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March
3, 2003 |
A Mix of Electronics and Acoustics Works Well
for Popular European Orchestra
Avant-garde experimental composer Pauline Oliveros
has been commissioned to fuse a creative mix of electronic and
acoustical music for a popular Brussels chamber band that will
play a central role in one of the best-known contemporary music
festivals in Europe. The Musiques Nouvelles will premiere Oliveros'
piece, titled "Sound Geometries," on March 15 at the
Theater Marni during Brussels' annual Ars Musica Festival.
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Thomas Griffin
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Oliveros, research professor of music in the arts
department at Rensselaer, is incorporating a special software
application in the composition she is writing for the 13-member
band. As the chamber members play their instruments, microphones
will deliver the music to a computer, which will then modify and
distribute the notes through five speakers.
Programming the software for Oliveros' piece is
Stephan Moore, Rensselaer electronic arts graduate student. The
software is based on the Expanded Instrument System (EIS). Oliveros
conceived the EIS in the 1960s to help her control sound transformations
using foot pedals when she played her accordion. The EIS evolved
from simple tape delays to an elaborate digital signal processing
system that can, for instance, alter acoustical sounds' apparent
distance from the audience. For example, the system can make the
sounds appear to be in an echo-filled space, and the notes can
be delayed so that they appear in the hall up to a minute after
they are initially played.
Inspired by the sounds of nature, 70-year-old
Oliveros is considered by many to be the mother of meditative,
or "spiritual," music, which led to the New-Age music
of the 1980s. Her world-renowned, generally subtle music is based
on improvisation and layers of overlapping sounds, which can take
on the imitation of cataclysmic earth tremors or gentle rain falling
on leaves.
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