“Dis is Da Drum Circle”

Mitchell Wilcox

Background: As a fan of music, I have always been intrugued by electronic music and the vast potential for computers in music. After taking several CCRMA classes as a sophomore and exploring some artists in electronic music, I have quickly realized that currently this music is in a world of its own. Although I think most of the electronic music I hear sounds cool, a significant amount of it sounds meandering and filled with tension without resolution. At this point, I have never heard “extreme” electronic music that ties itself to typical music aesthetics (i.e., direction in the music).

The idea: As a drummer, I find that rhythms can create extremely intense emotions, especially repetitive rhythms that can create an almost trance-like mood. Since I play the drumset, which is pretty much a bastardization of many ancient instruments all fused together in a single instrument, it is quite difficult to recreate the mood that multiple drummers in a circle could create. For this project, I decided to make a composition that does this by using an acoustic drumkit for sounds, an electronic drumkit to manage effects (and possibly generate sounds my acoustic kit wont be able to make), and several computer patches like loops and delay patterns. The overall setup will use 8 channels to create the illusion that there actually is a drum circle in the room.

The challenge will be to avoid emulation of a drum circle. At this point, computers fail to make realistic representations of live music. Therefore, I will need to add some elements of “computerization” to keep the piece from categorization.