Electronic Music

So I remember the day when I was thinking that electronic music would be so much easier because after you finish the piece it is done. While that certainly looks obvious from the surface it overlooks a huge reality.

I was reading a paper "Computer Music. Why?" by Jean-Claude Risset and he notes that one of the reasons that he began composing electronic music is the ability to build timbre as opposed to work with timbre as it is in existing instruments. I share this opinion and it is largely what brought me to Santa Barbara, the desire to get at the atomic level of timbre. Ironicaly I find that now that I am able to exert all of this control and don't have to engage with any other human, there is no limit to the amount of time one has to continue reworking a sound. I wonder from time to time, about pieces that I believe to be done. I know that I feel them to be done and that they represent all that I could do at the time I was creating that piece, but is that enough to convince my mind that it is really complete? Especially when at any moment I can open it a sound editor and treat it anew.

When I look at my full 140 GigaByte hard drive, I often wonder what sounds are contained there-in. Honestly, I have so many experiments and ideas archived, I have lost sight of them all. I suppose that is why it is so wonderful to have everything published on the web and it reminds me again that I need to place more files online.



This past week and this coming week are extremely busy. This coming Friday through Sunday there will be an Electronic Music Festival that I helped to organize and pulling together the last of the details is an amazing amount of work. The festival is going to feature 3 invited guests, Max Mathews, John Chowning and Jean-Claude Risset. In addition to the invited guests the three evenings of concerts will also include; Curtis Roads, JoAnn Kuchera-Morin and Clarence Barlow.

The concert Breakdown looks like this


Friday Feb 20 2009 7PM
Concert One : Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall
Kuchera-Morin : Aquaforms
Risset : Sud
Mathews : Tensor Love
Chowning : Phoné
Roads : Touche pas

Saturday Feb 21 2009 7PM
Concert Two : Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall
Chowning : Stria (w/ projection)
Roads : Sculptor (w/ projection)
Risset : Mutations (w/ projection)
Mathews : Drippsody Phased
Risset : Duet for One Pianist
Barlow Approximating Pi

Sunday Feb 22 2009 7PM
Concert Three : Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall
Kuchera-Morin : timeandagain
Barlow : Sinophony II
Mathews : Chowning Phased
Risset : Resonant Spaces
Roads : Pictor Alpha

and the Lecture schedule is this


Saturday Feb 21 2009 2PM
Afternoon Lectures (lasting 2 hours total) Geiringer Hall
Lecture One : Mathews "Phaser Filters and Their Use to Modify Timbres"

Lecture Two : Chowning "Roots and Amplifers"

Sunday Feb 22 2009 2PM
Afternoon Lectures (lasting 2 hours total) Geiringer Hall
Lecture One : Risset : "My use of the computer to make music : synthesis, processing, mixed works and real-time interaction."

Lecture Two :ROUNDTABLE :: Pioneers of Electronic Music, observations on the development and personal perspectives. Barlow (chair), Chowning, Kuchera-Morin, Mathews, Risset, Roads.