'The Threshing Floor' (2015) for amplified tenor saxophone and percussion with live electronics and projected resonance (20’)
'Charred Edifice Shining' (2016) for amplified string trio and live electronics (25’)
- Submitting institution
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Royal Northern College of Music
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 34A
- Type
- J - Composition
- Month
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- Year
- 2016
- 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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- Research group(s)
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1 - Composition
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
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- Additional information
- These two compositions are part of an ongoing series of works that explore amplification, live sampling, and live signal processing as performance features of an extended instrumental practice allowing for interpretative potential in electronic music performance practice while requiring minimal mediation by a technical operator/performer. The research involves developing an instrumentalised notation and performance practice for hardware tools (i.e., dials, faders, pedals, pads etc.), and considers the symbiotic relationship between these electronics sounds and interventions, and the sounds and behaviours of the amplified acoustic instruments. This research involves longitudinal collaboration with the ensembles with whom I have close and long-standing relationships. Both pieces were written over many iterations, spanning many months.
‘The Threshing Floor’ proposes a model whereby both players are in complete control of their extended instrumental performance space. This includes their instrument(s), a series of microphones amplified via their own personal mixing desks, and two foot-controlled effect pedals. ‘Charred Edifice Shining’ extended this approach to string trio and includes two extra layers of performative processing allowing each player to colour the sounds and affect the actions of the entire ensemble.
These two works build on research from earlier pieces including ‘Its Fleece Electrostatic’ (2012 Karin Hellqvist commission, Oslo), ‘Otra Máquina Célibe’ (2013 Ensemble Vortex commission, Geneva), and ‘Fold Explain Fold Leave’ (2015, House of Bedlam commission, UK). This research connects to and complements work by composers including Sam Salem (UK), Michelle Lou (US), Santiago Díez-Fischer (Argentina/France), and Sivan Cohen-Elias (Israel/US).
‘The Threshing Floor’ was commissioned by scapegoat, and ‘Charred Edifice Shining’ commissioned by the Darmstadt Summer Course 2016 for Distractfold and both have been, extensively performed in Europe and North America, broadcast internationally, and recordings commercially released, the former on New Focus Recordings (2019, New York), and the latter on Uluuul (2020, Vancouver) and dFolds (2020, UK).
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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