Created by Christopher Burns, cburns@ccrma.stanford.edu
The Cantor Arts Center is located at Lomita Drive and Museum Way, off Palm Drive, on the Stanford University campus. (Please see the campus map). The Auditorium is located on the ground floor of the Cantor Center, towards the back of the building in a straight line from the main entrance. For more information, call the Music Department at (415) 723-3811.
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Soliloquy for cello and tape
| Oded Ben-Tal
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| Soliloquy starts with a fast and dramatic section in which the cello struggles
to come through the electronic sounds. When the drama subsides the cello starts
a long ornamental melody weaving through the wide cello register while the
electronics provide, mostly, a harmonic background. The
roles are revesed for a short while toward the end. Soliloquy was written for
Julie Regan Reiman, and I am very grateful for her help during the process.
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| Oded Ben-Tal studied physics in the Hebrew university and composition at the
Rubin academy of music, both in Jerusalem. He is now a student in the DMA
program at Stanford were he is studying composition with J. Berger and J.
Harvey. Julie Regan Reimann is pursuing her MD and PhD degrees in the Medical Scientist Training Program at Stanford. Prior to coming to Stanford, Julie studied with David Soyer as a student at the Curtis Institute of Music, as well as with Aldo Parisot of the Yale School of Music. She has performed throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe, and continues to play in the Stanford community when time permits.
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Transect for CD
| Chris Chafe
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| 99% pure synthesis, Transect is another study to create "chamber music" using
the current technology. Ingredients of lines, articulations and phrasing were
created by playing the synthesizer with a synthetic player whose bow arm
loosely mimics the physics of the real thing. A bowed string and a throat were
combined for the instrument. A year in the mountains of Alberta and California,
and the mid-life interests of the composer figure into the story line, which is
like the title, a section traversing.
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| Chris Chafe is a composer/cellist with an interest in the computer as an aid to
music composition and performance. He has been a long-term denizen of the
Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, Stanford University where
he teaches courses in computer music and directs the
center, also having served as Chair of the Department of Music from 1994-97.
His doctorate in music composition was completed at Stanford in 1983 with prior
degrees in music from the University of California at San Diego and Antioch
College. As a researcher at IRCAM, Paris, he
developed methods for computer sound synthesis based on physical models of
musical instrument mechanics and has recently returned from a year-long
residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts. He has performed his music in
Europe, the Americas and Asia, and has several compositions available on
compact disc. A two-disc set of his works is in preparation.
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Robot Indigestion for 4-channel tape
| Jonathan Norton
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| Robot Indigestion is a four channel composition that begs the question - what
is the equivalent of an antacid for a robot?
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| Jonathan Norton (b.1966) is currently finishing a Ph.D. at CCRMA. During his
time at Stanford, he has studied with John Chowning, Julius Smith, Max Mathews,
Jonathan Harvey, Chris Chafe, David Soley and Jody Rockmaker. He received his
Master's degree in Composition from Northwestern University. His works for
dance, acoustic instruments, tape and soundtracks have been heard and performed
worldwide in festivals and on television in the United States, Russia, Spain,
Japan, Monaco, Italy, France, Switzerland, Hong Kong, China and Brazil.
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Frames/Falls for amplified violin, amplified doublebass, and electronics
| Matthew Burtner
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| Frames/Falls (1999) for amplified violin, amplified double bass, and
electronics is composed of four short musical processes that frame the musical
space of a longer movement. The Frames can be performed at any point in a
musical setting, before or after the Falls movement, in any order, contiguously
or separated by other pieces. The Falls movement tends from isolated sonic objects towards sonic environment, from string sounds into noise, and from noise into waterfalls. The piece exploits the impedance of an electroacoustic system -- the quantization resolution of digital sounds and other processes of digital distortion introduced as byproducts of the electrical/digital path the signal has taken -- as important parts of the musical fabric. Quantization is treated as a musical parameter such as amplitude or frequency which is modified to achieve musical results (quantization levels from 16 to 6 bit resolution are used). Additional computer-generated noise is carefully integrated into each sound as a means of developing the indiscriminate noise generated by the speakers. Noise as the property of dequantization has the quality of being inseparably linked to the amplitude of the sound, like a shadow of an object, always moving when the object moves. The computer-generated filtered noise on the other hand is dynamically independent. In Frames/Falls the noise arising naturally and uncontrollably from within the system becomes a voice with its own contrapuntal function. It evolves over the course of the piece, becoming increasingly pervasive until it is eventually transformed into a series of waterfall sounds. The waterfalls were recorded in Yosemite National Park. These recordings took the form of acoustical "walks", moving the microphone upstream and gradually approaching the falls as a means of controlling the intensity of the water sound. The electronic sounds were created in Common Lisp Music using instruments for granular synthesis (Lopez-Lezcano), quantization (Leistikow), modulation synthesis, and noise generation (Burtner). The real time electronics and instrumental digital signal processing interface was created using Max/MSP.
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| Matthew Burtner's compositional work is guided by an interest in natural
acoustic processes, and a focus on music as the synthesis of imagination and
environment. A native of Alaska, he studied philosophy at St. Johns College,
music composition at Tulane University (BFA 1993), computer music at Iannis
Xenakis's Center for the Study of Mathematics and Automation in Music (CEMAMu),
and computer music at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University (MM
1997). From 1996 to 1998, he was composer in residence at the Banff Centre for
the Arts, Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, and the Audiovisual Institute
in Barcelona. He is currently in the DMA program at Stanford University,
working at CCRMA. Burtner has written for a wide variety of ensembles and media, and has received several prizes and grants for his work. His music, commissioned by performers such as soprano Phyllis Bryn-Julson and pianist Mark Markham, the Spectri Sonori Ensemble, MiN Ensemble, the Peabody Trio, and the Quiescence Dance Ensemble, has been performed throughout North America and Europe, as well as in Japan, Australia, China, Uruguay and Brazil, and is available on two commercial recordings: "Incantations" (DACO 102), and "Portals of Distortion: Music for Saxophones, Computers, and Stones" (Innova 526). Since 1997 Burtner has worked on the Metasaxophone project, an exploration of the saxophone as an electroacoustic instrument. The computer metasaxophone was completed in 1999, and the Metasaxophone Ensemble will have its premiere concert in 2000. This project has also led to the creation of a number of new pieces for saxophone and electronics by composers such as Chrysa Prestia, Ricardo Ventura, Julia Miller, and the piece he will premiere tonight: Christopher Burns' Questions and Fissures. Richard Duke recieved his BA from UC Santa Cruz (95) and Masters from Northwestern University (98) and lives now in San Francisco. An active freelance musician, he performs with orchestras, theatre groups, chamber ensembles and jazz groups throughout the bay area. He is a member of the Monterey Symphony and the Jacob Elijah Aginsky Quartet (Noir Records). Katherine Baker is currently a freelance violinist who plays in the Oakland East Bay Symphony. She got her bachelor's in music from the Oberlin Conservatory of music and spent one year studying at the San Francisco Conservatory with Camilla Wicks. Katherine has soloed with the Tucson Symphony orchestra, the Catalina Chamber orchestra; has a appeared as a guest artist in chamber music concerts with Andor Toth, and has given a solo recital in Friday Harbor, WA. She was also a finalist in the Stulburg International string competition, and attended The Tanglewood music festival last summer and has been invited back this coming summer. Katherine is currently studying with Camilla Wicks privately in preparation for auditions and competitions.
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Echoes of Light and Time for CD
| Jonathan Berger
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Last February sculptor Dale Chihuly invited me to create a sound installation in his planned sculpture garden in Jerusalem's Tower of David. The enormous glass sculptures are set against the austere ruins of civilizations dating back 3000 years. My goal was to integrate the rich diversity of religions and cultures with the sparkling contrast of Chihuly s glass. I did so by combining sounds of recorded glass (particularly as used in religious rituals) with the sounds of prayers and calls to prayer that I recorded in the Old City of Jerusalem. The glass sounds serve as pedal point against the prayers which are triggered sporadically throughout the day. I implanted Light and heat sensors in the central sculpture, a 50 foot high tower or pink glass chunks called the Crystal Mountain. These sensors track changes in the sun's position and intensity, effectively creating a sonic sundial in which the cycles of daylight and seasons control the degree of distortion and alteration of the recorded sounds. The echoes of time constitute the prayer sounds which are triggered according to the individual religious calendar associated to which that sound is associated. Thus the natural cycles of light and the often complex counterpoint of the humanly designed cycles of religious calendars interact to create a well structured, yet constantly changing sound environment. The millennium exhibition has been running continuously since October 1999 and will continue throughout the year 2000. Excerpts from the installation have been broadcast throughout Europe and the United States. A DVD version of Echoes of Light and Time is in the works. Tonight s work consists of excerpts from the installation. Echoes of Light and Time was commissioned by Chihuly Studio and the Towerof David Museum. Images and sounds from the installation can be seen and heard at http://www.chihuly.com/jerusalem/jerusalem.html and http//:www-ccrma.stanford.edu/~brg/echoes.html. | |
| Jonathan Berger is on the faculty of CCRMA.
Other recent commissions include the Chamber Music America Millenium
Commission for Of Hammered Gold for Baroque ensemble and computer,
Miracles and Mud, a work for the St. Lawrence String Quartet, which will
be performed at Stanford in May, and a chamber work for Ensemble Kaprizma.
Berger's Viola Concerto will be performed by the Stanford Symphony in
March with soloist Leslie Robertson.
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Eternal Gates 3.0.2 for CD
| Christian Herbst
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| "You live and you die. And then you cross the vast waters and pass over to the
eternal campground, where you meet Him, the Lord of Lords and the Creator of
all things. You feel microbic, and your brain goes all soft. But thank God
there is more to life than that..." This piece for CD was created last year. The number of sampled sounds used is very small: A badly recorded flute tone, a hammer striking a packet of screws, a male voice singing overtones, a glass hitting a table, a note from a MIDI crash, a recording of a Mass from Pierre de LaRue, and the startup sound of an operating system. In addition to that, some sounds have been generated two years ago in an FM-like fashion, using Visual Basic and Microsoft Access and represent Christian's first tries in DSP. The processing and mixing was done on a Windows 95 workstation with publicly available DSP applications and a granular synthesis program written by the author in C++. The occurring clipping is intended.
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| Christian Herbst was born 1970 in Salzburg/Austria. He is currently a visiting
researcher at CCRMA, collecting materials and knowledge for his diploma thesis
in vocal pedagogy, which he studies at the University Mozarteum in Salzburg. To
earn his living, he works as a web designer and database
administrator/programmer for the same University.
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Questions and Fissures for soprano saxophone and computer-processed sound
| Christopher Burns
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| Questions and Fissures explores the fusion of divergent musical elements. The
two loudspeakers present independent voices, kept separate throughout the
piece, while the saxophone provides another layer, distinct from the electronic
world. Each element pursues its own path of development, corresponding with
the others only at the broadest levels of form. In spite of all the ways in
which these materials attempt to achieve independence, we hear one piece, and
not three -- each layer informs and enriches our hearing of the others. This piece is the second in a series of works which use speech sounds as both timbral material and organizing forces. The electronic component is composed entirely of heavily processed recordings of my speaking voice. While the speech never quite becomes intelligible, it animates the sound and provides rhythmic structure. In turn, the saxophone part is derived from a rhythmic transcription of the spoken text. Like the speech sounds themselves, the transcribed rhythms never appear intact. Instead, I use them as the basis for a series of variations and distortions. Questions and Fissures is dedicated to its first performer, Matthew Burtner.
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| Christopher Burns is a composer influenced by the diverse worlds of computer
music and traditional Indonesian music. His interest in electronics dates from
an early stint as a rock musician; he first encountered Balinese music while a
student at Yale University, where he was a founding member of the gong kebyar
ensemble Gamelan Jagat Anyar. Christopher is currently a doctoral student at
the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), Stanford
University, where he studies composition with Jonathan Harvey and Jonathan
Berger.
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| ©2000 CCRMA, Stanford University. All Rights Reserved. Created by Christopher Burns, cburns@ccrma.stanford.edu
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