- Program Notes
- Response (2001) for electroacousdtic sounds
(part of the Grand Piano Trilogy)
Duration 9’ 06 minutes
Response for tape was composed during the summer of 2001 while I was composer in residence at the studio ‘Métamorphose d’Orphée Musiques et Recherches in Ohain, Brussels. It follows Breakwater as the second piece of a project in process called Grand Piano Trilogy. I decided to take a unified sound source, the sound of the piano, in order to go deeper into the sound and the structure of it, to investigate its own gravities and tensions. The piece is characterized by a wide variety of both artificial and natural responses, triggered by energetic impulses and resonators. The response vibration may be a simple harmonic motion based on a minor second, or a more complex action created by distorted sounds or inharmonic textures. The response’s impulse may be as short and simple as a click of a spire along the string, a cluster produced by a modified hammer inside the piano, or a damped or pizzicato note. In these examples, the sound material is manipulated in the time domain through convolution, granular processes, time-stretching and other techniques. On the other hand, the response may be an elaborate resonant structure itself. Energy is applied as a repeated stream of pushes functioning as sound generators. The sources used to achieve this are circular, sweeping and accelerated strumming sounds performed inside the piano with different materials such as glass or plastic. The processing techniques which are applied are in frequency domain FFT-based cross synthesis and analysis/ resynthesis, as well as more standard signal processing, such as harmonizing, frequency shifting, phasing and specialization. The piece unfolds as the initial idea is gradually developed and transformed. Sections which involve pitch implementation are followed by inharmonic sections and so on. Each phrase is built up by many short sound samples in a kind of micro montage / mixage, revealing interesting timbral interactions between them. – Panayiotis KOKORAS, August 2001, York -.
This piece was awarded First Prize at the electroacoustic composition competition Musica Viva 2002 in Lisbon, Portugal; Second Prize at the biennial acousmatic composition competition Noroit Petitot Prize 2002 in Arras, France and Honourable Mention at the international electroacoustic music contest of São Paulo CIMESP 2001 in Sao Paul, Brazil. Moreover was finalist at Musica Nova 2001 International Electroacoustic Music Composition Competition in Prague / Czech Republic; 24th Luigi Russolo International Electroacoustic Music Composition Competition 2002 in Varese / Italy; V Pierre Schaeffer 2005 - International Computer Music Competition in Pescarese / Italy.
- Recording Notes
- Studio edited mix © Panayiotis Kokoras
- Performer Credits
- Ensemble Holophony Project
- Publisher
- Panayiotis Kokoras