Keyboard Etudes – John Holland

The 24 Etudes contain sounds which are traditionally associated with keyboards, including the harpsichord, organ, accordion, piano, celeste, and synthesizer. In addition, the music simulates various timbres of different keyboard instruments, including sounds which are evocative of struck and plucked strings, bell-like tones, and percussive effects.

Modern uses of the keyboard are referred to in different Etudes, such as quarter-tone music, various percussive effects, prepared piano, pedal techniques, and the use of piano strings as a solo instrument.

All of the Etudes are generated by the computer in real-time. Each Etude is realized according to a separate computer program containing specific instructions to realize the music. The decisions made by the computer are based on a combination of determinist and random means which simulate the general flow of dynamic systems and patterns in nature.

The Etudes consist of the juxtaposition of the simplest elements of musical texture (pitch, dynamics, duration, speed, rhythm, articulation, etc.) combined with simple structural elements (continuity, repetition, variation, and chord structures which are derived from the melodic flow of the music).

Each Etude focuses on a fundamental element of musical texture or structure. An Etude may contain sound-groups which are high or low, loud or soft, legato or staccato, fast or slow, accelerating or decelerating, short or long, rhythmically regular or irregular, dense or sparse. One Etude consists of sound-groups containing regular rhythms played at different speeds, while another contains irregular rhythms produced at a slow speed. One Etude contains varied repetitions only, while another is based strictly on ascending and descending patterns. Some Etudes combine many elements of texture with a single structural element, while others are structured in the opposite way.

The music for all of the Etudes was produced on the DX7s keyboard synthesizer and two TX81Z tone-generators, operating in combination. The computer programs were written in C language on a Macintosh SE computer. All of the music was recorded digitally.

J. H.

Keyboard Etudes – John Holland.

Eliane Radigue – Buddhism and an Arp 2500 Synthesizer

Eliane Radigue (born 1932) is a French electronic music composer whose work, since the early 1970s, has been almost exclusively created a single synthesizer, the ARP 2500 modular system and tape.

Raised in Paris by middle-class parents, she married the scultpor Yves Arman with whom she lived in Nice while raising their children. She had studied piano and was already composing before having heard a broadcast by the founder of musique concrete Pierre Schaeffer. She met him shortly thereafter in the early 50s, she became his student, and worked during periodically during visits to Paris at the Studio d’Essai. (When the studio’s contents were moved to the studio of the Groupe Recherche Musicale, her work was discarded, due to sexism). During the early 60s she was assistant to Pierre Henry, during which time she created some of the sounds which appeared in his work. As her work gained maturity, Schaeffer and Henry considered her use of microphone feedback long tape loops treachery to their ideals, but her practice was still influenced heavily by their methods.

Around 1970, she created her first synthesizer-based music at NYU at a studio she shared with Laurie Spiegel on a Buchla synthesizer left by Morton Subotnick. Her goal by that point was to create a slow, purposeful “unfolding” of sound, which she felt to be closer to the minimal composers of New York at the time than to the French musique concrete composers who had been her previous allies. After presenting the first of her Adnos in 1974 at Mills College at the invitation of Terry Riley, a group of visiting French music students suggested that her music was deeply related to meditation and that she should look into Tibetan Buddhism, two things that she had very little familiarity with.

Upon investigation of Tibetan Buddhism, she quickly converted and spent the next three years devoted to its practice under her guru Pao Rinpoche who subsequently sent her back to her musical work. She returned to composition, picking up where she left off, using the same methods and working toward the same goals as before, and finished Adnos II in 1979 and Adnos III in 1980. She dedicated much of the 80s to a three-hour work, perhaps her masterpiece, the Trilogie de la Mort, which was as heavily influenced by the Tibetan Book of the Dead and her meditation practice as by the death of Pao Rinpoche and her son. The first third of the Trilogie, Kyema, was her first release recording, issued by Phill Niblock’s XI label.

Since then, she has created a number of works, including one sponsored by the French government, based on stories from the Buddhist tradition.

She joined laptop improvisation group The Lappetites and they released their first album “Before the Libretto” on the Quecksilber label in 2005. The Lappetites are Eliane Radigue, Kaffe Matthews, Ryoko Kuwajima, and Antye Greie, better known as AGF.

Until 2000 her work was almost exclusively created on a single synthesizer, the ARP 2500 modular system and tape.

A singular three-hour work, some say her masterpiece, the Trilogie de la Mort (Experimental Intermedia, 1998), of which the first part kyema Intermediate states follows the path of the continuum of the six states of conscience. The work is influenced by the Tibetan Book of the Dead Bardo Thodol and her meditation practice, as by the death of Pawo Rinpoche and her son Yves Arman. The first third of the Trilogie, Kyema, was her first release recording.

A Portrait of Eliane Radigue (2009) from Maxime Guitton on Vimeo.

Tom Verbruggen: Crackle-canvas

Crackle-canvas is some great performance work by Tom Verbruggen which has manifested itself in a number of different versions. The work is essentially a series of built / circuitbent devices which when patched or networked together produce sounds that can be manipulated in live performance. For examples of this see the videos below (in the last video Tom talks about his work before performing) or Tom’s YouTube profile.

Brian Labycz

brian labycz is an improviser hailing from chicago primarily performing with electronics. he draws from a range of sources utilizing a modular synthesizer, acoustic instruments, digital manipulations, field recordings, and self-made devices to produce and explore various expressive forms. with a primary focus on improvisation his aim is to produce dynamic gestures with electronics in a live setting. the goal is to transcend gadgetry to arrive at a fully realized performance instrument. working as a soloist and in various group settings he has performed and released work in the us and japan. he has also organized events in chicago and abroad and is actively hosting the myopic improvised music series.

via brian labycz.