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Sonic Generator’s Electric Balm
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia Tech’s “Sonic Generator” ensemble has become a “helluva, helluva” popular group, drawing an intriguing mix of serious music fans and earnest, casually dressed students.
Ostensibly it’s a sort of workshop for graduate students in Tech’s Music Technology program, who help out with the various computers and other devices the music involves. But it also serves as a valuable stage for edgier new music involving all sorts of technology. Both the music and the process for making it are often complex, but these guys are great at explaining what’s happening, either in the print program or through occasional chats with the audience.
Tuesday’s concert featured the premiere of “Kaleidoscope I,” by Atlanta composer Chris Arrell. A series of short musical figures build up and alternate repetitively, constantly mutating. As the piece moves quickly forward, the colors of the melodic material become richer and are played against each other, resulting in something that is both sensuous and dissonant.
This isn’t a groundbreaking work in terms of technology. Rather, it’s a skillful exploration of change over time when things are happening fast, like minimalism on amphetamines.
This was a true ensemble piece, featuring tough material for each of the six players, including a synthesizer. Professional musicians all (none connected to Tech), they seemed to thrive on the challenge, with total concentration and virtuoso skills.
In Jonathan Harvey’s “Tombeau de Messiaen,” a piano plays a duet with a tape. On the tape, an electronically created piano has been tuned to the 12-tone system (an alternative approach to the intervals between notes), while the live piano is tuned using the equal temperament system that we consider standard. There’s a pretty glissando figure and other motifs. As they are played, the piano and its ghost create a torrent of sounds, often resonating for long spaces, seeming almost to make the room shake from the violence of the tonal imbalance.
Sonic Generator’s pianist is the ubiquitous Lisa Leong. If you haven’t encountered her, well, you need to get out more. She seems to be in place whenever something interesting and new is going on, probably because she is technically something of a wizard, and still manages to capture the emotional feel of the music. She is in her element with the most difficult and dissonant material, as was the case with Harvey’s piece.
The program included four other short works. In one, composer Nick Didkovsky created a computer program which actually composed the music. Belinda Reynolds’ piece consisted of taped bits of interviews she’d conducted with a group of women, woven into a musical score. The subject was lying, and photos of the women as children were projected as a backdrop to the disturbing confessions.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Classical Music
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By Darren Nelsen
February 22, 2008 6:58 PM | Link to this
Loved the show! Great music and performances. The audience turnout was amazing! Glad you covered it.
Darren Nelsen www.curiomusic.com www.atlantacomposers.com
By Darren Nelsen
February 22, 2008 6:59 PM | Link to this
Loved the show! Great music and performances. The audience turnout was amazing! Glad you covered it.
Darren Nelsen www.curiomusic.com www.atlantacomposers.com