Jonty Harrison
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Programme NotesContents
AriaAria was conceived as an elaboration of the gestural properties of a gust of air, characterised by a tendency from generally higher to generally lower register (and at least part of the way back), coupled with a similarly-paced crescendo/diminuendo shape, and containing a great deal of internal spatial detail. This gesture also predominates at the "local" level, among the individual sound types and individual musical gestures in the work. Occasionally the forward momentum is halted by entering a "garden" of relative stasis; these become increasingly evocative of real garden environments as the work progresses.As a counterpoint to this are elements recalling the more vocal and cultural connotations of the word "aria". To emphasise this aspect of the human voice within the work, many of the sounds in Aria were produced using the EMS Vocoder in Studio Charybde of the Groupe de Musique Experimentale de Bourges (France). Aria was commissioned by the GMEB and was composed in their studios during two visits in 1987, and in the Electroacoustic Music Studio of The University of Birmingham (who also provided financial assistance in travelling to Bourges). It appears on Articles indéfinis, a Jonty Harrison "solo" CD on the empreintes DIGITALes label (Montreal). I am indebted to Adrian Hunter for his invaluable help as Studio Assistant during the final stages of assembling the piece in early April 1988. Some small revisions were made in December 1988. Aria is dedicated to my wife Ali for her help, support and forbearance. EQEQ is the third in a series of works featuring saxophones: Q (1976) for soprano saxophone, string trio and electric organ explores the musical implications of "cue" (a signal to begin a musical event), "queue" (the players sit in a diagonal line across the stage) and "Q" (the width of a tuneable band of frequencies - in a filter, for example); SQ (1978-79) for saxophone quartet addresses space and the theatricality of performance; EQ (1980) for soprano saxophone and tape (perhaps more accurately described as a tape piece with soprano saxophone obbligato) revisits some of these concerns, particularly "cue" (the interaction of saxophone and tape), "Q" (a sweeping filter can be heard producing melodic material out of static harmony), spatial articulation and the physical and theatrical aspects of performance. Also, "EQ" is studio slang for "equalisation" - essentially sophisticated tone controls, and a fundamental device for sound modificaton in the studio.EQ was commissioned by John Harle with funds made available by the Arts Council of Great Britain; the tape was made in the studios of the University of York and City University, London. It won First Prize in the Mixed Category of the 1981 Bourges International Electroacoustic Awards and appeared on the Electrecord label, performed by French saxophonist Daniel Kientzy. It was re-recorded by Stephen Cottrell at The University of Birmingham (assistant engineer: Alistair MacDonald) for a CD on the NMC label (London). Hammer and TongsThis short work for string quartet won the Lloyds Bank National Composers' Award in 1985 and was first performed that year in the Cornhill Festival by the Bochmann String Quartet.Blocks of strongly characterised material are juxtaposed in a manner illustrative of the work's title. This polarisation is, however, under scrutiny! Hot AirOne of the principal source sounds for this work - balloons from children's parties - gave rise to a train of thought which, after linking "toy" balloons to "hot air" balloons, went on to draw in numerous other concepts of air (breath, utterance, natural phenomena) and heat (energy, action, danger).As work on the sound material progressed, other notions of air became important: motion through space; a certain fleeting quality; and air as the principal medium for the transmission of sound. The manner in which this happens (each air molecule vibrating about its current position and passing its energy on to its neighbour in alternating patterns of compression and rarefaction) became a model for the structure of the piece itself - a free association of sounds and references, each linking with and influencing its neighbour. Gradually, the referential, mimetic and environmental aspects of the piece revealed another, altogether more worrying image: that of the inflated balloon as a metaphor of the fragility of that very environment, of the Earth itself - capable of being manipulated, but not infinitely so. But beware! Danger! I run the risk of becoming too pompous, too "inflated" with the importance of my theme. We should not forget that, in colloquial English, if what someone says is "hot air", it means it lacks real substance, is rubbish, meaningless, bluff, all talk and no action, empty words... Hot Air was commissioned by the Groupe de Recherches Musicales and sound material was developed using the GRM's Syter and GRM Tools systems; later stages in the compositional process took place in the composer's studio and in the Electroacoustic Music Studios of The University of Birmingham. It is available on Articles indéfinis, a Jonty Harrison "solo" CD on the empreintes DIGITALes label (Montreal). KlangThe title ("Klang" is the German for sound) reflects the onomatopoeic nature of the family of sounds providing the raw material for the piece - sharp, metallic attacks with interesting resonances rich in harmonics. The real starting point for Klang was the discovery of two earthenware casseroles, the sounds of which were recorded in the Electroacoustic Music Studio of the University of East Anglia during the summer of 1981. Material of two kinds was recorded - attack/resonance sounds made by tapping the lids on or in the bowls, and continuous rolling sounds made by running the lids around the insides of the bowls. Different pitches resulted from the various combinations of lids and bowls, and different qualities of resonance emerged according to the attack position. The microphones were placed very close to the bowls to maximise the movement within the stereophonic image. Other related material, accumulated over the previous three or four years, was also used. This included both "concrete" sounds, such as cow-bells, metal rods and aluminium bars, and electronically generated sounds, both analogue and digital. The final impetus to compose the piece came in June 1981 when the composer was invited by Janos Decsenyi of Magyar Radio to work in the Radio's Electronic Music Studio in Budapest. As studio time would be limited he was advised to take a certain amount of taped material with him; the two weeks prior to the visit were therefore spent in preliminary work in the Electroacoustic Music Studio of The University of Birmingham. Most of the opening two sections of the piece were composed before going to Hungary.Although continuous, Klang falls into six short, fairly clearly defined sections:-
The listener can trace the development of the material from raw statements of casserole sounds in the Introduction, through more complex, highly transformed events in the four Development sections, back to the opening sound-world in the Coda. The most obvious transformation technique is mixing, using only slightly transposed versions of simple sounds. Besides mixing and transposition with tape recorders and a harmoniser, the main modifications were achieved by filtering and, most important of all, montage. This last technique is the principal means of controlling the timing and rhythmic articulation of the material and its organisation into phrases (which may be a single line or a mix of many layers which are edited together into the desired sequence). Klang was commissioned by MAFILM and composed in the Electronic Music Studio of Magyar Radio in 1982. It was awarded Second Prize in the Analogue Category of the Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Awards in 1983. It has been performed and broadcast in many parts of the world, including at the 1984 ISCM World Music Days in Toronto, Canada. It appeared on the UEA record label and has just been released on CD on the NMC label (London). In 1992 it was awarded a Euphonie d'or at Bourges as one of the twenty most significant works from two decades of the Bourges Awards. LamentDouglas Doherty/Jonty HarrisonLament was composed in response to a joint commission from BRMB Radio in Birmingham and Radio Clyde, and was subsequently part of the Independent Broadcasting Authority's submission for the music section of the Prix Italia in 1985. Bearing in mind the radio listener who might tune in by chance to the piece, we decided to utilise "everyday" sounds (which would have the advantage of being immediately recognisable) to attract the attention, but to compose these sounds musically. Thus whilst the musical content at first seems anecdotal, the structure and context are musical, giving rise to a work which can be interpreted on a variety of levels. The linking factor in this process is the notion of time - a prime concern of all composers (composition can, after all, be viewed as the organisation of time - and hence its "mastery" - by means of sound), here made explicit by many "poetic" references to it : ticking clocks, counting, "the river of time" (along with some borrowings from Hermann Hesse), etc - clichés, every one of them! Lament was composed in the Electroacoustic Music Studios of The University of Birmingham, with additional material from the Electroacoustic Music Studio at the University of Newcastle. Thanks are due to several people who contributed to the making of the piece: Brian Savin of BRMB, Alison Warne, Jan Smaczny, Geoffrey Warne, Jane Alderton, Sarah Griffin and John Whenham. Lament received a Mention in the 1986 Bourges International Electroacoustic Awards. Ottone- for AliOttone (Italian for brass) begins - literally - where my earlier piece for brass quintet, Sons transmutants/sans transmutant, leaves off. The throbbing sound of pulsed air is now expanded by electroacoustic means, heralding a deeper exploration of the timbral/spectral world of brass instruments than can be achieved purely acoustically. The ability of the electroacoustic medium to examine sounds at very close quarters, to "get inside" and deconstruct individual instrumental sound objects is here exploited to create a larger-scale work lasting almost twenty minutes. The timbral extensions, which range from transformations of "straight" brass sounds to the sounds of creaking doors, squeaking balloons, my younger daughter and spinning coins ("brass" is a slang term for "money" in the North of England!) stay in the domain of the tape "part", with the live performers rarely venturing far from "normal" playing techniques. At various points, "windows" are created, through which reminiscences of Sons transmutants/sans transmutant can be clearly heard, and there are some significant moments, particularly towards the end of the work, in which the tape becomes overtly instrumental. Overall, Ottone moves in a kind of orbit around the nucleus of the brass quintet, a tendency underlined by the spatial dimension of the work: the players are required to move to different locations in the hall for certain sections, emphasising the changing relationships between the components of the ensemble, and approaching (albeit in a fairly rudimentary way) the ability of the electroacoustic medium (especially in diffusion) to exploit spatial considerations to the full. Ottone was commissioned by the Fine Arts Brass Ensemble, with funds made available by West Midlands Arts. It was composed between January and May 1992 and the tape was made in the Electroacoustic Music Studios of The University of Birmingham. It was first performed in the Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham in November 1992, conducted by the composer. I am grateful to Dr Andrew Lewis for his assistance during the making of the tape and for diffusing the tape at the premiere. Ottone was selected for performance at the 1993 International Computer Music Conference in Tokyo, Japan and has been recorded by the Fine Arts Brass Ensemble for CD release on the Merlin label. Pair/ImpairPair (even) - the balance between opposites (left/right, high/low, dry/resonant); equilibrium; the concept of stasis.Impair (odd) - the contradiction of pair; the element of imbalance which carries us out of stasis; the dynamic concept. Pair/Impair - an extension of the relationship between dynamic and static musics (and their confusion) - a relationship which in itself can fluctuate between the dynamic and the static. Pair/Impair was composed in 1978 in the Recording and Electronic
Music Studio of the University of East Anglia. It received a Mention
in the Analogue Category of the 1980 Bourges International Electroacoustic
Music Awards. PulseRatesBEAST (Jonty Harrison, Andrew Lewis, Dan Rodger, with additional material by Robert Dow and Alistair MacDonald)PulseRates was commissioned by Birmingham City Council to celebrate Sounds like Birmingham - UK City of Music 1992. The piece grows out of sounds which can be heard in the city of Birmingham itself (the fish market, New Street station, city buses and their brakes, the hammering and drilling from building sites), which intermingle with more overtly "musical" sounds (ranging from the sounds of actual percussion instruments to a more avant-garde electroacoustic sound-world, from a texture reminiscent of "ambient acid house" to something more akin to a "systems" piece). In the electroacoustic medium, composers and listeners are uniquely able to move between "real", "unreal" and "surreal" sonic environments. All three are present in PulseRates, the organisation of which, though primarily musical, can also be interpreted programmatically: just as the city's industrial past provided the foundations for the communities living here, so the sound of machinery of all kinds, symbolising the energy of this industrial past, provides the foundations of PulseRates; in the course of the work it is transformed into the cultural (and multi-cultural) energy which has so strongly come to symbolise Birmingham in the late twentieth century. BEAST wishes to thank the following individuals and organisations for their help in making this work possible: Selwyn van Zeller of the Museum of Science and Technology; Lucas Aerospace Ltd; Westley Richards & Co. Ltd; The University of Birmingham; Anthony Sargent and Catherine Manners of Birmingham City Council. Rosaces 4For the tourist, Notre Dame de Chartres may be just one more "sight" among the Gothic cathedrals of northern France, perhaps only notable for having more of its original medieval glass than most of the others. But why are the three rosaces (rose windows) at Chartres considered by experts to be among the four greatest ever produced? Why is the building more than 46º off the normal east-west orientation for a medieval church? Why are there no sculptures and no graves within the building? And how was a relatively small community able to erect, in only twenty-six years and with no interruptions, a cathedral with the widest known gothic vault, when work on cathedrals in wealthier cities was interrupted for lack of funds? Could it be that the outward beauty and perfection of the building are the result of something else, something hidden...?Rosaces 4 (1982) was commissioned by Elms Concerts with funds made available by the Arts Council of Great Britain. The tape was made in the Electroacoustic Music Studio of The University of Birmingham. SortiesSorties was written as part of Web, a collaboration between seven BEAST composers and graphic artist Lorne Christie. Web is a "sound sculpture" - a walk-through installation in an open-sided canalside warehouse. The work evokes images of the elements (air, earth, fire and water) and of a journey - enhanced in this case by the movement of the audience through a continuously varying visual and sonic landscape.This idea of travelling from one sonic location to another underpins the evolution of Sorties which, as well as forming part of Web, was designed as an independent work. As the title suggests, the primary sound image is that of leaving (exiting, escaping, fleeing) an interior space for an exterior one, only to find that one is mysteriously and inevitably trapped once again in another "interior". The ultimate impossibility of escape is reflected in the predominantly dark and brooding atmosphere of the work. Web was commissioned by the BBC and Birmingham City Council, as part of the BBC's Music Live '95 Festival and performed during May 1995. Sorties was awarded a Prize in the Programme Music Category of the 1996 Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Awards. ...et ainsi de suite...I had wanted for some time to compose a "French suite", rather in the manner of the musique concrète tradition. Sounds from some rough-textured wine glasses, which had been transformed in the Studio Numérique of the Groupe de Recherches Musicales in Paris using predominantly time-domain manipulation (ETIR), brassage (BRAGE and BRAGGE) and spatialisation programs, provided a promising starting point. These individual sounds were onwardly transformed in the Electroacoustic Music Studios of The University of Birmingham, using a variety of digital signal processors (Publison, Yamaha, AKG), combined with a number of other sound sources, further transformed, recombined...and so on.I ventured into this pool of material from time to time in order to compose short, essentially self-contained movements. The reassembling of new, specific musical utterances from the same source material led to the idea that, by analogy, complete movements (which would inevitably contain a plethora of cross-references) could be assembled in various ways to create pieces of different lengths and pacings for different occasions, spaces...and so on. Over a dozen movements have been composed to date. Their different functions are characterised, to continue the link with the musique concrète suite, by French titles: à propos and résumé are, respectively, expository and recapitulatory statements of the basic array of sound-types found in the work, and the longest and most elaborate movements are designated commentaire; the first version of the work (Version Bourges 1990) contained only these movement categories. From 1991, with access to a Sound Tools system, I was able to achieve the seamless continuity of material needed for the family of gentler, more reflective and static movements which offset them. These interspersed movements are grouped under the general heading of (parenthèse), though some carry additional, descriptive titles such as réflexion, résonance and souffle d'insectes . The CD version (prepared for Articles indéfinis on the empreintes DIGITALes label, Montreal, and itself a revision of the Birmingham Version 1992) has eleven movements, whose durations range from 40 seconds to nearly 4 minutes:-
A characteristic of this version is the overlapping of movements (movements 6 to 9 form a continuous whole, as do the final two movements), emphasising the more dramatic potential of the material. Overall, however, the work is not a vehicle for a dynamic or dramatic musical argument; I am more concerned to create a network of connections within a sound-world more conducive to dalliance than discourse. Unsound ObjectsOne of the main criteria in Pierre Schaeffer's definition of the "sound object" was that, through the process of "reduced listening", one should hear sound material purely as sound, divorced from any associations with its physical origins - in other words, what is significant about a recorded violin sound (for example) is that particular sound, its unique identity, and not its "violin-ness". Despite this ideal, a rich repertoire of music has been created since the 1950s which plays precisely on the ambiguities evoked when recognition and contextualisation of sound material rub shoulders with more abstracted (and abstract) musical structures. But as these structures should themselves be organically related to the peculiarities of individual sound objects within them, the ambiguity is compounded: interconnections and multiple levels of meaning proliferate. The known becomes strange and the unknown familiar in a continuum of reality, unreality and surreality, where boundaries shift and continually renewed definitions are the only constant...Unsound Objects was commissioned by the International Computer Music Association and first performed at the 1995 International Computer Music Conference in Banff, Alberta, Canada. Along with four other tape works, it is available on Articles indéfinis, a Jonty Harrison "solo" CD on the empreintes DIGITALes label (Montreal), and a further revision (1996) will shortly appear as part of the CDCM collection on Centaur. |
