Electro- Acoustic Programme

Shush..! Close Your Eyes

An Acousmatic Evening

In Hope Theatre, The Capstone Building

Monday March 22nd,  7:30pm

Vista Points  10.14   

Manuella Blackburn
All materials used in Vista Points are derived from electric guitar sounds. Often the electric guitar sounds are left raw and then layered with processed materials. When these sounds interact, there are points of causality, conflict and turbulence. This work explores the effect of varying the distance between sonic events. The work was awarded First Prize at the 10th Musica Viva Electroacoustic Music Competition in Lisbon, September 2009.


Excerpts from A Sonata for One Viola   3.08    

Jenny Plura
This is a single-movement acousmatic composition realised using sampling hardware from the sounds of a viola. The work is presented in abridged format where the first and final passages of the original piece have been juxtaposed.


While the Beast Slumbers   5.30    

Richard McReynolds
This is a single-movement acousmatic composition realised with sampling hardware and composed from the sounds of an unplugged vacuum cleaner.


Introduction & Dissipation  4.30    

Richard Lawrence
With a subtle sense of hyper-reality, the linear and very clean introduction exaggerates the natural characteristics of the sound source; piano. This is an excerpt from Are You Hungry.
In contrast, the latter half has to cope with the considerable surface noise which a difficult sound-source can create (in this case, eggs). The two highlight a consistency in style and combine to create a fluid opening and dissipation. This is an excerpt from Challenging Behaviour.


Reading Music  4.40    

Michael Roberts
Composed from the sounds of books, Reading Music was an acousmatic composition within Michael’s third year portfolio. This single movement explores the sense of static time one can experience when focussed upon intense study/creative activity and the way subtle sounds can creep into the extended silences of self-imposed isolation.


Boatwash  3.40   

Robin Hartwell
This piece is made from a single sample of the natural world (including humans). It takes place in 'real time', that is, this is an example of the type of sequence of events that happens in actuality. The modifications of the sound are in the areas of balance and spatial positioning, with the intent of making the familiar odd.

Behind the Veil of the World   7.40    

Cormac Gould
This is an unusual choice of piece for a programme such as this, as it is a multi-track project composed to a soundscape of environmental recordings and a setting of text. Clearly not acousmatic, but blatantly innovative, emotive and evocative, this is an outstanding studio composition from an exciting third-year portfolio.

Excerpts from Giant Works  3.00   

James Dodd
This is a single-movement acousmatic composition realised with sampling hardware and composed from the sounds of a Djembe drum. This well produced piece, built upon a texture of interactive repetition, is presented in abridged format, where two excerpts have been juxtaposed.

Well Pixilated  3.30   

Robin Hartwell
This is a study for a projected piece for piano and tape. The sounds here are of an artificial piano, playing complex rhythms just beyond the edge of human capabilities. There are three 'swarms' of three voices. One motivation was to make a piece which starts from the premise of 12 notes to an octave rather than timbre. Each pitch can be thought of as a pixel which has a role in making the bigger gestures.

Equidistance: An African Hymn of Praise  6.40    

Ian Percy
Composed upon an accumulating ground-bass of varied repetition from the sound-world of a clarinet, this is a formal acousmatic sketch for a planned electro-acoustic piece. This relatively short single-movement of continuous sound is based upon an African hymn, transcribed and part re-composed.
The hymn employs equidistant pentatonic scales and this piece takes a few tentative steps into the rather unstable realm of equidistant harmony. Special thanks to Nicholas Cox (principal clarinettist with RLPO).

Sanctus  4.34   

Carmen Bradford
Composed from sampling hardware from the sounds of the voice, this is an evocative single-movement, acousmatic composition and an outstanding submission within a second-year portfolio.

TONIGHT’S COMPOSERS

Manuella Blackburn is an electro-acoustic composer, whose research interests include the development of compositional strategies using vocabulary and visual shapes of Denis Smalley's Spectromorphology. She also researches various hybridizations of cultural influences with acousmatic music. Manuella completed a PhD at the University of Manchester (2010). Her works have been performed widely in concerts, conferences and festivals across the globe and she has won a number of awards, including the Grand Prize for the Digital Arts Awards, Japan and First Prize in the 7th and 10th Musica Viva Electroacoustic Music Competitions.  She recently joined the Music Staff at Hope.
Carmen Bradford is a second-year music student at Liverpool Hope.
James Dodd is a second-year music student at Liverpool Hope.
Cormac Gould is a third-year music student at Liverpool Hope.
Robin Hartwell, a Senior Lecturer in Music at Liverpool Hope University, is a composer and writer with a special interest in music in film and the music of Stockhausen. He studied music at Reading University, electronic music at the Royal College of Music and gained a BMus at Southampton University.  His key teaching responsibilities currently are in composition and 20th century contemporary music (history and analysis) including music and film.
Richard Lawrence is an MA music student at Liverpool Hope. His pieces were composed as part of his third year undergraduate portfolio.

Richard McReynolds is a second-year music student at Liverpool Hope University.
Ian Percy is currently completing his PhD in Musical Composition with John Casken at the University of Manchester and he has been lecturer in music technology at Liverpool Hope since 2001. Recent performances include An Instant Conception for small ensemble and percussion, performed by Ensemble 10/10 in June 2009 and When a Snake Eats its Own Tail for clarinet and tape, performed by Nicholas Cox in November 2008.
Jenny Plura is a second-year music student at Liverpool Hope University
Michael Roberts graduated from Liverpool Hope University in June 2008 and graduated with an MA in Music Production at Leeds in 2009. Michael was recently appointed Music Technician at Liverpool Hope.

Acknowledgements

This evening’s programme has been devised by Ian Percy, who wishes to acknowledge the assistance of all the composers involved, together with Michael Roberts (Music Technician) for his invaluable help in preparing for this concert.