MUS434-571.3 Music of the Modern Era Later Electronic Music and Multimedia – Apr. 25, 2013 Electronic Music • Began with electrical instruments • Developed with creation of – Recording technology – Synthesizers – Computers • Multimedia – Works like this date back to ancient Greece, but more frequently after 1960 Laurie Anderson – O Superman (1981) • Often performs her own works with prerecorded and live electronics (looping, harmonizer, vocoder) • Song from United States • First multimedia performance piece (video/other visual elements) • Inspired by Jules Massenet aria “Ô Souverain, ô juge, ô père” from 1885 opera Le Cid • Explores humanity in relation to technology • Minimalist style • Relation to Iran-Contra affair? (1985) Meredith Monk – Songs of Ascension (2008) • Also performs her own multimedia works • Collaboration with dancer Ann Hamilton • Site-specific, spacialized work with movement, costuming. • Singers, harmoniums, string quartet • Minimalist style – more like Górecki and Pärt than Adams, Reich – Singing vowels/sounds rather than words Michael Gordon – Light is Calling (2001) • One of his responses to 9/11 • Violin (or cello) and pre-produced electronics with video by Bill Morrison – Video source = 1926 black and white film The Bells • Ambient, melodic, tonal music meant to express “something beautiful.” • Solo line develops over fairly static background, ground bass rising. Jacob TV (ter Veldhuis) – Grab It! (1999) • Originally written for saxophone + ghettoblaster (with video); flexible instrumentation • Portions are open for improvisation • Text from interviews with prisoners on death row in US • Instrumental line accents video part (often in unison / homophony) • Meter and tempo changes define sections Donnacha Dennehy – Junk Box Fraud (1997) • Crash Ensemble: Clarinet, trombone, 2 pianos, 2 speakers, tape, and video • Post-minimalism includes – extended techniques (vocal sounds + words) – irregular pulses / rhythms – more atonal language – references to Irish vernacular culture • Theatrical performance, costuming, movement, spacialization (between speakers) Phil Kline – Unsilent Night (1992) • Public, participatory performance art • 4 tape tracks handed out to audience to play back on boomboxes while parading through the streets • Indeterminacy, spacialization, audience participation • Ambient, minimal music creates immersive experience / sonic landscape Summary • Post-minimalist style = incorporating other genres/elements into a minimal structure. – The other dominant style is sound art (noise/drones/ microtonal spectral influence) • Movement, video, spacialization, specifics of performance space, theatricality figure into composition (as do current events and politics) to heighten impact of expression. • Technology affords greater opportunity for DIY performance (Do It Yourself!) .