Thank You Mr. Green - by Christopher Watts Thank You Mr. Green is an example of an experiment gone horribly right. The piece stretches a three-second sample from Al Green’s “Take Me to the River” to just over seven minutes without altering the pitch content. Originally, I intended to perform a variety of other manipulations, add multiple layers, etc. But all of this seemed unnecessary. Many composers who use a phase-vocoding process in their works spend a great deal of time tinkering with the various parameters to minimize the introduction of sonic artifacts. In developing the piece, I found these artifacts to be quite interesting, and worked instead to maximize their effect. Listening to this piece is, for me, like zooming in on a digital image until the individual pixels become quite large and the image itself is lost; something entirely different emerges from the familiar original. This version is a stereo reduction of the original four-channel work. ~CW Winter Nocturne - by Mark Chambers Winter Nocturne opens with an emphatic and certain gesture of spoken text and electronic sound. It works its way through various permutations of a few set sounds, exploring various contrapuntal relationships and the development and variation of the spoken text. The work closes quite opposite its start with the text trailing off into the distance. It was created primarily by manipulating samples taken from a trumpet’s various trills, flutter tongues, and even small taps. Other sounds were created using a Kurzweil K2000 synthesizer and spoken text. The text was taken from the Book of Job and the Psalms: “Out of whose womb comes the ice? The grey frost of the sky, who has given birth to it?” “He gives snow like wool and scatters frost like the ashes.” Rock, Paper, Scissors - by Charles Haarhues Rock, Paper, Scissors was commissioned by the Of Moving Colors dance group for their Spring 2001 production White. The music was created using the KYMA hardware/software system, Peak, and ProTools. First, samples were created of clacking rocks, paper being shredded, scissors snipping, and the singer Mayumi Yotsumoto improvising melodies on the game Rock, Paper, Scissors. Recordings were then edited and manipulated. Perhaps the most unusual manipulation of a natural sound involved a pair of snipping scissors being transformed into guitar-like sounds. First, the sample was rhythmized using a drum machine. Next, these rhythms were resonated and tuned to create pitched notes. Finally, these sounds were processed using reverb, chorusing, and delay. The resulting instrument sounds something like a cross between an electric guitar and a Japanese koto. Even though some samples of actual instruments were used, most of the sounds in the piece were created this way. A Crime of Passion - by William Price A Crime of Passion reflects the composer’s interpretation of James Joyce’s poem “Alone” (1927). This brief work emphasizes three main ideas: the guitar glissando, a granulated text stream, and the phrase “Sex is violent.” GarageBand Tetris - by Christopher Watts When Apple introduced their GarageBand software a few years ago, many professional musicians and engineers were dismissive; after all, GarageBand is music software for people who don’t know anything about music. In the long tradition of “creative misuse” of technology, I set out to see what tricks I might be able to play with this software. The result was GarageBand Tetris. The short piece makes use of the software’s included loops to hop relentlessly through popular genres as if there were no such things. A second layer fills out the texture with loops that were chosen for their size rather than their sound. The original surround-sound version of the piece maintains a spatial separation between the two layers; the version that appears here is a stereo reduction. ~CW PR(callmegod)IDE - by Aaron Johnson PR(callmegod)IDE was realized in the Music and Art Digital (MAD) Studio at Louisiana State University. It was compiled using Csound and IRCAM’s AudioSculpt. The processes of phase-vocoding and granular synthesis figured prominently in the creation of this work. Although the piece was inspired by one of the seven deadly sins, it is not intended to be any sort of religious or moral commentary. Miniatures I-V - by Jeff Herriott The miniatures play with the notion of gestural speed, creating palpable aural spaces through slight variations in tuning and minute changes in the onset and decay times for each sound. As many of the miniatures utilize similar harmonic material, the individual character of each is largely determined by these changes in gestural pace. There are eight miniatures in total, designed for performance in any order or combination including repeating some, leaving others out, or with variable silences between them. The miniatures were commissioned by viola d’amorist Carter Williams for his ensemble, Schallspiel. Scintillate Plectrums - by John M. Crabtree Scintillate Plectrums explores spatialization using two different instruments designed by the composer. The piece was entirely executed using the Csound program and was the winner in the electronic music category of the 2001 International New Music Consortium, Inc. (INMC) Composition Contest in New York. Interstice: Grist for the Mill - by William Price Interstice: Grist for the Mill was created using Csound, Peak, Deck, and AudioSculpt sound software. The overall aesthetic of the work focuses on the inevitability of life and conclusions we must confront in our individual journey towards the end of it (or not). Horse - by Mark Snyder Horse is a caricature of my good friend Greg Sigman who commissioned the piece. ~MS Mälmo - by Mark Snyder Mälmo is my impression of what the docks in Mälmo, Sweden are like as related to me by a friend who used to work there. It is writen for tuba, electronics, and video. ~MS