Making New Waves 2007

Structure #VII of Peter Adriaansz is inspired by the phenomenon in physics of the Schwarzschild Radius, where time and gravity stand still. It is part of a series of sixteen scores (Structures I – XVI) for any kind of mixed ensembles and orchestras, with or without live electronic delay, for variable instrumentations ranging from small ensembles to orchestras. Written according to the technique of available pitches and dealing with aspects of infinity and the harmony of the spheres. All parts can be played separately or as a set and with or without live electronic delay (to be obtained from the composer).

I composed Pea Soup while a student in college. A self-stabilizing network of circuitry (originally three Countryman Phase Shifters) nudges the pitch of audio feedback to a different resonant frequency every time the feedback starts to build.
The familiar shriek is replaced with unstable pattern of hollow tones, a site-specific raga reflecting the acoustical personality of the room. These architectural melodies can be influenced by moving in the space, making other sounds, or even by letting in a draft of cold air.
The piece existed both as an installation, responding to visitors, and in a concert version, in which people performed activities intended to influence the feedback.

Seventeen and a Half is a fantasy on Varese. The piece is made up from fragments of material from Density 21.5. These are weaved into a polyrhythmic texture over 2 samples of recordings of the first phrase of Density 21.5 played at the same time and time stretched to about 100 times the original length. This creates an extended 'moment' which results is a play of radically different speeds and tempos over a slowly changing harmonic field. The idea of the piece was inspired by reading about the influences on Varése when he arrived in Paris in 1903. One of these was the very influential Bergsonian 'Simultinaety'.

As a pioneer of experimental music, Alvin Lucier has for years explored the fundamentals of sound in his compositions, even to the extent of making brain waves audible. Lucier’s Still Lives is a meditative piece for piano and sine waves.

The title refers to the village of Marfa, Texas, where visual artist Donal Judd has set up many of his later works in a permanent exhibition. I haven't been there, but I would like to (it's still a "dream"). Not that my music sounds like Judd's work looks (that wouldn't make sense) but some conceptual thoughts that led to this music have had their origin in n in thinking about Judd's so-called "specific objects".

Musically spoken, it's a unison melody made of three different notes and a percussion that shifts from random rhythms into regular phrases and back.

The image of vapor metal clouds clashing together against vibrating strings and toms are the inspiration for this piece which fictionally takes us to that plane. The Vapor Collisions is a reflection of science, fiction and art, taking its name from the 'Theory of Collisions' observed by 17th century Dutch mathematician and physicis Christiaan Huygens.
This piece was composed at the Sonic Arts Research Centre in Belfast and uses samples of physical models of metal plates developed at the centre by Stefan Bilbao.
The Vapor Collisions was commisioned by Yannis Kyriakides and Roland Spekle from the MAE and the Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst.

(Henry Vega)