Spin 2 for violin and live sound processing
- Submitting institution
-
University of Ulster
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 89398746
- Type
- J - Composition
- Month
- December
- Year
- 2020
- URL
-
https://ulster.sharepoint.com/:b:/s/REF2021/EZHYM91cLPlHq3rr66VxUmkB4FnfwL_PO7q-g5bAxW12Vw?e=AfhuI1
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
0
- Research group(s)
-
D - Arts practices, practice-as-research
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- 'Spin' (solo violin) and 'Spin 2' (violin and live processing)
Multi-component:
'Spin' and 'Spin 2' were collaboratively conceived by the composer and the dedicatee, violinist Darragh Morgan, as a coherent pair of works taking as their model Boulez’ 'Anthèmes' for solo violin and 'Anthèmes 2' for violin and electronics. 'Spin' and 'Spin 2' use essentially the same notated score, with development of live sound processing in 'Spin 2'.
Context and Aims:
The use of 'Spin' in the titles references spinning wheels used in games of chance and contemporary DJ production techniques, and these are explored through aleatoric process which order the piece’s four main sections and in the ‘remixing’ of gestures from classic 20th and 21st century solo violin repertoire. The live electronics for 'Spin 2' were created during Covid lockdown, necessitating the investigation of videoconferencing for collaboration and remote processing.
Methodologies and Findings:
The order of performance of the four main sections is decided by using a ‘Spinning Wheel’ app. Borrowed gestures (Bartók, Boulez, Carter, Xenakis, Zorn) are ‘remixed’ throughout. However, harmonic coherence is provided by filtering the pitch material of the gestures through permutations of the all-interval tetrachords (0,1,4,6 and 0,1,3,7). The gestures are transformed and notated in ways to provide scope for improvisation. The processing in 'Spin 2' expands notated material in terms of colour, timbre and harmonic palette, drawing on the spectral and granular synthesis techniques of 'Anthèmes 2', explored in Live and Max patches designed to facilitate greater freedom in improvising with parameters of the remote live processing (via ultra-low-latency Skype TX).
Dissemination:
'Spin' (2015) premiered by Darragh Morgan, Great Hall, Derry, UK 29 September 2015; Riverstown Hall, Maynooth, Ireland, 1 October 2015; Spectrum, New York, US, 26 February 2017; FIU, Miami, US, 2 March 2017. 'Spin 2' (2020) premiered on YouTube 23 December 2020.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -