ICMC/25/d4/1120 Concert n11/05 Parable of the Harmoniums
Parable of the Harmoniums, for alto sax, guitar, transduced electric guitar and live electronics
- 12:24 the gutteral #Guitar of Person/Dan VanHassel ascending digs through the breathwork Instrument/Saxophone
- 12:25 now we're hissing through harmonics. What is the sound of this Audio/Effect/Distortion
- 12:26 now the Sax penetrates, blistering, believable, crying.
- 12:27 Music/Genre/Klezmer vibes with Music/Interval/9th/Minor
- 12:32 some breath in the background
#Description
Short
- Two guitars share a bowed-spring reverb plate; sax multiphonics seed granular clouds that circulate between the instruments, blurring acoustic provenance.
Long
- Parable of the Harmoniums In Person/Kurt Vonnegut/Book/The Sirens of Titan 1959 novel,
- Harmoniums are a race of small Animal/Bat-like creatures** that inhabit the caves of Mercury
- subsisting on the sound waves emanating from each other’s calls to one another
- The Harmoniums’ simple ecosystem is ultimately disrupted
- Martian war survivors Boaz and Unk arrive,
- Boaz introduces the Harmoniums to recorded music from Earth.
- While the Harmoniums derive great pleasure from the music, direct contact with the tape player causes them to shrivel and die from overexposure which happens in the book when Boaz leaves the cassette player unattended for a short period of time. Parable of the Harmoniums uses this moment in the book as a point of reflection on the negative impact of unchecked vice and excess consumption can have on a society and/or ecosystem. In Parable of the Harmoniums, the audio signal from the saxophone and guitar is manipulated through a series of loopers, live-generated sound, and audio effects that are distributed between the main stereo outputs and a series of transducers placed on the guitar. Interaction between the resonance of the guitar and the transducers creates an isolated sonic ecosystem that is reliant on input from the performers and electronics to exist, but is vulnerable to being erased by the same forces that allow it to exist in the first place. The works of Leo Brouwer and Heitor Villa-Lobos serve as inspiration for many of the techniques and chord shapes used in the guitar part, which are further corrupted by the introduction of simple dissonances in both the guitar and saxophone.
#Composer Person/Monte Taylor - #Guitar, live electronics
- #Pic
- Bio/Long
- Monte Taylor (b. 1991) is a composer, sound artist, and audio engineer based in West Lafayette, IN, where he is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Music Technology at Purdue University’s Rueff School of Design, Art, and Performance. His compositions have been recognized though the KLANG! International Electroacoustic Composition Competition and the American Prize. In November 2024, he served as a Fulbright Specialist to Egypt. His works have been presented on conferences and festivals including Electronic Music Midwest, Novalis Festival, NYCEMF, SCI, SEAMUS, Seoul International Computer Music Festival, SPLICE Institute, TUTTI Festival, and Web Audio Conference by ensembles including Bent Frequency, Duo Tudor-Režić, Line Upon Line Percussion, [Switch~ Ensemble], and the University of Texas New Music Ensemble. He also creates interdisciplinary collaborative works involving disciplines including dance, theater, sculpture, and interactive video. Recent intermedia installations have been exhibited at CAMPGround25, Mid-America Theatre Conference, and Purdue University’s Ringel Gallery. He Holds a DMA in Composition from the University of Texas at Austin, an MM in Composition from University of Miami, and an BM in Composition from the University of Missouri – Kansas City.
- Bio/Short
- #Boston based composer/guitarist
- Exploring mechanical preparation of traditional instruments
#Performers
- Person/Dan VanHassel — electric guitar
- Saxophonist Philipp A. Stäudlin has performed hundreds of concerts and premiered more than 100 works throughout North America, Europe, and Japan. A native of Friedrichshafen, Germany, Stäudlin has appeared as a soloist with the Sinfonieorchester Basel, Sound Icon, Ensemble White Rabbit, Niederrheinische Sinfoniker, Callithumpian Consort, Bielefelder Philharmoniker, Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, Tufts University Orchestra, and The Providence Singers. Stäudlin has also performed with the Harvard Group for New Music, Equilibrium Ensemble, ECCE, Talea Ensemble, Steamboat Switzerland, Dinosaur Annex, Ludovico Ensemble, IGNM Basel, Alea III, Back Bay Choral, and many others. He has recordings available on the New World, Tzadik, Albany, Innova, Suspicious Motives, New Focus, Navona, Newport Classics, Enja, and Ars Musici labels. He teaches saxophone at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee in both the standard degree and contemporary music programs, and is also on the applied music faculty at Tufts University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
