by John Keller

Artikulation with stylized waveform

MATA Interval 3.1: Architectures of Sound [100113]

MATA presented a fascinating event on Wednesday night, curated by David Kant and Cameron Hu. Several perspectives on how to raise audience awareness of physical space via sonic material were proffered by a great group of composers and performers. Included below is the list of the program and performers, and then some media documentation.

Interval 3.1: Architectures of Sound

Performers
Casey Thomas Anderson, soprano saxophone and electronics
Jacob Sudol, singing bowls and electronics
Anthony Ptak, electronics
Charles Stankievech, electronics
Aaron Meicht, trumpet
Quentin Tolimiere, piano
Phil Rodriguez, trumpet
David Kant, tenor saxophone


Program
Casey Thomas Anderson - quarters
Anderson, electronics

Charles Stankievech - Radiance (soundtrack for a silent film)
Stankievech, electronics

Michael Winter - Perspectives I
David Kant, saxophone
Casey Thomas Anderson, saxophone
Aaron Meicht & Phil Rodriguez, trumpet

Jacob Sudol - until we remain suspended…
Sudol, singing bowls and electronics

Intermission

David Kant & Cameron Hu - Straight Line Between Terminals
Kant & Hu - video and electronics

Anthony Ptak - Elusive Architectonics
Ptak, electronics

G. Douglas Barrett - A Few Rooms
David Kant, saxophone
Casey Thomas Anderson, saxophone
Aaron Meicht, trumpet
Quentin Tolimiere, piano

Michael Winter performing A Few Rooms by Doug Barrett

David Kant performing A Few Rooms by Doug Barrett

Merce! 091028

I attended the Merce Cunningham Memorial event at the Park Ave. Armory last night. Lots of friendly faces in the audience and on the "bandstand." Every time I see/hear a MCDC performance, I can't help but smile through most of it. The dance is so playful, exploratory, natural; the sound often has a similar manner, but other times it really exists on another complimentary plane altogether. I took some iPhone pics and a 3-min audio snap with Voice Memo. I was feeling fairly anxious about a composing deadline on my way there, but I'm really glad to have made it uptown for this once in a lifetime "Event."

A view toward the front from the the corner of Stage 3

The musicians were on the catwalk-like area. Fuzzily pictured here are (L to R) Stephan Moore (standing), Miguel Frasconi, and John King (seated).

John King - laptop, Miguel Frasconi - glass & electronics, possibly others too...

Raster patterns [Rastterp]

A set of basically symmetrical patterns for the rhythmic cycle technique found in my piano quintet work for Ne(x)tworks called Raster:

vis a tergo

Like the Evangelists, like Saint Luke, the arist is not a free agent obeying only his own will. His situation is rigidly bound by a chain of prior events. The chain is invisible to him, and it limits his motion. He is not aware of it as a chain, but only as vis a tergo, as the force of events behind him. The conditions imposed by these prior events require of him either that he follow obediently in the path of tradition, or that he rebel against the tradition. In either case, his decision is not a free one: it is dictated by prior events of which he senses only dimly and indirectly the overpowering urgency, and by his own congenital peculiarities of temperament.

Excerpted from The Shape of Time by George Kubler, pg. 50

Cornelius Cardew's Treatise arrives - 090811

Cardew. There's a really fascinating and palpable renewed interest in his work. Treatise [1967] and its precursors, such as Octet '61 for Jasper Johns [1961], are extremely imaginative and evocative works of visual language. Graphic "interfaces" meant to elicit interactive musical responses, avoiding collaborative hierarchies based on access to knowledge (i.e. training in conventional notation). So few of the young composers I come across objectify the actual visual interface of the score like Cardew and so many others did in the halcyon days of the 60's and 70's. Pragmatism rules the day I'm afraid. At any rate, a few images of my new prized possession...



Page 42

Page 131