Dorkbot Art and Technology Forum

The first dorkbot-atl meeting of the year will be held next Wednesday, September 5 at 7 pm in the Couch Building (music department) at Georgia Tech in room 207. This month, we have two fascinating presentations by Matt Simpson and David Lieberman that should be of particular interest to readers of this blog.

Full details on the presentations and directions to the building are available at:

http://dorkbot.org/dorkbotatl/

The Atlanta chapter of Dorkbot, the international forum on art and technology dedicated to “people doing strange things with electricity,” is sponsored by the Music Department. Its lectures are free and open to the public.

We hope to see you on Wednesday!

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Matt Simpson: The Laptop Studio: Performance at home, and the Studio on stage


With the advent of affordable multi-gigahertz laptop computers, the electronic music studio has shrunk from racks of costly synth hardware not just 5 years ago to a laptop and various input devices. As a result, the current and upcoming generation of electronic musicians are turning to the laptop as a full blown, self contained, multi in and out production rig without thinking twice. Coupled with the extremely rapid and robust development of music (and otherwise) software, new as well as long-desired sonic techniques have developed. One primary example can be found in the synergy of the studio and the stage. Software such as Ableton Live allows a laptop musician to instantly create multi-layered improvisations in his or her own studio just as easily
as taking what was meticulously crafted in the studio into a live setting for any and all sonic manipulation. This can most clearly be seen in the Laptop Battles, a tournament-style community-driven competition held in cities across the world. Rules are simple - one laptop, one input device, and 2-3 minutes. What results is often unique and innovative, helping to break
the barriers between musican and music consumer, and ultimately introducing people interested in music making to comprehensible and powerful tools of sonic creation.

Matt Simpson is a native of Atlanta, with occasional stops in South Florida and the farms of South Georgia. Graduated 2004 from Georgia Tech with a B.S. in Computer Engineering, Co-Chair of Nophi Recordings, local organizer of the 2007 Laptop Battles, 2006 Atlanta Laptop Battle champion, former member of The Secret Life, current member of Harmaline and PASSWARDSZ. Raised on a healthy diet of 8-bit sounds and FM synthesis, Matt has been a rabid consumer of all things audio since his earliest sound experiments at an early age (from jumping on the hardwood floor of his home to rhythmically skip Michael Jackson's "Thriller", to tossing a plush parrot with a record/playback device embedded, timing the 'oof's and 'ahh's with every hit of the stairs). Trained on the keyboard and viola, Matt has made computer music since 1996. Matt initially learned on DOS-based trackers, and has steadily built a project studio that today encompasses nearly 30 synthesizers, drum machines, circuit bent devices, toys, and self-built miscellanea.

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David Lieberman: Game Enhanced Music Manuscript: The Anigraphical Etudes

A unique set of developmental issues present themselves when applying game theory concepts to the creation of interactive music manuscript in video game format for concert performance (game-scores). Paying special attention to structural, mathematical, and sociopsychological similarities, those issues become apparent when observing the correlation between the two distinct human activities of performing music manuscript and playing games. Precepts from ludology (the study of video games) and structural issues applicable to traditional video game development require consideration too. Game- scores may then be evaluated within the context of the benefits and ramifications that result from the convergence of video games and music manuscript. The Anigraphical Etudes are a set of animated, interactive music manuscript for live concert performance in video game format. The pieces incorporate into traditional western notation the added dimensions of decision-making, size, color, motion, and computational algorithm to enhance the live performance experience.

David Lieberman: Early training at the San Francisco Conservatory and with Canadian composer Harry Freedman. BM, MA, Doctor of Music from Northwestern University where his principal teachers were Ben Johnston, Alan Stout, and William Karlins. Additional graduate study at U.C. Berkeley with Gerard Grisey. Advanced Master Classes with Jacob Druckman and Bernard Rands (Aspen Music Festival) and with British composer Judith Weir (Oregon Bach Festival). Additional instruction with Samuel Adler and Milton Babbit. Taught Computer Music as Visiting Assistant Professor in Music Theory and Technology at the prestigious Oberlin College at the age of 25. Resident Composer Brooklyn College Computer Music Center. Adjunct faculty Union County College, N.J. Visiting/Guest Lecturer/Artist/Speaker: NYU, U. Mass. Amherst, Kobe Tokiawa College, Atlanta College of Art, Univ. Miami FL, College Music Society Southern Regional Conference (Univ. of Florida, Tampa), International Conference for the Web Delivery of Music (Wedelmusic/Interactive Music Network: Univ. of Leeds, England), Project Bar B Que (Interactive Audio Think Tank), Graphite 2006 (4th International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques-Univ. Teknologi Malaysia UT. Commissions: San Francisco Chamber Symphony, Stoney Brook Contemporary Players. Awards: BMI Student Composers, Highest Honors Northwestern U., American Music Center, National Saxophone Society, Kensington Symphony, others. Grants: Meet the Composer, Ekstein Trust. Publications: Game Enhanced Music Manuscript, AMC Press. Currently not affiliated with a university and resides in Atlanta, GA.

Atlanta Electronic Music, Popular?!

Hello All,

I was just looking at my web stats and noticed that so far this year, fifty-two (52) people have landed on my personal website (entirely separate from this blog) using some combination of the keywords 'atlanta electronic music'. Compared to all the other keywords people are using to find me, that's a lot concentrated on one phrase.

Are you all seeing this in your stats too? Might we be onto something here? A demand for our electronic music, folks! Whaddaya think?

Maybe we ought to have another electronic music show like we did last February. Could be bigger than I realize.

How can we capitalize on this?
Your thoughts, please.

Strayform Tries Indie New Music Model

"Strayform is a Texas startup that, like SellaBand and the recently funded Amie Street, is giving unsigned artists a way to promote and sell their music.

Like SellaBand, artists sign up, upload some of their music and then create proposals for new music they want to create. Fans can listen to and download the music (DRM free), and donate directly to proposals they like. The proposals are all different. One artist, for example, says he will mention the name of person who pledges the most in the song itself."

Great to see another website geared toward independent artist promotion. I like the model (getting paid *before* the creation of a work--like a commission.) I just signed up and will give it a shot. Will let you know what I find. I encourage others to try it too. Follow the link (click this post's title) to find more info on TechCrunch. Strayform's website is http://www.strayform.com/.

ASO plays Gresham @ Piedmont Park

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Jere Flint conducting, will perform my "Music for a Summer Celebration" today, Sunday, August 12 @ 7:30pm, as part of its free "Bark in the Park" concert at Piedmont Park. Assuming it doesn't rain, this will be the second performance by the ASO, which premiered the 5-minute work last year at Wolf Creek Park. So far, there have been 5 performances in all by 3 orchestras, so this will be number 6 in the work's 13-month performance history. Please come to the concert if you can. It's free, outdoors and pet-friendly.
  —Mark Gresham

Atlanta Composers Myspace Page

Hello all -

I have started a Myspace page to showcase Atlanta composers. The intention of this page is to have a rotating showcase of our works (4 at a time, each up for a few weeks). Please follow the link above and befriend us! Also if you wish, you may send me an mp3 (to atlantacomposers@yahoo.com) of your favorite work to be posted on the page.



Many thanks,
Adam Neal

Atlanta Composers Meetup

For those who haven't heard, there is a new Atlanta Composers Meetup. Our first meeting is Tues, July 10. 7:30pm at my house.

Event Description:
We will discuss how to develop and promote local concerts of our music, with particular emphasis on a Summer/Fall 2007 concert. Topics will include potential venues, ensembles, instrumentation, media, etc. Please come and share your ideas.

Please register at Meetup.com and RSVP for the meeting.

(Because Meetup.com charges me a monthly fee for their services, I'm requesting that people contribute $2 at the meeting.)

See you there!

NY Times Article: Classical Music Imperiled...

Classical Music Imperiled: Can You Hear the Shrug?

Thoughts?

R. Timothy Brady co-winner of Opera Vista competition

 
Atlanta composer R. Timothy Brady emerged as a co-winner of the first annual Opera Vista Festival competition this past week with his new 40-minute chamber opera Edalat Square.

Opera Vista, a Houston-based organization dedicated to new opera, hosted the Festival, which took place from June 21-24, 2007 at the Barnevelder Arts Complex in Houston, Texas. After a professional jury winnowed down the number of contestants and operas to five, the Festival audience was called upon to select the winning work by vote, based upon live performances of 15-minute excepts from each. The result was a tie between Brady's Edalat Square and Soldier Songs by New Jersey composer David T. Little.

"We counted the votes numerous times (because it was rather incredible)," said Opera Vista's artistic director Viswa Subbaraman in an public message to the Orchestralist online discussion group. "They both received exactly the same number of votes!" As a result, both winning operas will be performed fully staged during the 2008 Opera Vista Festival.

The complete Edalat Square received its premiere April 15th of this year at Emory University, where Brady (b. 1985 in Atlanta) studied composition with John Anthony Lennon and graduated cum laude this year with a B.A. in music composition.

The composer offered the Festival the following synopsis:

"Darkness and despair, disguised as piety and righteousness, descend from atop the minarets of the mosques, consuming those who seek hope through the light of God. On July 19, 2005 in Edalat Square, Iran, Mahmoud Asgari (17) and Ayaz Marhoni (16) were hanged for the crime of lavaat (sex between two men). Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, an estimated 4,000 people have been executed for lavaat. Inspired by the circumstances surrounding the execution of Mahmoud and Ayaz, the soul of Edalat Square emerges from the poetic essence of the Sufi mystics—emerging from silence and meditation, melody and prayer. Disturbed by a crisis in Islam, the soul awakens..."

Houston Press critic D.L. Groover reviewed the Festival competition in an article published Thursday (28 June, 2007), which can be found online here at www.houstonpress.com.

In his review, Groover called Eladat Square both "the most adventurous of the lot—in both music and libretto" and "poignant, highly poetic."

R. Timothy Brady (who, by the way, is not to be confused the Canadian composer/guitarist Tim Brady) offers on his MySpace Music page a clip from the evocative multi-track pre-recorded vocal opening of the opera ("Preview" in the audio samples list) and a short radio interview with WABE-FM's Wanda Temko, recorded and broadcast prior to the work's Emory premiere.

For more information about Opera Vista, go to www.operavista.org

—Mark Gresham, composer/music journalist • 28 June 2007

[NOTE: This article by Mark Gresham is cross-posted from his EarRelevant blog.]
 

AEGEAN COUNTERPOINT - CHAMBER MUSIC BY NICKITAS DEMOS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JUNE 2007

MSR Classics
Independent Classical Music Label has released

AEGEAN COUNTERPOINT - CHAMBER MUSIC BY NICKITAS DEMOS

For more information about this recording and to purchase, please visit the MSR website at:
http://www.msrcd.com/1193/1193.html

Mercury Season at Spruill Arts Center

Mercury Season, a new chamber music ensemble here in Atlanta, is throwing a chamber music concert at the The Spruill Art Gallery in Dunwoody on Tuesday the 19th of June at 7:30pm. Featuring original works and arrangements by Atlanta Composer Erik Kofoed.

Tues. June 19th, 7:30pm
4681 Ashford Dunwoody Road
Atlanta, GA 30338
Cost : Donations accepted
http://www.spruillarts.org/gallery.htm
A free concert of chamber music. Performing amidst the gallery's emerging artist showcase, we are presenting music borrowed, adapted, and not usually heard in a concert hall. Drinks and refreshments will be available. Works by Bach, Villa-Lobos, Massenet,Lennon, Byrd, Monk, Beyonce, and Kofoed

Mercury Season is a collective of classical musicians that take classic and pop music and recombine it through varied instrumental possibilities to present eclectic but emotionally connected programs that engage and entertain mind and soul.

This concert features Nicole Randall on Flute, Brendon Bushman and Kallie England on Oboes, Catharine Sinon and Terrina Anderson on Clarinets, Kiyo Kojima on Bassoon and Saxophone, Greg McClean on Trumpet, Erik Kofoed on Trombone and Alto Horn, Bill Pritchard on Tuba, and Caroline Stutzman on Cello.

Donations welcome. Drinks and refreshments will be available, please join the performers for a brief reception following the concert.

Visual artists utilize their distinct techniques and artistry to communicate their impressions of images and ideas around them. In the same vein, this group of young musicians have taken the music around them - from the traditional to the cutting-edge - and made it their own. They have borrowed from other instruments, from Popular music, Jazz and traditional songs, taking the amazing maelstrom of music that surrounds them everyday, and integrated it into one engaging program.


Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring
J. S. Bach Arr. Kofoed

Aria for Flute and Bassoon
Hector Villa-Lobos

Elegie Op. 10 No. 5
Jules Massenet

Blackbird
John Lennon Arr. Kofoed

And think ye Nymphs to scorn at love
Love is a fit of pleasure
William Byrd

Sonata VI
Jan Dismas Zelenka

March of the Lemmings
Spy vs. Spy
Erik Kofoed

Round Midnight
Thelonius Monk Arr. Pilzer

Baby Boy
Beyoncé Knowles

Geamparale and Maruntica
Traditional Slavic

More info about Mercury Season here: http://www.myspace.com/mercuryseason

duoATL at Callanwolde and on YouTube

duoATL will be performing this Sunday (6/17) at 3pm at Callanwolde Fine Arts Center on Briarcliff Rd in Atlanta. We will be performing a new work by Atlanta Composer Brian Luckett (see YouTube video below) and works by Michael Daughtery, Roberto Sierra, Katherine Hoover and more active/living composers as well as some standards for the pairing such as the Piazzolla's Histoir du Tango. Hope to see you there! Admission is $15.00(10.00 for students and seniors).

Graphic Notation/Improv Pieces Show

Dear all,

Adam Neal here, just wanting to give an update on our Graphic notation/improv show. All of us involved have been extremely busy, so are not going to present the show. Thanks to everyone who submitted works; hopefully we can get them performed sometime in the future.

Social Network for Composers

Here's yet another avenue to meet other composers to commisurate with: http://composersforum.ning.com

Cosmic Karma

Michael Gandolfi discusses his “Garden of Cosmic Speculation”


"Intuition is sensing the winds of change, the way things are going, the mood of the moment, and how it will affect the future." —Maggie Keswick Jencks

The following interview comes from a 30-minute conversation I had with composer Michael Gandolfi on the afternoon of April 30, 2007, in Atlanta. We discussed his “The Garden of Cosmic Speculation,” inspired by earthworks and installations designed by architect Charles Jencks at Portrack House, which is just north of Dumfries, in southwestern Scotland.
    The ASO played four of the "impressions" from the work-in-progess a year ago. Now it comprises 11 sections, including a 14-minute "suite within a suite" called "The Garden of the Senses."
    At last Gandolfi's completed "Garden" receives its premiere this week, performed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Robert Spano conducting. The concerts are Thu-Sat., May 24-26, 2007, at 8:00p.m. at Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts center, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 404-733-5000 www.atlantasymphony.org
    Before going further, however, you may want to first read my feature article for Creative Loafing ["Wierd Science," 16 May 2007], which can be found online here, as it provides a good overview of what Michael and I are discussing below.
    —Mark Gresham


Gresham: Your “The Garden of Cosmic Speculation” has grown considerably since the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra performed four “Impressions from…” last year. Where in this upcoming ASO complete performance are those four movements?

Gandolfi: What you heard before are [now numbers] 1, 2, 3 and 11.

Gresham: You’ve said that the specific order will not set in stone?

Gandolfi: The whole point of the piece was to simply turn out a whole bunch of movements based on these various aspects of the Garden—mainly the physical aspects of the garden, but a few conceptual ones as well. My intention, initially, was not to have the whole piece played all at once—the point being that a given conductor would choose his or her own pathway through the garden, I like to say, by just selecting a number of movements for a given program.
    So at that point, as I was writing other movements for the piece, I wasn’t really concerned about an order for a single program. I was just covering the various features of the garden and writing piece after piece after piece.
    Actually, the ones that are underlined here… [He shows a single page listing the movements as the ASO will perform them.] This one I’m just about ready to finish, is number 4. I still have number 7 to do. So [the rest] was done in Miami by the New World Symphony a week ago [April 21, 2007], all but these two movements of course, and the order was as you see it except that in the place of “Symmetry Break Terrace” here, which hadn’t been written yet, was the “Fractal Terrace.” That totals a little over 57 minutes actually.

Gresham: Prior to that performance, you were also planning to have the “Garden of the Senses” performed near the end of the whole work. What happened to that idea?

Gandolfi: It became clear to us, to Robert Spano and me, in the midst of rehearsal that this suite belonged in the middle, not at the end.

Gresham: How did this come to be composed as a “suite within a suite”?

Gandolfi: In the entire work, what I’m trying to do is give the listener the sense of the space from a musical standpoint. “The Garden of the Senses” is a separate garden within the larger Garden, walled off with shrubs, maybe 50 yards by 30 yards—very formal, manicured, ornate, Baroque.
    So at first, before I tackled the “Garden of the Senses” suite, I had just thought about the senses themselves, [i.e.] for the sense of hearing: a sonic landscape. But as I thought about it, I realized that may well and good to describe the senses, but it doesn’t really describe the “Garden of the Senses.” And that’s why I started thinking about this Baroque feeling of the space, and I thought it would be fun to tether it to a Baroque suite. The only non-suite movement is the chorale at the end. Jencks has a “sixth sense” which he calls Intuition, so I just decided to express that in the form of a chorale, in segue from the Gigue.

Gresham: I understand you’ve added some recordings of natural sounds on either side of the “Garden of the Senses” in this ASO performance?

Gandolfi: “The Garden of the Senses” suite is about 14 minutes total. I used [Bach’s] French and English suites as my models. But going in, [it] is a little more difficult to delineate [from the preceding movements]. What we’re going to do for the Atlanta performances, at least what I’m intending on doing now, is having some kind of a separator by using ambient sounds recorded from the garden—bird sounds insect sounds. Actually the piece will open with those sounds and will merge with the music and fade out, and the musical piece will start. Then I thought I would do that at the very end of the piece. Now I realize if I bring those sounds back in surrounding the Garden of the Senses, at the end of the “Willow Twist” (let’s say the nature sounds come back in and acquiesce for 10 seconds or so) we’ll get a sense that a chapter is done, now we’re ready for the middle part. When that’s done I’ll bring the [recorded nature] sounds back in, so one does get a sense that there is a connection between parts one and three, [beyond] just the orchestral scope of the writing.
    So that’s the way it’s shaking up, and I hadn’t thought about that until I actually heard it in [the Miami] concert.

Gresham: So this order was not this order only 2 weeks ago?

Gandolfi: No. [But in the Miami performanceit was] pretty much what you see, except 6 was 10.

Gresham: So the “Garden of the Senses” could actually be a standalone 14-minute piece by itself. Do you have some other shortened menus in mind already for this “modular” piece?

Gandolfi: An order I would prefer would be 1, 2, 3, 9, 10, 11—a rich piece about 35 to 40 minutes.”

Gresham: You mentioned “Willow Twist” and two “Terrace” movements earlier. Could you talk a bit about those?

Gandolfi:“The Willow Twist” is like a jazz big band piece, it’s very swinging with a big trumpet solo and a trombone solo. I have them stand up big band style. It’s not complex in the way that some of the other movements are, in the treatment of rhythm. It does have an overlapping rhythmical pattern. It’s a real groove piece. You know how when you get into a main groove you have to get out of it somehow? So what I do is transform a primary groove into a secondary groove, which ramps it down a little bit. Then an abrupt bow-and-arrow stop, and you’re in this coda section which is very ethereal. So “Willow Twist” is very visceral. It really does describe the object, that’s what I’d say. The “WillowTwist” is like a Mobius strip, a sheet of metal, a very complex strip and it’s circular. And so I wrote a piece that grooves in a circular way. In fact, when the wind players were playing the piece, in Miami, they were actually making little circles with bodies; they didn’t know, they’d never seen the object. The music just feels that way.

Gresham: So it should be easy for listeners to get into the groove and see how it transforms.

Gandolfi: “Fractal Terrace” also is a grove movement, but a little more complex, a little more like a Steve Reich kind of groove. And now what will be the “Symmetry Break Terrace / Black Hole Terrace”—these [three] would make a little set, actually, because they are powerful and groove oriented, although the “Fractal Terrace” and “Symmetry Break Terrace / Black Hole Terrace” are a little more complex in their structure of the groove.
    These movements are just more visceral [than most]. Other movements are more complex, in terms of the multiple sections and the way things transform, they’re a little headier in a sense.
    I would say that “The Jumping Bridge” and “The Nonsense” have something in common. The writing is bright and bold and kind of quirky, they form a kind of a unit in a way and “The Quark Walk” has more of a connection with “The Snail.” It’s a slower movement, bolder maybe than “The Snail” is, and full of atmosphere, describing different aspects of a quark, a subatomic particle.

Gresham: There seems like a lot of different variety of musical expressions incorporated in “The Garden of Cosmic Speculation.” Is it, um, possibly a bit wide ranging for one piece?

Gandolfi: So it’s not like an onslaught of completely different things. Occasionally I’ll bring in a motivic idea from an earlier movement and just develop it differently, so there is a sense of connection over the course of the broad arc of the piece.
    [A reviewer said it was as if] the physical landscape waves of the garden itself were captured through the course of the piece, that the piece held together by virtue of the feeling of wavelike activity. Maybe that’s one of those unconscious things that happen?

Gresham: Speaking of unconscious, subconscious, or perhaps “collective unconscious,” the impact of Jenck’s Garden, in let’s say an abstract, perhaps even iconic sense… Does that carry over into your music?

Gandolfi: The garden itself, though its reference to cosmology and contemporary thought in physics prompts speculation and to wonder, to have a sense of awe, actually, with respect to the incredible discoveries, and it’s fairly apparent that’s what this garden does. Looking at the garden, visiting it, one is immediately struck by that sense. Yes, it’s an abstraction. [However,] you don’t read about these things—you’re experiencing them physically with the space, with what architect Charles Jencks has done with the property. But he’s also specific, too, because he’ll have sculptural details placed in the garden to prompt you to exactly what he was thinking about conceptually. So that sense of wonder and awe is what I was trying to capture in the [musical] movements themselves. Hopefully there will be a kind of magical sense, the sense of at once wonderment about it all. And on the other hand there is the playfulness to it there, too, that’s kind of a quirky, almost yin and yang thing. You have polar opposites: On the one hand you have these are incredibly profound things but they also provoke almost a sense of giddiness or silliness at the same time too-- like a quantum flux, where you have particles that are just appearing and disappearing willy-nilly. Jenks plays on the bizarre and strange qualities in a humorous way. So that is interpreted in these pieces as well too. “The Nonsense” is a prime example; “The Jumping Bridge” too; the audience chuckled at the end of “The Jumping Bridge.” It’s sort of fun and joyful.

Gresham: So it’s ok to laugh?

Gandolfi: Absolutely!

Gresham: How is this connected to your own personal sense of wonder?

Gandolfi: It’s really hard for me to say precisely, because it’s hard to describe in words sometimes what the music hopefully is doing. That often manifests itself in the use of the color of the orchestration and the harmony. Those are two aspects of music making where I feel like I can conjure up something, by twisting around harmony and orchestral color, to create a sense of wonderment or…

Gresham: Surprise?

Gandolfi: Yes, a sense of giddiness or enjoyment. Sometimes I’m specific, as in “Soliton Waves,” the second movement of the piece, where I actually have musical wave forms and movements moving all around the stage. Big crashing waves and little eddys of waves. The big formal design describes an actual soliton wave, which is a wave that has the property of joining with another wave, forming a third unit, then exiting with no memory of having joined with the other wave. There are two main streams in [this movement]; they join up in the middle become something else then they exit. The listener finds they’ve been riding that singular wave the whole way. And when it bursts out at the end, [you think ] “Wait a minute, we’re right back to where we’ve started from”; in fact you’ve always been there, it’s just that it’s joined up with another wave and formed another, larger object. So there are very specific ties in these movements to the objects that are being described.

Gresham: Where does this piece fall in the development of your career, your own artistic journey?

Gandolfi: This piece is at once a focal point, sort of crystallizing some things I’ve been working on for the past several years, and at the same time it’s a jumping off point too, a point from which I feel like I’ll move forward. I would characterize it by saying it’s a purely, thoroughly post-modern piece in the sense that it references other music the same way a post-modern building will [where] you might have a Greek column in the front, a portico from another era, and you might have a mid-twentieth-century modernist facade elsewhere.

Gresham: It may reference previous eras but not imitate, per se?

Gandolfi: We’re at a point now in concert music in which so much has been done, and there’s such a rich tradition, that to reference other eras is sort of a natural thing to do now. I’m enjoying putting my mind into these other eras of music, of musical discovery, and referencing multiple centuries actually, as this piece does, and I’m realizing there’s a lot of terrain there yet to be explored. Some music has done this before: Stravinsky in his neo-classical period. But this is different; I’m not holding it at arms length like I feel it [is] in Stravinsky’s neo-classicism. It’s not cold [or detached]. I’m actually jumping into the pond, and really embracing these things. And the fact that the form of the piece itself is open, in the sense that I’ll continue to add movements [just as] Jencks continues to add to his Garden. And as the years progress I’ll continue to visit the Garden and write more movements, and this piece will just keep going, as far as I’m concerned. So that’s a kind of post-modern notion. I’ve never done anything like this before, to write an orchestral piece that could be so modular.

Gresham: How many people have?

Gandolfi: One of my models was Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet suites, although I will never issue it as three suites the way Prokofiev did. This will be just a big hunk of movements. Up in front of the piece I’ll suggest some “menus,” some pathways, but I’ll also say it’s up to the conductor to decide what movements are appropriate. Robert Spano has already suggested a whole bunch of different arrangements, starting with the “Garden of the Sense” suite [by itself]; the “Willow Twist” could also make a concert opener in and of itself; “The Nonsense” could be a piece in and of itself. Two, three, five movement combinations—there are so many ways in which it could be put together.

Gresham: Where do you think composers find themselves at the beginning of the 21st century, in terms of our “collective consciousness,” creatively speaking? Where do you see things going from here?

Gandolfi: It’s the whole global Village idea; there’s so much out there I don’t see it being one trend. It is an eclectic time, and that used to be a very bad word, when I was a student in the 1970s. Now it’s a virtue. Where we are at the beginning of the 21st century—that will be the legacy of eclecticism and global acceptance, if you will, one that doesn’t look for a leader such as a Stravinsky, or a Schoenberg, or whomever. I think it’s a good thing we don’t look for that. It’s a more democratic view of what the artist is, how the artist fits in. It’s quite a different time, a big paradigm shift.
    That’s just the way I feel about it—who knows? Time will tell. But that’s how I feel about it now. Virtually every composer is contributing to the big picture, and they’re not looking to purify, which I think was the case in the middle and latter part of the 20th century, in which I grew up. Now, it’s like: What have you discovered? Let’s hear it, if it’s rock music, jazz, or music of other cultures, classical, or whatever. It’s a freer time to allow what an individual sees as their vision of the beauty in music to emerge, and to not distill it away or bury it.
    I hope that’s the experience somebody has with this piece, the visceral joy of all these kinds of music merging and swirling about. Hopefully that will communicate to the audience. ■

—Mark Gresham, composer/music journalist • 19 May 2007

[NOTE: This article by Mark Gresham is cross-posted from his EarRelevant blog. All comments should be posted here on the AtlantaComposers.com blog.]

Michael Gandolfi's artist website can be found at www.michaelgandolfi.com.

3 weeks, 3 new works at the ASO

For three weeks in a row, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is performing new works, all of which should be of interest to Atlanta composers.

This week (which means tonight, SAT 5/19 @ 8pm is the final performance) ASO principal contrabassist Ralph Jones is soloist and Laura Jackson conducts the Concerto for Bass Viol (2006) by John Harbison.

This coming week (THU 5/24, FRI 5/25 & SAT 5/26 @ 8pm) features premiere performance of the "complete" The Garden of Cosmic Speculation by Michael Gandolfi, to be conducted by Robert Spano.  I say "complete" in quotes with reason.  (Yes, it is the complete work, but...)  While many of you may have read my feature article in this week's Creative Loafing, 650 words hardly is room for the larger story about the work.  (NOTE: I did not write either the article's published title nor the caption under the photo!)  I had a 30-minute conversation with Gandolfi in preparation for that article, and I hope before the concerts take place to post more extensive excerpts from that conversation in this blog.

Finally, though the concerts at this writing appear to be almost sold out (THU 5/31 & SAT6/2 @ 8pm & SUN 6/3 @ 3pm - no FRI concert, and online tickets for THU seems sold out completely), the ASO & Spano with baritone Gregg Baker, perform the southeastern premiere of a work the ASO co-commisioned with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and the African-American Cultural center of Greater Philadelphia: Pastime (2006) by Richard Danielpour.  Pastime celebrates 3 historical baseball and civil rights greats: Josh Gibson (Negro League), Jackie Robinson & Hank Aaron (National League).  Hank Aaron is scheduled to be present at the sold-out Thursday performance.

—Mark Gresham

[NOTE: This article can also be found on Mark Gresham's new EarRelevant blog, which is intended to delve far outside of "new music."  So many of Gresham's posts involving Atlanta's new music scene will either appear here in the Atlanta Composers Blog at AtlantaComposers.com, or be crossposted/crosslinked to both blogs.]

Csound User Group - First Meeting, May 21

Our first Csound User Group meeting will be Monday, May 21st at 7:30pm. We'll meet at Mitch Turner's house. Email him for directions: mmturner (A-T) mindspring (D-O-T) com

I (Darren) will present the use of 'invalues' for realtime control in MacCsound. Mitch will present 'global variables' within a reverb instrument.

If you have more ideas or requests for topics, please let us know. Please feel free to leave your comments here.

See you there!!

Bent Frequency concert: 1six Landscapes

Atlanta chamber ensemble Bent Frequency presents 1^six Landscapes (the final concert of our 2006-2007 season) on Sunday, May 20th, 8:00 PM at Eyedrum.

Featuring virtuosic contemporary works showcasing (and selected by) six familiar BF musicians as soloists. The eclectic program will include:

• The haunting electro-acoustic landscapes of Atlanta composer Robert Scott Thompson's "Canto de Las Sombras."
• A gripping musical caricature by Michael Colgrass inspired by Inuit legend: "Wild Riot of the Shaman's Dreams."
• Roger Sessions' masterpiece "Six Pieces for Solo Cello."
• The outrageously theatrical "an apologia" by Jon Deak based on text by Richard Hartshorne.
• A premiere of "Icarus", a new work by Atlanta composer Chris Arrell.
• Stephen Hartke's elegant "Caoine" for solo violin.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Eyedrum at 8:00 PM

Cycling '74 Max/MSP/Jitter Workshop at Eyedrum

I'm forwarding this information from Gregory Taylor at Cycling '74, who will be teaching a beginners' workshop for Max/MSP/Jitter at Eyedrum in June.

----

Hello!

Our next workshop will be held at Eyedrum in Atlanta, GA and is
strictly for beginners.

This workshop is specifically for new users, and is intended to provide
an introduction to Max, MSP, and Jitter together as a unit. It
concentrates on the basics of working with Max for all users in a
variety of situations including audio and image processing.

The topics to be covered in the workshop include an overview of the Max,
MSP, and Jitter objects in their natural habitat, basic audio and video
processing techniques, strategies for patch design and creation, user
interface design, and techniques for better patching, learning & problem
solving. Particular emphasis will be given to learning about and taking
advantage of Max's data neutrality -- the ability to interconnect audio
and video image processing data.

This workshop places an emphasis on strategies for learning
Max/MSP/Jitter that can be applied after the workshop ends.

Participants are required to bring their own laptop (Windows or Mac)
with Max/MSP/Jitter installed. A three-month software authorization will
be provided with the $300 class fee. To reserve a space call Jill at
415-974-1818, ext. 4# or e-mail workshop@cycling74.com

date: June 4 to June 7, 2007
time: 9 a.m to 5 p.m.
place: Eyedrum
http://www.eyedrum.org/

Dorkbot Art and Technology Forum

Hi all,

I wanted to invite all of you to attend dorkbot-atl, the Atlanta chapter of the international forum on art and technology dedicated to “people doing strange things with electricity.” Our final meeting of the year is this Thursday, May 3rd, at 7 pm in the Couch Building (room 207) at Georgia Tech.

Full details and directions are available at:

http://dorkbot.org/dorkbotatl/

The meeting will feature a hands-on demonstration of Flock, a work in progress being developed by myself, Liubo Borissov, Frank Dellaert, Mark Godfrey, Dan Hou, Justin Berger, and Martin Robinson. Come and help create the music being performed by a live saxophone quartet, learn how everything works, and give us feedback on the experience as we continue to develop the piece.

Flock is a performance work for saxophone quartet, conceived to directly engage audiences in the composition of music by physically bringing them out of their seats and enfolding them into the creative process. During the performance, the four musicians and the audience members move freely around the performance space. A computer vision system determines the locations of the audience members and musicians, and it uses that data to generate performance instructions for the saxophonists, who view them on wireless handheld displays mounted on their instruments. The data is also artistically rendered and projected on multiple video screens to provide a visual experience of the score. More information about flock is available at:

http://www.jasonfreeman.net/flock/

As always, dorkbot, which is sponsored by the Georgia Tech Music Department, is free and open to the public.

Hope to see you there!! This is the final event at Georgia Tech for our academic year, but there's more exciting things to come this fall...

The Atlanta Score Study Group's New (Old) Direction

From Eddie Horst:

This is an announcement about The Atlanta Score Study Group (ASSg) regarding some changes in its focus and direction.

As you may know, ASSg, in a previous incarnation, was started by Eddie Horst, but revived and artfully managed over the past year by Jonathan Cazanave.

The original direction of the group was to be as the name implies: studying great music by listening to recordings and diligently examining and learning from the score. The ultimate aim was to increase our skills and proficiency as composers by truly understanding the means by which great music was created in works that we admired.

Many of the past meetings did indeed focus on this goal, but I came to learn that about half the attendees had various other goals (all very worthy). So to better address our various interests I would like to introduce a solution for all of us. First, I would like to return ASSg to its original course, and second, because of exciting new developments in the Atlanta composer community, I would encourage those not focused on score study to find an existing group, or even to create a new one that more suits their needs. There is plenty going on. Jonathan showed us that there are many eager composers in our midst.

Before I describe how ASSg might better operate, let me describe how our relationship to the Atlanta composers' community will be strengthened through our friend, Darren Nelsen. As many of you know, Darren is a great organizer and visionary who maintains an excellent blog at Atlantacomposers.com. News of ASSg's meetings have been and will continue to be disseminated through his blog, along with news from other groups. So ASSg is not going away. It is simply refocusing back to its original mission and continuing to stay in touch with the community through Darren's blog. ASSg is one part of a larger thing.

ASSg Purpose: To study scores communally so as to help ourselves and each other become better composers.

Participation: If you agree to be a part of ASSg, and you show up at a monthly meeting, you must agree to commit to some listening and studying beforehand. Yeh, like homework, but the payoff might be more exciting than a mere degree. You will also be expected to give something at the meeting. Remember, this is like a musical commune: everyone gives, everyone gets. Anyone can suggest a piece for the group to study. The score and mp3 will be made available by me to everyone a month or so beforehand. The score may even come as a standard midi file which would allow easy non-transposed analysis in sequencer or notation software while synchronized with the audio.

What to Study:
Classical, Romantic or Contemporary music written for an ensemble
Classic or contemporary film scores
Our own music, as long as it is of benefit to all of us
Various other music that is a) good and b) appealing to the group

ASSg will be interesting, thought-provoking, educational, inspiring, and certainly fun. However, to be those things for everyone, it will require a commitment for each of us to listen and study intently beforehand and then actively participate in the meetings. When this works well it is actually a thrilling experience (Well, at least for me).

The analysis can touch on anything that might help us write better music including but not limited to:
compositional aspects
melody
harmony
rhythm
form
orchestration
instrumentation
counterpoint
texture
vertical structures
the line and horizontal aspects
tension and release
voicings
patterns
emotional effects
complexity
originality
density
repetition
doublings
and on and on.

If you are interested in being an active member in the new ASSg, please send me a quick email indicating what you feel you can contribute for your own and the group’s enlightenment. Give me your thoughts on how the new ASSg will help you. Give me your thoughts on what you might want to change or add. We will try to keep the number of participants at a relatively low number so that we can stay on track with the most committed members. Incidentally, I am inviting a few very serious score study buddies who have not been to any previous meetings.

I will set up the first meeting when I hear from you. We can continue to meet monthly at Crawford on any night we choose. Jonathan will likely be involved in managing things but his duties will not be as extensive. We will all share.

Send to:
eddie@eddiehorstmusic.com