This piece formed part of a concert given by Electronic Music students at the University of Hertfordshire in December 1992. The concert was a continuous suite of pieces composed individually by everyone on the course, and then mixed together to flow into each other. The work charted the Evolution of Earth and mankind from the primordial soup to the exploration of space (which is where I came in). I made good use of the wide variety of sound sources at our disposal in the music department:
The piano strings were amplified by microphones and processed with echo
and reverb. During performance, I improvised on the keyboard and strings
directly, as well as tuning analogue oscillators and filters.
The sampler used a sample of a bowed cymbal I'd made in the University's
Anechoic Chamber
(a bizarre little place, not as
big as
the one at
Bell Labs though!), which was played in a scale of
ascending and descending fifths. I also used sine tones from my
Additive Synthesis Project, having always loved the
pure sound of
sine waves and being fascinated by the
Ancient Greek notion of
The Music Of The Spheres.
There were originally plans to use a solo cello, radio sounds and
Morse Code signals
spelling out the words
"IN MEMORY OF JOHN CAGE" but these were not completed
in time for the event. A guitarist joined me with some wailing alien
sounds, and more hands assisted with the oscillator twiddling. The audience
were seated in the centre of the hall, around which were about eight
Digital Audio Workstations
manned by each composer, all relayed through the main surround sound system.
There were two performances, both of which were recorded, although in the
spirit of space exploration, neither was without technical difficulties:
some howling bass feedback and forgetting to unmute one channel!
Now that I've acquired an Akai S3200 I hope to be able to use my old sample disks to recreate a better version.
Scores and recordings will eventually be available
on request once I get my
music computer fully
operational.
[This page is longing for the day when
scores and audio samples will be added...]
© copyright Malcolm Smith 2005-10-08 - last updated 2008-02-08