Architexture II: for 6 solo voices (dur: 20 mins) : Interdisciplinary project, involving Electronics, Physics and Music.
- Submitting institution
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University of York
: A - A - Music
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies : A - A - Music
- Output identifier
- 66607996
- Type
- J - Composition
- Month
- July
- Year
- 2015
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Architexture II (2015), a 20-minute vocal work for six-part choir, exploits the specific architectural acoustic characteristics of a building that now exists only in ruins: St. Mary’s Abbey, York (first built in 1088). The composer’s Architexture series examines how to make use of the acoustic profile of architecture in composition, building on traditional practices of writing music for a particular space but re-thinking some of the inherent relationships. The key question is how composers might use a space itself – for Architexture II, the space as it once was – as a live sonic agent within an ensemble: an active contributor to an unfolding composition. The aim was to open up new compositional possibilities, designing structured ways to provoke reverberation, blurring certain harmonies and not others, and responding to particular aspects of the physical space. The composer worked with
acoustic modelling experts in the AudioLab of the Department of Electronics, York, constructing impulse responses from site measurements and historical architectural information. This data was employed for compositional sculpting of melodic lines and harmonies: the composer developed a computer modelling system in which a detailed reverberation response of the (absent) building to a given notated input would be visualised as a harmony superimposed on the original notation. The book chapter ‘Composing for the resonance’, (IRCAM’s The OM Composer’s Book, III), sets this out as employed in the Architexture series as a whole: the chapter is provided below for context. In performance of Architexture II, live processing of the voices was used via an ambisonic loudspeaker array to provide an appropriate spatial experience for the audience in relation to the site.
The submission comprises web documentation: i) a short video (extracts from the public performance, 2015); ii) an audio recording of the full performance; iii) additional background information; iv) the vocal score.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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