CCRMA OVERVIEW - CCRMA - Stanford University

• Fabrication (2000) for trumpet and electronics
Fabrication begins with a series of fragments: isolated elements of trumpet technique, like breathing
and tonguing, are presented divorced from ordinary playing. The acoustic study of the trumpet
continues with other splinters of material. Natural harmonics are used to produce distortions
of pitch and timbre, and the performer creates further acoustic disruptions with mutes, and by
singing into the instrument while playing. Eventually a more normal trumpet technique emerges
from the shards, and a kind of calm is achieved. If the piece begins by metaphorically constructing
the trumpet from the components of technique, it ends with a more literal disassembly.
While Fabrication is obsessed with trumpet acoustics, it is entirely dependent upon electronics.
Many of the sounds used in the piece are too quiet to be heard in performance. And so the
microphone serves as a microscope, revealing otherwise inaudible sounds. The electronics gradually
take on an active role as well - transforming and extending the sound of the trumpet beyond its
acoustic limits.
• 78 (2000) for clarinet, violin, and piano
In the 1920s and 30s, New Orleans jazz traveled the world. One of the places where it touched down
was Batavia, a region on the outskirts of Jakarta, the capital of Dutch colonial Indonesia. Local
jazz bands performed across the region, while 78 records Uke the Louis Armstrong "Hot Five" and
"Hot Seven" sides were broadcast on the radio. The 78 made global musical transmission possible
to an extraordinary extent.
Today, the tanjidor and gambang kromong musics of Batavia present a striking fusion: New Orleans
jazz played on traditional Indonesian and Chinese instruments. Or is it jazz musicians trying to
reproduce the sounds of Javanese and Sundanese gamelans? It's difficult to say.
78 continues this cycle of hybridization, bringing elements from tanjidor into my own musical
language in a piece which would fit on the two sides of a 78 record. The tightly woven counterpoint,
multiple melodic idioms, and structural cycles I've borrowed from tanjidor are recreated here in
very different form. But think of the ensemble as a jazz clarinet, a Chinese fiddle, and a set of
tuned percussion, and you'll begin to get the idea.
I am indebted to Philip Yampolsky, for his encyclopedic knowledge of Indonesian music, and for
his field recordings (available on the Smithsonian Folkways label), which are a source of wonder
and delight. Philip's friendship is even more valuable, and 78 is dedicated to him, as one more for
his collection.
• Questions and Fissures for soprano saxophone and CD (1999)
Questions and Fissures explores the fusion of divergent musical elements. The two loudspeakers
present independent voices, kept separate throughout the piece, while the saxophone provides another
layer, distinct from the electronic world. Each element pursues its own path of development,
corresponding with the others only at the broadest levels of form. In spite of all the ways in which
these materials attempt to achieve independence, we hear one piece, and not three - each layer
informs and enriches our hearing of the others.
This piece is the second in a series of works which use speech sounds as both timbral material and
organizing forces. The electronic component is composed entirely of heavily processed recordings
of my speaking voice. While the speech never quite becomes intelligible, it animates the sound and
provides rhythmic structure. In turn, the saxophone part is derived from a rhythmic transcription
of the spoken text. Like the speech sounds themselves, the transcribed rhythms never appear
intact. Instead, I use them as the basis for a series of variations and distortions.
Questions and Fissures is dedicated to Matthew Burtner.
• Strain for four-channel tape (1999)
Many of the sounds in Strain are barely audible, the details just beyond reach. Others are noisy,
marginal, the kinds of things composers usually work to exclude from their pieces. Perhaps here
they find their place.
17