system. To stops (thanks to the flat (or Beethoven, etc.). The begin with, the PA system instruments has determined the history of composition, even bridge), detailed orna- music of these composers establishes a “plane of sep- mentation (facilitated has inhabited my body aration” between audience the very essence of how tonal music works. by the lighter, lower- through the violin. and performer, whereas tension strings), and a Exploring the hardingfele, one of the great joys of bowing style that is and the six-string electric making chamber music is smooth and continu- violin (my other main that it is not exclusively unrecognized influence on the history of harmony, ous (in part to keep the understrings instrument these days), was a performance-centric not completely benign,” in part because, for example, ringing without interruption). The tradi- an essential move that music; for many, it is “playing a melody in C-major feels very different tional style also features numerous scor- enabled me to find new simply about the activity under the hand from playing it in F-sharp major.” For datura; the most common tuning has the top music while still taking of making music with many composers, the relationship between our bodies three strings almost a whole step higher (more advantage of the physical friends. Even when work- and these instruments lies at the center of the com- or less) than “normal” and the lowest string training I had as a violinist. ing with a good electric positional process, even if we don’t acknowledge it. even higher, creating a fourth between the These instruments were guitar amp, it is difficult, I grew up playing chamber music with my family. bottom two strings. Other tunings are more just different enough that I if not impossible, to My parents built the we used for playing exotic, most notably trollstilt, or troll tuning no longer felt bound by achieve a convincing trio sonatas. I learned how to tune it, of necessity. The (B, F#,B#,D#—from the low string up), the violin equation, but ensemble sound and not violin was something I took for granted as a kind of which is associated with a so-called Devil’s similar enough that I could feel as if the electronic found object, unimaginable as anything else. It wasn’t Repertoire. still, with some retraining, sound is really coming until my early 20s, when I was just starting to compose, In the Hardanger fiddle, I play them. from another world. that I began to look at my instrument differently, and couldn’t have encountered a Since then I have com- One of my most frus- with some suspicion. While I don’t know that I could more vivid demonstration of posed hardingfele music, mostly in folk-inspired, trating experiences working with the electric violin have articulated it at the time, I think I was aware that how technology influences, cre- chamber music settings. (My wife, a classical guitarist, came in transition from playing at home, alone, to whatever musical voice I was going develop would be ates—even demands—a particu- and I form a duo named Trollstilt). I have also spent playing in a small hall with a couple other musicians. deeply shaped by my relationship with the violin; in a lar musical style and expressivity. years working with the six-string electric violin, some- At home, I would sit and face the speaker, getting the very real and physical way, the instrument was (and Hardingfele music simply would times by itself, and other times in combination with a sound full on. In the hall, such an arrangement was at would continue to be) a powerful and idiosyncratic not exist without its instrument laptop. My first electric violin was a fretted six-string best antisocial, so I ended up sitting next to the speak- filter for my entire musical existence. (trying to play that music on a flying-V made by Mark Wood, but over the years—as er. This still wasn’t working for my fellow musicians I began to think again about my family’s harpsi- conventional violin is extraordi- I’ve returned to chamber music—I’ve moved toward and me; all the high frequencies vanished, and it chord, how it was put together, and what it was like narily difficult). In a myth associated designs with more of the sound and feel of acoustic sounded muddy—I began to play differently, going to tune. I started to see it not as a fixed and final enti- with trollstilt, an old drunken reveler instruments. I currently play a six- lightly on the low strings and desperately trying to get ty—but as a glorious piece of evolving technology, discovers a dusty fiddle underneath a by Eric Aceto that has a full resonating body and a some highs, to no avail. The next time, I brought two something that people had designed, built, tweaked, staircase and, to his astonishment pickup embedded in the bridge. In my experience, speakers, setting one on the floor and angled up broken, rebuilt again and again and again. Why (since he had never held a this kind of violin has a more “colored” sound than a toward me, and the other facing the audience. Better: should the violin be any different? Around that same fiddle before), begins to play. solid-body instrument, and it can better handle the it sounded decent to me, and to the central part of the time, I heard a recording of Anund Roheim, the leg- Possessed, he goes on for hours weight of the bow arm. (I still play one of my solid- hall. But the high-frequency sounds still weren’t endary master of the traditional Norwegian fiddle. and then days, unable to body instruments when it seems right, but it is nice to reaching audience members seated on the sides, and “What instrument was producing this incredible have other options.) the whole thing still sounded lousy to the musicians I sound?” I wondered. I had to learn how to play it. A Hardanger fiddle One of the wonderful things about the electric vio- was playing with. The setup was also cumbersome,

118 october 2006 119 6756.trueman 8/23/06 12:04 PM Page 120

ugly and inelegant. Moreover, the electric violin still speakers, pointing them at each listener, we clustered viding a voice that fills the room “acoustically.” The tones of the tubes—this last effect is highly per- sounded like it was coming from a different world. the speakers together, facing them outward so they electronics come from within the ensemble, without formable (the percussionist Dave Cossin has become What was going on? As I learned from Perry Cook, could fill rooms the way acoustic instruments do, and the design assumption that this music is intended a master of this technique) and is featured extensively my colleague at Princeton, acoustic musical instru- placed this new creation right next to me (on the floor exclusively for performance—we can easily play this at one point in the piece. ments have complex sound-radiation patterns. Most under my left ear, in fact!). Now, my electric violin music in a living room. In one of these pieces—Traps, Some of my adventures with music and technology guitar amplifiers channel sound in one direction, and can engage with the reverberant qualities of whatever for , electric violin and laptop—the lap- stray far from chamber music as we know it. There’s as you move off to the sides, the higher frequencies room I am playing, be it a bathroom, a practice room, top processes the sound of my electric violin, cutting the R-bow, a violin bow Perry and I created that is gradually (or not so gradually) drop off. But acoustic or a beautiful concert hall. While I am not inclined it into thousands of tiny bits and instruments usually send their sound out in all direc- to dress up and declare “Mission Accomplished,” this scattering them around a set of tions, and what we ultimately hear is not the sound of was undoubtedly a big step forward; and over the past four hemispheres sitting on the It is extraordinarily difficult to create new the instrument, but the sound of the instrument in several years a growing number of musicians have floor. These bits can be transposed the room. That unique sonic signature is created by been working with these speakers, coming up with and layered, creating lush chordal instruments that inspire the kind of fetish many new designs, and, more importantly, discovering new “clouds” of sound (some online kinds of music with them. audio examples of this can be of us have felt for the violin, the piano, the Trueman’s speaker and six-string electric violin For me, these speakers have opened new roads for found at www.americancom- electronic sound into the world of chamber music posers.org/trueman_essay.htm.) guitar, and any number of other instruments. (emphasis on “chamber”). No longer do I feel that The algorithm, though simple, has working with electric violin (and laptops) necessarily some unusual features that I’ve excludes me from my first love—making chamber explored over the course of several music. My first electronic ensemble work was for vio- years in through improvisation. lin, electric violin, , and percussion. After the (Improvising with experimental premiere, I began walking off stage still holding my instruments is in itself one of my electric violin, only to be suddenly restrained by the favorite activities, and essential to discovering the covered with sensors; the R-bow provides a highly audio cord that was connected to my spherical speak- instruments’ potential.) These features became the physical kind of control for the laptop, much more so er. It was an amusing moment, but also indicative of driving force behind the composition of Traps and a than, say, a foot pedal, and I use it extensively when I my own musical experience: I had forgotten that I subsequent piece for chamber and electric improvise. There’s the Bowed-Sensor-Speaker-Array was plugged in, and was just making music. violin/laptop, Traps Relaxed. I would never have com- (BoSSA), a sensor-covered sphere that sits in my lap; At this point, it is fair to ask, “What’s the point? posed either of these pieces, or even been able to I bow this speaker with the R-bow, a laptop takes in You’ve managed to make an electric violin sound ‘sort imagine them, without having the speakers and the all the sensor data, interprets what I am doing physi- of’ like an acoustic violin. So why not just play an algorithm in my own personal orchestration/instru- cally, and then generates sound that comes out of the the sum of reflections of that instrument’s sound from acoustic violin?” The term sort of is the key. After all, mentation book. speaker as it is bowed. BoSSA feels vaguely like a cello the walls, floor, and ceiling at our particular location. I want to take advantage of the instruments’ differ- In another piece, Five (and-a-half) Gardens (com- to play, and can really make me break a sweat! And (Of course, anyone who has played an instrument in ences. My electric instrument has six strings (two posed for Trollstilt and So- Percussion), the choice and then there’s the Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk), a bathroom and then in a soundproofed practice strings are lower than the standard four), and much of design of instruments was considerably lower tech, an ensemble I co-founded this past year that poses room knows exactly what this is all about.) One way my music explores the lower reaches of the instru- but technology was still central to the music. Here, enormous challenges to composers and performers to emulate the natural situation is to add artificial ment and varying (inspired by the hard- the percussionists play a set of terracotta pots ampli- alike. In all of these adventures with crazy technology, reverberation (such as the built-in effects of Yamaha’s ingfele). More subtly, it offers different possibilities for fied with contact pickups and sent through a hemi- the ideas discussed here, in particular the emphasis on Silent Violins). Such reverberation, however, is never bowing articulation, and (ironically) the amplifica- spherical speaker placed near the pots. The pickups the traditional feel of “chamber music,” always guide the same as the reverberation that your fellow acoustic tion allows me to play very softly, revealing details of allow the pots to match the rest of the ensemble in my thought process. It is extraordinarily difficult to musicians are experiencing in whatever room you are tasto or sul ponticello that would normally go unheard. volume—plus, they create a wonderful distortion create new instruments that inspire the kind of fetish in that particular day. Oil and water, still. On a more practical level, this kind of amplification when the pots are struck hard! Within these same many of us have felt for the violin, the piano, the gui- A few years ago, Perry and I embarked on a research helps my wife’s classical guitar be heard in our duo; setups, the percussionists also perform on a set of tar, and any number of other instruments. In some project to learn more about these issues. One result the Hardanger fiddle is otherwise overwhelming. The tuned, amplified tubes that I call eToobs (these range ways, the more cutting-edge the technology, the more was the creation of several spherical and hemispheri- broader point, though, is that working at the design in lengths from three to eight feet, and have small difficult our task becomes. But as with many things, cal speakers. We first built these speakers out of level of new instruments can be the heart of the com- microphones embedded inside). The eToobs open up much of the joy is in the effort, and if history is any wooden salad bowls purchased at Ikea. Here is the positional process; we need look no further than John very low registers that are hard to attain with conven- guide, we may just get lucky and make some wonder- recipe: put the bowls face to face, cut holes in them, Cage and his wonderful works for prepared piano for tional percussion, and they can be played in various ful music along the way. drop in a dozen small speakers, mount the whole inspiration here. ways; if held vertically, they can be struck on the thing on some tom-tom drum legs, and—Voilà!— Since that first piece, I have composed chamber ground (like African “stamping tubes”), they can be Composer/violinist Dan Trueman is on the music facul- you have a spherical speaker (and something that music for electric violin and laptop that includes hit with mallets, or, in one of my favorite applica- ty at Princeton University. A CD of his chamber music, looks a bit like R2D2, or some kind of deep-space or hemispherical speakers placed in and around the tions, held up to the hemispherical speaker and used titled Machine Language, was released by Bridge deep-sea explorer). Instead of adding more and more ensemble. The speakers again play a crucial role, pro- to create quiet squeals of feedback tuned to the over- Records in 2004.

120 october 2006 121