Translate

Thursday 26 May 2011

Red Note Ensemble and Noisy Nights

I'm really excited to have my piece Chapels with Splendid Glass Windows chosen to be performed by Red Note Ensemble at their next Noisy Nights gig. The piece is a follow up to my recent string piece Sea Longing. Chapels is written for electric violin, electric cello, electric guitar and electronics.

In case you've not heard of Noisy Nights, it's a really exciting project run by the wonderful Red Note Ensemble. It's held bi-monthly, and each month has a different line up - 3 cellos, baroque recorder and harpsichord, electrics etc. An open call for scores is posted and composers write to the brief. Red Note then pick a selection to perform. The performers get one rehearsal on the day of the gig, with composers popping in to support and guide where scores may not tell everything. Then at about 7.30 the bar starts to fill up and we get to hear around 10 brand new pieces and chat to the composers at the bar in between.

It's a really good opportunity for new composers to get their work played and recorded, a chance to get feedback, meet other composers and more importantly, nick their ideas.

The gig will be on Monday 6th June in the Traverse Theatre Bar in Edinburgh, it would be lovely to see you there.

http://www.traverse.co.uk/shows_noisynights.htm

http://www.rednoteensemble.com/Red_Note/Current%20Performances.html

Tuesday 17 May 2011

Mr McFalls Electronics Day

I arrived at this wonderful space, through an avenue of overhanging beech trees, gently brushing the roof of the van in welcome. The studio space has a breath-taking view of the Scottish Borders, and it is a gentle, and welcoming space to work in. 

Meeting with the players and electronics people from McFalls I feel instantly, well, um, welcomed and so very happy to be here. Robert chats happily about Anna-Wendy and her fiddle teachings, Brian is colourfully trying both violas, and I am blessed, as he chooses the heavier and trickier but with a richer sound. Ricks bass guitar is swifly replaced by the most gorgeous looking acoustic bass with pick up. This bass looks like it has been resting at the bottom of the sea, singing siren songs with the slinkies, with armada gold stashed inside, telling tales of canon and pirate. If I ever coveted an instrument, I cannot have coveted it like this.... sigh. Su-a comes fresh from doing a gig for babies, all energy and focus with the wonderful hair up down up down up down up. 

Martin and I set up and have a look through the patches, discussing whether we think they will work, what the issues might be and ways that we could approach those issues. He is a Max wizard, clicking through the patches, and deftly tweaking and typing. Alex Fiennes is on the sound, taking the feed from the live musicians and our laptops and producing gorgeous mixes. Occaisionaly Martin and Alex speak to each other in fluent serial number. 

The first piece we work on is Sea Longing, inspired by my time on the Uists, facing the sea, at once enveloping and spearating - feeling as though I am experiencing all the centuries overlapping each other. The electronics work! This is a joyous moment. Brian's viola is happily triggering the samples whilst the laptop people just sit and babysit the Max patches. The patch is designed to listen for certain notes in a certain time window, and upon hearing these notes, to trigger the samples. 

After lunch we have a look at Dochas, or Uaimh na h-Àrd-Eaglaise. This piece is more seat of our pants. It involves building loops on top of each other, each player has several loops to pile up. The structural issue would be that the opening of the piece is very slow, so even a milimeter's nudge either way will cause the whole house of cards to tumble later on in the piece. We adjust the max patch in some mid afternoon frantic wizardry and finally get the piece to fly. The delays are added manually, as we're running out of time. We wanted to get the musicians to play with number generator toys to randomly affect the delays... ah well. next time.

Alex is making some wonderful mixes from the day to put on the McFalls website, which you can find if you click:

here 

I am sitting here as the light dies, a pale turquoise sky against the black of the trees, a mellow jazz noodle rises into the air like cigar smoke as Rick is on the veranda playing his bass.

Thursday 5 May 2011

Max Patches & Other Mountains

 I'm not sure which was more of a challenge, the MAX/MSP programming or climbing Yr Eifl at the weekend. Yr Eifl is a lovely mountain on the Llyn Peninsula in North Wales, a few miles from my Great Grandmother's village. We chose a warm, sunny and very blustery day to climb. As we ascended and the coast dropped away below us, the outline of the peninsula became visible, then, appearing over the pass, the Snowdonia range and Anglesea. The summit was triumphant and all the Westerly Welsh Winds agreed, they encouraged us across the eastern flank to the deserted hillfort of Tre'r Ceiri. In celebration of our walk I wrote  

two tunes

a celebratory 5/4 for Yr Eifl and a more reflective 3/4 for Tre'r Ceiri, the beautiful hillfort separated from Yr Eifl by a meadow of bog cotton and heather.


In comparison, the MAX programming was more of a scramble, with no discernible path and a crumpled map, with only online fora for gps. I've had to dust off my programming fingers working on the two max patches for the Mr McFalls pieces. In case you've not come across  

MAX/MSP 

it's "an interactive graphical programming environment for music, audio, and media". It has been a while since I used MAX and so I've been exploring and experimenting to rebuild my knowledge. The patch I've been working on so far listens to the live performers and is set to trigger various samples if it hears a particular frequency in a given time window. The summit is eluding me, just as I think I'm there, I turn a corner and there is another stretch ahead. I'm sure the view will be exhilarating once we get into the studio.

Mr McFalls Chamber & Electronic Workshops

I’m very excited to have been invited to work with Mr McFalls Chamber at Heriot Toun Studios in May.


Mr McFall’s Chamber www.mcfalls.co.uk have invited five composers to submit new works that involve electronic instruments and live electronics to be developed in workshops with live electronics composer Martin Parker and sound engineer Alex Fiennes. The workshops will take place at Heriot Toun Studio in the Scottish Borders www.heriot-toun.co.uk.


The works will be developed in a workshop situation, in which we will take documentary recordings and to blog the progress of the works as they develop.


Can’t wait to meet everyone and get going!