by Barton and Priscilla McLean
Appearing in "Asterisk: A Journal of New Music" May, 1976, pp. 7-9.
A tiny Toyota Corolla 1200 sidles up to the stage door loading dock,
laden with a morass of curious and alien things and beings. As the
vehicle opens and slowly regurgitates four Interface A loudspeakers,
three tape recorders (including one large Sony four- channel), two
synthesizers, two power amps, a mixer, suitcases, thousands of patch
cords, stands and tables, and a bottle of aspirin, not to mention two
accordion-shaped composers, it becomes immediately apparent to the
throngs of the curious who have gathered to observe the unusual
spectacle that the McLean Mix is about to unleash another performance on
the unsuspecting.
What is it that compels two otherwise sane and normal artists to
undergo the inconvenience of performing live electronic music? In our
particular case, the answer lies in our need as composers to interact
with other performers, audiences, and critics. For example we have found
the experience of performing with composers David cope, Burt Beerman,
and John Eaton during the last two years stimulating and rewarding.
Although a special satisfaction is derived from working in a studio
where all parameters are carefully controlled, there is much to be said
also for the profound suspense and uncertainty inherent in the live
performance situation. More fluid techniques are available, and the
ability to create works to be performed slightly (or vastly) differently
each time is a balance to the more rigid studio compositional technique.
During the past two years, which defines the time span of our active
performing in duo (up to June, 1976 we will have given concerts in
universities and concert halls in Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan,
Indiana, Ohio, New York, and Maryland), we have devoted a great deal of
energy toward expanding the range of our repertoire. There is the
constant challenge of composing and performing music that is
artistically satisfying to ourselves and yet accessible to relatively
inexperienced audiences who are hearing the concert once, as well as the
more sophisticated listeners. In countering the often-stated comment
that "all electronic music sounds alike" (as much as all-orchestral or
all-choral music does, this is perhaps true), we have evolved our
repertoire to maximize diversity of styles, degrees of complexity, and
variety of instrumental and electronic combinations, resulting in the
experiencing of each composition as a more memorable entity in a varied,
balanced program of works. Examples of variety can be found between
longer, more serious, and shorter, humorous works, live-performed vs.
taped compositions, stereo vs. quadraphonic, and some music that
incorporates lighting and limited mixed media effects.
If the question were asked. "what are your artistic aims?", I suppose
we would include as attempt to seek a certain sound quality, or "beauty
of sound" that would otherwise be undefinable, precise control in the
performance and compositional domains (which is not to rule out
indeterminacy with respect to live performance), subtlety, and some
"virtuosity" (so qualified since no one really understands the meaning
of "virtuosity" in live electronic performance at this early period of
its existence). Also, we try to establish, in whatever ways possible,
communication with our hosts and fulfillment of their particular
requests. Additional demonstrations apart from the main concert (or part
of it, as the lecture-demonstration) are also given.
Two conundrums often associated with live performance electronic music
situations have caused not a little reflection on our part. One deals
with the advisability of playing works that are already nationally
available on recordings. We have several such works, and, far from
seeming redundant, we have found them to be an extremely strong
component of our programs. Since they all exist only on stereo in the
recorded versions, the quad presentation in the hall has been found to
be more meaningful, particularly if the listeners have already
acquainted themselves with the music via the recording. These works,
which are the products of the controlled studio situation, are by their
very nature, more sophisticated and better controlled, use more
interesting and varied sounds, and in absolute terms are perhaps
"better" than the live performed music if from only a pure compositional
viewpoint. Practically, we have utilized the technique of alternating
live-performed with tape works, thereby allowing us to set up
(surreptitiously, if possible) for the next live work while the taped
one is playing. This results in a smoother presentation, and eliminates
embarrassing moments of fumbling with patch cords while the audience
carefully scrutinizes the situation.
The second and related enigma-- what to do while a taped work is
playing-- is partially solved in several ways (it will never be completely
solved until audiences are trained to react to the sound as the totality
of the experience). We usually try to program only one long complex
taped work, and in quad. Additionally, we usually like to work with the
local lighting crew to provide further effects. To this end, we supply
cue sheets which diagram highlights of the structure in the
compositions, so that the visual effects can enhance the meaning of the
music. The best solution to these problems, however, lies in the
intrinsic quality of the music itself. If it is sufficient strength and
interest, it can overcome the lack of visual simulation. In combination
with live-performed works we have not found this to be much of a problem
at all.
Our live repertoire, far from "simple," contributes another vision to
the program. Two such works are Ah-Syn, a virtuosic autoharp and
synthesizer work by Priscilla McLean which evokes as astounding array of
sound and effects from the combination, and Gone Bananas by Barton
McLean for Arp 2600 and a banana. The latter will no doubt be of great
"historical" significance since it is, to our knowledge, the first work
to use a banana as a structural element in a composition (musicologists
take note)! The latest work, to go into rehearsal soon, is Barton
McLean's Dimensions III for voice, modified piano, and tape,
incorporating multiple tape echoes and delays into the live performance,
and exploring the evocative quality of the voice (sung by Priscilla).
For our season during the academic year 1976-77, we will devote a large
amount of effort toward a more improvisatory work, Identity II, which
will be produced in the round, with the audience intermingling with and
surrounding the performers. Utilizing multiple tape delays,
indeterminate performance notations, many African-type instruments and
philosophies, and a somewhat looser formal structure, it will, through
interaction with the audience, explore aspects of how man is coming into
"identity" with his environment in an interactive sense. The sounds will
be long lasting, evocative, and imbued with a sense of timelessness.
Looking into the future, we plan to continue to growing conceptually and
artistically as a performing ensemble, while still finding time to do
the same in our own private compositional worlds.
by Priscilla McLean
Perspectives of New Music
Fall-Winter 1977
A new auditory phenomenon has emerged with the birth of music produced
by the tape recorder and synthesizer (electronic, musique concrete). It
could be described as a sonic experience that is neither a continuation
of the traditional abstractions (melodic-rhythmic groupings with timbres
and textures as primary or secondary considerations) nor "kidnapped"
environmental aura, but a sonorous occurrence somewhere in between. For
example, much electronic music seeks to imitate various musical
instruments via the synthesizer, or uses recognizable sounds from the
environment (bird calls, whale songs, radio communiqué, etc.). These
sounds are then altered, but the actual source of intended imitation is
still clearly perceptible. Also recently explored is a sound which is
removed several degrees from any obvious source onto a more abstract
level, either by altering the original drastically as to obliterate any
direct reference to it or by synthesizing a musical event reminiscent of
an environmental sonority but on its own level of abstraction. This
imago-abstract sound, often gestural in nature, evokes duel sets of
realities and is often misinterpreted by listeners and composers, who
tend to react with suspicion and hostility toward electronic music of
this kind.
In an article entitled "Toward Good Vibrations," Charles Wuorinen draws
the basic premise that the imprecisions and generalities of exactly
notated music, which implicitly demand the "performers interpretation
and projection" present problems for electronic realization, and that
many composers in the electronic medium, instead of creating a more
precise, clear unfolding of the structures, confuse and blur the network
of relations by using more generalized noise-oriented (not
pitch-rhythmic) sounds and concentrating on the sound-events themselves
(called "things" by Wuorinen) rather than their interrelations. He
states that the relations "enable us to identify the things" and then
explains that the sounds themselves are "just arrays of vibratory
relations". Many composers of electronic music, according to Wuorinen,
are unaware of the over- generality of their musical structures and
hence the great variety of meanings inherent in them. These "failures"
have resulted in "gross structural defects" and, Wuorinen states,
formally unsatisfactory electronic music.
The opinion that workable ideas be abstract pitch-rhythmic
manipulative entities in electronic music and that less malleable
sonorities, either locked into a sound- event coalescence of
pitch-rhythm-texture-timbre, as in the "Wild Bull" sound of Morton
Subotnick"s The Wild Bull or derived or influenced by programmatic,
environmental experiences, are "inferior" because of their suspected
inability to form diverse and complex relationships, is held by not a
few composers, critics, and (usually instrument-oriented) listeners. If
the ability to form complex varied relationships is the pinnacle of
music achievement, are imago-abstract sounds valid as workable sources,
or are they to be restricted to dramatic gestural, usually superficial
effects, used sparingly, if at all?
A contrasting stance to the view expressed by Charles Wuorinen is found
in the music and writings of Jon Appleton. The sound sources of several
of his works have come from the urban environment, generally derived
from different communicative situations among people. The sound
materials, whose origins remain recognizable, are then put through
several formal variations, repetitions additions, and alterations via
tape and synthesizer manipulation to produce a completed work of musique
concrete. For example, one work entitled Chef d'Oeuvre is a kaleidoscope
of electronic manipulations of a singing commercial for frozen pizza,
with the "pizza" still intact.
Appleton is concerned with a somewhat different aesthetic than has been
heretofore presented: the use of sound objects as recognizable referents
and as musical gestures invoking other levels of meaning, attributable
to the previous information the sounds contained (the singing
commercial), in combination with the new meanings created by the
electronic and formal alterations. Appleton states: "consequently one
idea, the most obvious example being the human voice, can express either
level or both simultaneously. The ambiguity that results from this use
of sound produces a tension which is resolved by our aesthetic
comprehension or our sense of humor."
The balancing of interrelations of the musical ideas involves a basic
compositional skill; the connotations of the non-abstractiveness of the
sounds involve more varied responses. When the original information is
still clearly recognizable, the listener's responses are perhaps not so
different from responses toward program music. Reactions to Appleton's
approach have not all been positive. One critic summed up his world
Music as "a mish-mashed melange of travelog sounds."
There is a third viewpoint which lies somewhere between those expressed
by Wuorinen and Appleton, a viewpoint which takes advantage of the
characteristics of each. The imago-abstract sound, if created with
consideration of its manipulativeness, can be capable of many levels of
interrelation, according to its abstract qualities and also connotative
meanings evoked by the degree of allusion to other sound images. the
important thing here is that this kind of sound is unique in its own
sense, and not a direct recognizable referent-- it has a characteristic
quality not unlike a motive or theme (and in fact may use these) with
only vague reference to alluded sonic events.
One has only to listen to Visage by Luciano Berio to hear how this
works. In this landmark imago-abstract composition using the voice of
Cathy Berberian with electronic sounds, these is only one actual work
spoken :"parole". the basic components of speech- syllables of vowel and
consonant combinations, extracted from several languages and recombined
into non-sense sounds, are joined with a great variety of dramatic vocal
gestures, alternating and mixing with electronic materials. The effect
of these vocal gestures is quite provocative: the non-words expressed
with such strong inflections first stimulate the listener into imagining
an intelligible dramatic monologue, and later into perceiving the sounds
for what they are: an artwork of interweaving complex vocal
abstractions. The listener's focus fluctuates between these levels of
comprehension, invoking the tension that Appleton suggested, without
being able to evoke an actual verbal or programmatic image, since only
one real word is used, and this word conveys little imagery in itself.
This powerful dramatic work of Luciano Berio seems to be refutation of
Wuorinen's argument that non-pitched material cannot form strong
syntactical relationships. And yet the implied or imagined origin is
also there in strong measure. It is the combination of these supposedly
opposing forces that gives the work its unique power.
The imago-abstract sound works well in combination with more abstract
ideas, as boundaries between the two are broken, and at times the
allusions or suggestiveness of the sounds seem to leap out in bold
relief, playing with one's cognitive abilities. Since 1971, when I
started working in the electronic medium, I have become intrigued and
fascinated with this multi-role of imago-abstract sounds, and in Dance
of Dawn have used them in dramatic gestural and structural ways
interwoven with abstract ideas. In spite of the title, the work is not
programmatic (the title and poem came after the composition was
finished) and none of the sonorities are meant to be programmatic
To illustrate how one of the principle imago-abstract ideas-- a
non-tempered melodic counter that is ululatory in timbre and character-
functions in Dance of Dawn, I have prepared a diagram of its
appearance and development throughout the twenty-two minute work. (see
fig. 1.)
A1: Imago-abstract sound (functioning here as introductory, gestural).
A2: Variation and extension in two voices, enhancing the progression of
the pitch- rhythmic abstract ideas occurring at this time.
A3: Slight variation of A1 sound, introducing new section after earlier
climax.
A4: Repetition of A1
A5: Duet of A1 variations (high and low pitch levels) occurring during a
new melodic section, promoting continuity, unity.
B1: Strongly dramatic, gestural (similar in dramatic upsweep to A1),
heralding climax and long pause at first half of work.
B2: Repetition of B1 with A variation, beginning second half.
B3: Extension of B1, in duet with A6 (high variation and extension of
A1), beginning a section that is recapitulatory..
C: Similar to B3 in timbre and dramatic intent, climaxing this section.
A7: Return of the original imago-abstract sound in multiple variations
polyphonically (in its most intricate form), closing the work.
As the diagram illustrates, the sound-event is as much a part of the
intrinsic structure of the work and as complex interrelationally as are
the totally abstract sounds (if there is such a thing as "totally
abstract"); it also serves the important function of delineating
sections. I did not notate specific pitches in the diagram since the
pitches are a mixture of tempered and untempered (microtonal) tones; in
this piece, the contour and shape of the melodic line is more
important than its exact pitch content. Because this sound- event is
basically an evocative, dramatic gesture, and hence quite memorable,
caution was needed not to overuse but to take advantage of its character
by placing it in structurally strategic locations. In this way the
imago-abstract sound was able to create unity and coherence while
evoking several simultaneous auditory responses, Although only one
sound-event has been isolated for analysis, there are other
imago-abstract events throughout Dance of Dawn that often evolve to and
from completely abstract sound patterns.
This way of imagining and treating musical ideas seems to be a direct
consequence of the development of electronic equipment and technique.
Early musique concretists often manipulated pre-existing sounds via tape
recorder and record player. When synthesizers became available, concrete
sounds were (and are) altered in various ways electronically; and thus
emerged the phenomenon of "distorted" sounds as found in the music of
Jon Appleton. Whether the new way of hearing and examining existing
sonorities and altering them or creating new ones directly influenced
the sonic extensions presently available on conventional (and
unconventional) instruments, or whether this creative expansion began on
its own is not clear, but there seems to have been mutual interest and
development in all areas of musical expression. This is of course
understandable, since many composers are writing both in electronic as
well as vocal and instrumental media, and most composers have at least
studied or tried the different combinations.
The development of the electronic devices-- tape recorders,
synthesizers, sequencers, and recently computers-- has become more and
more sophisticated and has given the composer the ability to create the
imago-abstract sound. As the concept began and was integral to concrete
music, so it has matured in its capacity to work at both the abstract
level as well as its intrinsic derived level.
Perhaps Charles Wuorinen and others in agreement with him could benefit
by this quotation from Henri Pousseur, who, in discussing the evolution
of order in music, had this to say about the present developments of
order in music, had this to say about the present developments, as well
as the future: "I would even hazard the prediction that evolution in the
near future will be in a direction such that all types of musical
expression known up to the present will be made usable again (along with
other, entirely unknown types relating to other domains of our auditive
experience)... The most probable and legitimate natural consequence of
such a widening of expression would be the ability of new music to reach
vaster auditive capacity; and the possibility of its finally achieving
the major mutation in collective sensibility which it carries within it
in embryonic form.
...(From) is not called on to explain the whole of reality once and for
all, but to make as vast a space as possible inhabitable for us-- the
largest of which we are capable. It is not enough for us to alter the
Ôexterior' world in order to accomplish this, but also-- above all,
perhaps-- ourselves, our attitude, and our Ôresonance' (like a violin's,
a filter's an antenna's)."
Permission for copying and use in normal university class work granted.
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