University of Cincinnati

UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI Date: 29-Apr-2010 I, Tyler B Walker , hereby submit this original work as part of the requirements for the degree of: Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition It is entitled: An Exhibition on Cheerful Privacies Student Signature: Tyler B Walker This work and its defense approved by: Committee Chair: Mara Helmuth, DMA Mara Helmuth, DMA Joel Hoffman, DMA Joel Hoffman, DMA Mike Fiday, PhD Mike Fiday, PhD 5/26/2010 587 An Exhibition On Cheerful Privacies Three Landscapes for Tape and Live Performers Including Mezzo-Soprano, Bb Clarinet, and Percussion A dissertation submitted to the Division of Research and Advanced Studies of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts in the Division of Composition, Musicology, and Theory of the College-Conservatory of Music 2010 by Tyler Bradley Walker M.M. Georgia State University January 2004 Committee Chair: Mara Helmuth, DMA Abstract This document consists of three-musical landscapes totaling seventeen minutes in length. The music is written for a combination of mezzo-soprano, Bb clarinet, percussion and tape. One distinguishing characteristic of this music, apart from an improvisational quality, involves habituating the listener through consistent dynamics; the result is a timbrally-diverse droning. Overall, pops, clicks, drones, and resonances converge into a direct channel of aural noise. One of the most unique characteristics of visual art is the strong link between process and esthetic outcome. The variety of ways to implement a result is astounding. The musical landscapes in this document are the result of an interest in varying my processes; particularly, moving mostly away from pen and manuscript to the sequencer. iii The term "exhibition" implies that consideration be given to how subsequent performances of this work are presented. I conceived these movements in the order they are presented in this document; however, just as any visual artist might base her exhibit on context, the same principle can be followed with this music. Each landscape can be selectively presented. The scores contained in this document are labeled as such: (1)Williams Mix 2, (2)Automatic Story Telling, (3)Familiar. The tape parts are available upon request from the author. iv Copyright ©2010 by Tyler Bradley Walker The material contained in this document may not be reproduced or distributed in whole or in part without the author's permission. v For Mom, Papa, Adrian, Libby, and Bebe; my most enduring allies. And for those family and friends existing healthily in the periphery. Especially for those, despite having come and gone, I can see in mind's eye smiling. vi Contents Abstract iii Copyright v Acknowledgements vi Contents vii Preface viii Instrumentation 1 Performance Notes 3 Score Title Page 7 An Exhibition on Cheerful Privacies Landscape 1 Williams Mix 2 (Score) 8 Bb Clarinet, Tape, and Percussion Landscape 2 Automatic Story Telling (Score) 12 Mezzo-Soprano, Bb Clarinet, Tape, and Percussion Landscape 3 Familiar (Score) 18 Mezzo-Soprano, Bb Clarinet, Tape, and Percussion vii Preface An Exhibition on Cheerful Privacies is a seventeen minute multi-movement-sonic landscape for tape and live performers. While this work was judiciously conceived as a whole, each "movement" occupies its own geographical space and can be selectively presented. Homogeneity and interactivity often guides the balance between tape and live instruments. Overall, the music is informed by an interest in deconstructing samples and tracks through the use of distortion, bit-rate reduction, looping, and layering. These techniques, coupled with the selective use of algorithms capable of randomizing playback speeds and lengths, help develop the improvisational character of An Exhibition on viii Cheerful Privacies. The blending of acoustic instruments and tape material is achieved through consciously pairing timbral elements. For example, homogeneity can be achieved by matching recorded glockenspiel strikes with a live percussion part occupying the same pitch, amplitude, or register. The opening and closing of the movement entitled Automatic Story Telling demonstrates this principal. Moreover, also supporting homogeneity between tape and live performers, amplification serves to alleviate any disparate spatial relationship that would exist between an amplified tape source and an instruments natural acoustics. Most of this work doesn't rely on preserving such an obvious technique as blend between parts or other processes to achieve any kind of narrative. As a whole, An Exhibition on Cheerful Privacies presents an epic timbralism with changes of color, registral space, and texture illuminating the present, not necessarily working for an overall ix development. Each ateleological landscape could be said to evolve as new moments of color or texture arise. Here, as in nature, the evolution is never goal oriented but blind to the outcome creating distortions on one hand or complex results on the other. These sonic results were the product of a multi-step workflow involving a continuous layering and degradation of various materials. The workflow for this project and its individual tracks can be summarized into four primary stages. First, considerations are made regarding the general length, harmonic content, and overall timbral quality of the work (e.g. light, dark, sharp, thin, dull, or a combination of these elements). From these ideas samples are chosen based on the sketched guidelines of chosen instrumentation and timbral quality. Samples for this project primarily include a variety of percussion and woodwind samples recorded at the University of Cincinnati College- Conservatory of Music. x Second, what could be described as a root track is created. Work within the sequencer begins and samples are processed and arranged spatially. The use of delays, reverb, or other timing effects is often applied to individual elements. Emphasis is given to spatial clarity and tracks at this stage often contain a mono-centered bass, mono-centered 12-18 kHz noise, and stereo ambience. This root track is printed (to tape) and serves as a starting point for stage three. Third, the root track is reinstated into the sequencer and a process similar to stage two is followed. Often several variations of the root are printed; one stereo, one mono, and one low passed/high passed stereo version are used. These elements are arranged spatially within the sequencer. At this point an algorithm is chosen to introduce an improvisational element to the mix bus or overall sound. The algorithms employed at this stage in the project all made use of randomizing octaves, tempo, delay, or segmenting the track into xi various slices through random rates that play back portions of the audio. Fourth, the results from the third stage are often found to be spatially limited after the application of a process that often reorganizes playback timing in addition to stereo separation. Thus a final mixing stage is established to adjust stereo imaging and provide final touches to the mix. The acoustic elements, when desired, are assigned at various stages throughout the process. The sketching of material that takes place in stage one often features detailed orchestrations of acoustic instruments. The sketches of acoustic elements were often reinterpreted electronically and from time to time preserved as unadulterated orchestrations remaining intact throughout the process. However, many of the acoustic elements for this particular project were embedded into the fabric of the tape part during the fourth stage. I view the acoustic elements of this work as brush xii strokes embedded on a busy canvas of textures; not necessarily as a driving force. The text included in the movements entitled Familiar and Automatic Story Telling, written by the composer and consisting primarily of fragmented or short phrases, exists as an equal counterpart to the other dimensions of sonority within this work. The live musicians and sung words serve to make a gentle but poignant mark within a ceremony of loud electronic utterances. The main title of this work is loosely inspired by the poetry of Denise Levertov; inspired by perhaps nothing more than her ability to draw warmth, presence, and existence from the most seemingly simple circumstances. This music attempts a similar feat by taking simple elements, perhaps the tail end of a reverb, idle chatter, or just pure ambience, and drawing out hidden timbral qualities. xiii Williams Mix 2, the first movement, is titled and influenced by John Cage’s early tape work Williams Mix from 1952. Whereas Cage spliced samples using chance operations into a collage, Williams Mix 2 follows a similar routine by using an algorithm capable of playing back random sections of a given track and varying the length of each segment. The result is also a collage, complimented by live performers, but without the sound of Cage's frogs. The result is also a track, more so than any other in this work, which earns the label experimental. Another important composition which features the sound of various species of frog that also influenced this work is called Unfamiliar Wind by Brian Eno. While there is no obvious timbral connection between this works movement entitled Familiar and Eno’s Unfamiliar Wind, similarities existed in the preliminary xiv stages of its development. The initial root structure of Familiar was pervaded by timbrally rich pulsations and the 15-19 kHz range featured moving noise. The higher-pitched material was, and the final form still contains this timbral quality, reminiscent of cicadas in the summer months of the South. Overall in its earliest stages, the pulsations made me think of Eno’s important work, the cicada sounds related to the pastoral qualities of that same work, but most importantly the cicada sounds are “familiar" to me. In its final form, written for mezzo-soprano, Bb clarinet, percussion, and tape, Familiar is inundated with the voices of popular influence, including but not limited to a willful misuse of musical technology.

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