The music in this directory consists of a number of works I created while
working toward my masters degree here at UCSC. They are varied and
include electronic, acoustic and the disklavier pieces. Before delving
further into descriptions of process and meaning behind these pieces, I
want to make a request. This music is, above all else,
intended to be heard. I compose music that I enjoy listening to, and I
hope that others will enjoy as well. As such, it is not necessary to
read the rest of the notes. In fact, I would rather you waited
until after you have absorbed the music and are curious about the process.
In the spring of 2001, I took a music class taught by David Cope. I had already been very interested in electronic music, and had composed GlassHaus and Cloud3 the previous two quarters. The subject of the class was algorithmic composition, specifically computer assisted composition; it struck a chord. I realized that I have an affinity for process, the slow changing over time of sounds toward some other goal sound. Almost everything I have written to date is filled with various algorithms: sounds moving up, becoming louder, becoming thicker, longer, etc.
There is a strange stigmata surrounding this idea of "algorithmic" music, even though music has been composed algorithmically since the beginning. Melodic figures, rhythmic figures, scales, chords, relationships--all of the rules and systems that have been used to create music can be considered algorithmic. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, an algorithm is "A step-by-step problem-solving procedure."
Every piece here that is "computer assisted" was composed by me. I wrote every melody and every rhythm, simply telling the computer what to do with them--slight variation in rhythm HERE, raise the pitch until we get THERE. Nothing interesting can come out of the program without a human deciding what's going to happen every step of the way.
I don't want the computer to write music for me. I don't create music
that can be pared down to a simple equation, simply churned out of
numbers. I want something more organic, that has a life of it's own
behind the notes. I write music that I want to hear, and simply let the
computer fill in the details.
In the summer of 2001 I embarked on a project to create a software
composition tool. I wanted above all else to keep the program flexible,
able to have layers upon layers of processes happening. I ended up
creating a compositional toolbox--Tools for creating and altering
rhythms, durations, pitches and melodies--and a core that allows these
parts to iteract in almost any conceivable way. My intention was to
create a program that could be used like an old analog modular
synthesizer. For those who haven't had the opportunity to play with a
modular synth, it looks like an old phone company patching center--lots
of places to plug cables into here and there, knobs, buttons--like a
giant set of legos. To make sound, you plug this cable into that, make
this other one control the first...soon you have a mess of cables going
every which way, and the sound coming out can be ghastly or ghostly, but
never the same twice. Eventually you learn how to keep things under
control, creating sounds that seem to be alive. My program, the
"Textures Music Score Generator," works on the same principle. Each
module can be linked and control others; the possibilities are endless.
Only Signs of Life and Fluid Matter
where composed with the use of "Textures," the rest where composed
entirely by hand. Most of the music that I write in the future will
most likely be done using Textures, since it is much easier for me to
think about music in the abstract of simple numbers than using
traditional music notation. I don't find that my musical style has
changed much since I've started using Textures, but instead that my
final output feels much more solid, much more closely resembling what I
was trying to create in the first place. I still plan to compose music
by hand, especially electronic music, but the power of computers to
assist in composition astounds me, and more often when I write by hand I
realize that it would be much easier to write the exact same thing using
the computer.
Signs of Life was begun in the Winter of 2001. It consists of a series of short pieces written for 3 disclaviers, a midi controlled piano, They are simply short explorations of a textural movement.
GlassHaus and Cloud3 where written in Fall and Winter 2000/2001, under the guidance of Peter Elsea, the UCSC electronic music guru. GlassHaus was synthesized on the Kyma system, a very powerful programmable synthesizer. Cloud3 was written in Csound, another powerful programmable synthesis system that is a direct descendant of the Max Mathews original computer music software, "Music."
Pulse was written at the end of 2001 for New Music Works "Sound Horizons" annual composition competition.
Finally, Fluid Matter, my Masters Thesis, was mostly written in Fall and Winter of 2002. It was an exploration of what I could do with a large ensemble of talented musicians, to create a serious of fluid, moving textures. I found that, especially when writing acoustic music, it's necessary to have some sort of rhythmic and melodic unity of sorts. Musicians are really good at bringing these things out, plus it's a lot easier to play.