MMetasaxophone Systems: Composition

METASAXOPHONE COMPOSITION

Composition is a key element in the development of new music technologies. Instrument design has always been driven by rising needs of composition and performance. The Metasax is no exception -- it was created for a compositional purpose. The composition of new music remains an important part of the research and development of this project. Important developmental compositions are listed here chronologically.

Incantation S4, Split Voices, and Portals of Distortion -- were formative in building the aesthetic principles underlying the Metasaxophone Project. All three works were released on a 1999 recording, Portals of Distortion: Music for Saxophones, Computers, and Stones (Innova 526)

Noisegate 67 was recorded by MIT Press for the Computer Music Journal DVD

S-Morphe-S, S-Trance-S, Noisegate 67, Delta 1, Delta 2, and Endprint were released on a 2004 recording Metasaxophone Colossus (Innova 620)

A version of Delta 2 was released on the WIRE Tapper 12, UK

Incantation S4 for tenor sax and computer sound (1997), SFU, Vancouver, Canada; and IUA/Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona

Split Voices for tenor/soprano sax and computer sound (1998), IUA/Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona

Portals of Distortion for nine tenor saxophones (1998), CCRMA, Stanford, California

Incantation S4-X for sax quartet and computer sound (1997/1999)

Noisegate 67 for metasax (1999), CCRMA, Stanford, California

Delta 1 for electric sax and polyrhythmicon (2000), CCRMA, Stanford, California

S-Trance-S for bowed string tenor sax (metasax) (2001), CCRMA, Stanford, California

S-Morphe-S for singing bowl soprano sax (soprano and computer) (2002), VCCM/UVA, Charlottesville, Virginia

Delta 2 for electric sax and computer sampler (2003), VCCM/UVA, Charlottesville, Virginia

Endprint for nine tenor saxes (2004), VCCM/UVA, Charlottesville, Virginia
Windsketch for metasax, string instrument and wind physical model (2005), IRCAM/Pompidou Centre, Paris, France

Incantation S4 (1997) for amplified tenor saxophone and computer-generated sound

Example from the score of Incantation S4

Incantation S4 explores the integration of the saxophone and electronics as equal elements within a single, non-narrative sound-space. Techniques of digital audio synthesis such as granular synthesis, spectral mutation, convolution, and spectral resonance influenced the compositional approach to the saxophone while the electronic part was inspired by a natural and organic conception of sound. The piece is dedicated to Barry Truax and the electronics were composed during a residency at Simon Fraser University using the PODX system for quasi-synchronous granular synthesis. Additional work on the piece was conducted during a residency at the Phonos Foundation/Audiovisual Institute of the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain.

Split Voices (1998) for amplified saxophones (soprano/tenor) and computer-generated tape

Example from the score of Split Voices

Split Voices explores electroacoustic applications of the nonlinear chaotic acoustic properties inherent in the saxophone as a resonating body. By combining non-standard fingerings on the saxophone, the air column is split in various ways, creating multiphonics. Certain trills utilizing these multiphonic fingerings create complex resonances in the air column. In Split Voices, these sounds were recorded and their spectral components enhanced using generational spectral mutation functions. Out of these sounds come the harmony, texture, rhythm, timbre, form, and melodies of the piece. This approach to both the saxophone and the electronic medium is inherently organic, each element arising naturally from the other. Performance technique takes on new meaning in the piece, becoming a means of opening the saxophone acoustically, bringing out its hidden resonant characteristics, and allowing it to speak on its own. The work was composed during a residency at the Phonos Foundation/Audiovisual Institute of the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain.

Warren Burt, reviewing Split Voices for the Computer Music Journal wrote: "Burtner's playing compares favorably with Evan Parker, the contemporary saxophone master. In Split Voices, the rushing gray-noise bands of the computer part sometimes complement the saxophone, sometimes envelop it, and sometimes stand behind it. The piece is in an unusual two-part form. The first section (about half the piece's length grows with the computer noise bands getting wider and wider, the sax getting more and more active, and things getting louder and louder, eventuating a great climax. This is immediately followed by a long section of sustained purer tones. I kept expecting this section to act like a coda, but to my delight and surprise, it didn't; it just kept developing with its own internal logic."

Portals of Distortion (1998) for nine tenor saxophones

Example from the score of Portals of Distortion

Portals of Distortion explores concepts of sonic fissure and the inherent chaotic acoustic aspects of the instrumental sound. Inspired by my work with electroacoustic composition, Portals of Distortion approaches the nine instruments as a sound synthesis system, exploring the multiplicity contained within sound. This multiplicity is not merely psychological but manifests itself physically in the form of multiphonics, the splitting of the air column in different ways through unconventional fingerings, air pressures, and interactions of conflicting signals within the body of the instrument.In particular, the piece utilizes a technique of instrumental magnification to explore the interchange between unity and multiplicity. By holding the aural lens closely to the saxophone a fragmentation of the instrument's sound is revealed. By representing this phenomenon with nine independent parts, the ear of the listener is metaphorically pushed closer to the instrument, and a larger sound is formed from multiples of a smaller version of itself.

Portals of Distortion was premiered at the Gaudeaumus International Music Festival in Amsterdam where it was a finalist for the Gaudeamus Young Composers Competition. It was performed again in 2000 in San Francisco at the Opus 415/Other Minds Festival at Theater Artaud, and then at the BGSU Bowling Green New Music Festival by John Sampen's Saxophone Ensemble.

The piece was favorably reviewed by Mark Alburger in 21st Century Music as "a monumental block of sound that seemed impervious to destruction." Crystal Elizabeth, in 20th Century Music wrote, "Alaskan composer Matthew Burtner works in the steady-state, post-minimal tradition of small acoustic differences in the spirit of Alvin Lucier. The opening Portals of Distortion for nine tenor saxophones has sustains reminiscent of Terry Riley's Cangting the Light of Foresight and Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band, allied with considerably more animated material, building up into a huge landscape that would not be out of place in one of Joseph Celli's Video Ears Muisic Eyes projects. There is a horror and beauty in this music that is most impressive." Warren Burt of the Computer Music Journal wrote "Portals of Distortion is a phenomenal work for nine multitracked tenor saxophones. By combining so many tracks of saxophone multiphonics, unusual trills, etc. Mr. Burtner produces some rich, amazing sounds with unique spectra. This is additive synthesis of a very refined order. I hang out with some pretty exceptional new-music reed players, and this piece still knocked me out. If only for this work, the disc would be worth having."

Noisegate 67 (1999) for metasaxophone

performance interface for Noisegate 67

Noisegate 67 was the first music composed for the metasaxophone. The piece explores the instrument's ability to seamlessly integrate MIDI and audio, using one to control the other in a circular process of performer interactivity.

Each of the eight continuous controller FSRs are connected to a noise generator and a filter. By applying pressure to the key, the amplitude of each noise generator is increased, creating an amplitude gate for the noise. By carefully controlling the finger pressure, the performer plays shifting bands of noise that are performed in counterpoint to the saxophone sound. The amplitude of the saxophone sound itself also controls a noise gate; as the amplitude of the saxophone sound increases, amplitude of the noise generator increases. The F key controls the Q of a the noise generator's filter. In this manner the dynamic of the noise system is divided into two layers: 1) a noise part independent of the saxophone audio, formed of 8 key pressures, each with fixed filter coefficients, and 2) a noise part which shadows the saxophone's audio amplitude and has changing filter characteristics based on key pressure.

Additionally, the E and D keys control modulation of the saxophone audio sound. The E key has a fixed modulation rate of 40Hz, and by adding pressure, the depth of the modulator is increased. The modulation rate of the D key on the other hand is determined by the saxophone's audio signal amplitude, and ranges from 1 to 100Hz The thumb keys control delay lines which take fragments of the saxophone audio and route it through different delay configurations. The sensors on the bell are used to trigger samples from the computer.

Noisegate 67 takes advantage of the interactive nature of the instrument by exploring controlled open form. The beginning and end of the piece are notated completely in time. The middle section, however, is a network of possible paths which the performer can freely move within, and which dramatically shape the form of the piece. Certain paths lead to a music of drama and intensity while other paths reveal a calm and reserved music. The shortest possible duration of the piece is 5'40", while the longest is 20' minutes. Within the middle of the piece, the performer has great freedom to shape the time/energy structure of the composition, but all the music is controlled in terms of sound.

S-Trance-S (2001) for metasaxophone

Instrument Controller Substitution Mappings in S-Trance-S

S-Trance-S Performance Interface

S-Trance-S explores the metamorphosis between physical and virtual acoustic instruments. In particular it creates ensembles of hybrid saxophone/strings. The metasaxophone, my augmented saxophone technology, functions as an axis in this ensemble, controlling both physical and virtual acoustic instruments. The acoustic saxophone sound, a low string physical model played by the metasaxophone controllers, and acoustic low bowed string.

The physical model string is a mathematical model of an acoustic string created by Stefania Serafin. Historically, physical modeling technology (as the name implies) has been developed to approximate the physical instruments they model. In “S-Trance-S” I am interested in treating these models as their own unique acoustic entities and exploring the strange, idiosyncratic techniques of an instrument that exists in virtual reality. Thus “S-Trance-S” looks at “extended techniques” for physical models by creating a unique hybrid string/saxophone instrument called the ExBow_Metasax.

The technique employed here is called “instrument controller substitution” (Burtner/Serafin, Journal of New Music Research, 2001). In “S-Trance-S”, this involves mapping the complex action of a bowed string onto the much different complex action of fingering a wind instrument. One key controls the pitch, another controls the bow speed, a third the bow pressure, another the bow position, and another, the vibrato or micro-frequency change. In addition, other saxophone fingers control the chaotic friction properties of the string, and its physical material properties giving the performer the ability to change the string from say nylon into metal into glass. In this way the string and sax performance models are morphologically extended. Another process at work in “S-Trance-S” involves hybrid cross synthesized saxophone string timbres that sonically exist at various states between the two instruments. These timbres function in the piece as a series of audio screens or transparent layers through which we hear the other material. There are six such “timbral screens” derived from the possible dual combinations of the three archetypes: bowed string, physical model string, and saxophone. As these hybrid timbres evolve they are continuously mutated, forming a series of dreamlike transformations.

A computer-controlled rhythmic system gives cues to the saxophonist, creating the instrumental score. The live sax score gradually constructs a melody, increasing in both intensity, lyricism and breath as the piece evolves. As the saxophonist plays, he presses keys, and these in turn control the string physical models. The physical models themselves increase in complexity, moving from a single string to a full quartet with different keys mapped to different bowing parameters. Because of the number of simultaneous instruments, and the increasing speed of the computer part, the sax performer is eventually unable at control the system and the piece arrives at a special kind of chaos describing a highly unified sax/string mulch.

In trance, a medium passes under the control of some external force, a supernatural agent which then speaks or acts through the medium. The actions/words of the external force are thus merged with the voice of the medium creating a new hybrid voice. In “S-Trance-S” this takes the form of the saxophone acting as a controller for the string physical model. As if in a dream or hallucination, different morphological sonic forms are generated as the energy of the physical controller is transfused into the virtual medium. These hybrid forms then act as the ghostlike extension of their archetypes, exploring states of metamorphoses.

Delta 1 (2001) and Delta 2(2004) for electric saxophone

Delta Performance Setup

The Delta pieces utilize the saxophone extended electric aspects of the metasaxophone, using the audio signal of the instrument to create a feedback distortion electric saxophone. In this piece, small microphones embedded inside the instrument are used to capture subtle resonances within the air column. Microphone feedback is generated and then controlled by opening and closing keys and by changing the air pressure in the air column. In this way the instrumental body becomes a filter, dynamically controlling the distortion of the instrumental resonances. This type of signal processing has a pronounced effect on the instrumental performance practice. In an ideal performance, no audible acoustic sound emits from the saxophone, and the audience hears simply the changing distortion and feedback as it is shaped by the saxophone body and activated by key clicks. In reality, however, the rapid changes in air pressures in the instrument inevitably cause acoustic byproducts — high squeaks, air hisses, and honks — that are then amplified, distorted and fed back into the system.

The Greek letter delta, originally meaning “door”, is a threshold or barrier at an opening, such as a sandbar at the mouth of a river. It is also the mathematical symbol for change. The title of this piece refers to these interpretations of the symbol: threshold, doorway, barrier, transformation.

The two compositions Delta 1 and Delta 2 explore different possibilities of the electric saxophone. The first is extreme in its ferocity and loudness. I was interested in portraying the saxophone with punk rock intensity. The instrument is combined with my computer polyrhythmicon which creates intense clusters of bass beats, supporting a structured free improvisation.

Delta 2 explores the more gentle side of the electric sax. Feedback tones are fed into an "intelligent" sampler which takes bits of the feedback sax and loops it outside of the performer's control.

S-Morphe-S (2003) for a singing bowl soprano saxophone hybrid instrument

S-Morphe-S Performance Score

S-Morphe-S explores the coupling of a disembodied soprano saxophone with the virtual body of a singing bowl. The saxophone signal is used as an impulse to the physically modeled bowl. The result is a hybrid instrument with the articulatory characteristics of a soprano saxophone but the body of a singing bowl. The saxophone uses varied articulations such as key clicks, breath, trills and sustained tones. The shape and material properties of the bowl are varied in real time creating a continuously metamorphosing body.

In Greek Morphe means form and in Greek mythology Morpheus was the god of sleep, of disembodied forms. The english word commonly used for a transformation between two objects is morph, a shortening of metamorphosis, derived from the Greek. The title of this piece is meant to evoke all of these meanings -- dreamed images, transformative bodies, and disembodied forms.

S-Morphe-S Performance Interface

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