Layerings

Details

  • 14
  • Vibraphone and Tape

Score Excerpts

Sound Samples

Program Notes

In Layerings prerecorded sounds of vibraphone and other percussion instruments are processed and mixed to create a tapestry of sonic material from which and into which the vibraphone emerges and merges during the course of the performance. I have attempted to create an integrated sequence of textures in which the vibraphone and tape parts weave through and around one another. The dynamic level is generally quiet, with the tape part functioning as both accompanist and contrapuntal partner.

Layerings was written between 1991 and 1993; it was commissioned by percussionist Beverly Johnston with financial assistance from the Canada Council. Ms. Johnston premiered the work at the Music Gallery in Toronto on March 11, 1994.

Music for Ancient Spaces

Details

  • 8
  • Tape

Sound Samples

Program Notes

Music for Ancient Spaces was written in 1992 for a festival at the St. Norbert Arts and Cultural Centre on the outskirts of Winnipeg. The festival took place in the ruins of the monastery’s cathedral, and I used original blueprints for the cathedral to measure some of the spatial proportions of the building. These proportions were converted into temporal relationships, which were then used as a structural basis for the piece. In this work I tried to mirror the combined sense of vastness and peacefulness which I associate with the St. Norbert ruins. The work was realized in my studio in Winnipeg. I would like to acknowledge the University of Manitoba Faculty Research Grant and Research Development Funds for their assistance with my work.

Birds

Details

  • Soprano, Keyboard, Interactive Computer System, Visuals

The First Sea

Details

  • 9
  • Bass Clarinet and Tape

Recordings

Score Excerpts

Program Notes

The First Sea is an attempt to express the feelings associated with discoveries, with the expansion of consciousness. The Pablo Neruda poem from which the title is taken speaks of moving from a time when:

“mine alone were those solitary places,
mine alone that elemental pathway,
mine alone the universe.”
to the moment at which:
“The prison of the forests
opened a green door,
letting in the wave in all its thunder,
and, with the shock of the sea,
my life widened out into space.”

Excerpts from The First Sea are from Memorial de Isla Negra by Pablo Neruda, copyright 1964 by Editorial Losada, S.A., Buenos Aires; translations copyright 1970, 1979, 1981 by Alastair Reid.

The work was commissioned by Bass Clarinetist Lori Freedman, who gave the premier performance at the Music Gallery in Toronto on February 25, 1989. The commission was made possible with financial assistance from the Manitoba Arts Council.

The tape part was realized at the University of Manitoba Computer Music Studio, using a Kurzweil K250 sampling keyboard, and the Yamaha DX7IIFD, TX802 and TX816 synthesizers; sequencing was done on Performer.

Time Frames

Details

  • Dancers, Lights, Tape, Two Chamber Orchestras