Output details

Dedans

Composition for trombone and live electronics

The opportunity to write Dedans arose out of a University of Sheffield initiative to encourage inquiry based learning, and the scheme provided funding for the purchase of equipment to enable the production and performance of work that included electronic manipulation of the sound of live musicians. Dedans was George Nicholson's first essay in the medium of live electronics, using the pd (Pure Data) program. He worked in collaboration with trombonist John Kenny, building on the achievement of a long association which had already resulted in three earlier works. Within the structure of Dedans the electronic component emerges from elements present in the live trombone sound, eventually becoming an independent – possibly even a rival – force. Points of contact are established between those colourations and distortions of 'pure' trombone sound that can be produced by the player himself by means of extended techniques (multiphonics, vocalisation, didgeridoo embouchure etc.), electronic treatments of the live sound and completely synthetic material that can be generated in pd. The piece gradually took shape as a result of a series of workshops in Sheffield and Edinburgh, sometimes with composition students in attendance, and the final adjustments to the score and to the pd patches were completed between the first public performance of the piece and the second.