Output details

misguided. Composition for clarinet(s), saxaphone(s), trumpet and trombone. Première: 26th March 2011, ELISION Ensemble (Eugene Ughetti, conductor), Iwaki Auditorium, ABC Southbank, Melbourne, Australia. DVD, CD recording (NMC D168, Tracks 3-8) and Score. DVD contains digital copy of score and audio recording. URL evidences date of dissemination.

misguided, written in collaboration with ELISION, consists of five movements, each focusing on specific combinations of instrumentations, timbres, articulation classes and rhythmical ratios. During pre-composition, synthetic microtonal scales, middle-ground metrical structures and complex foreground rhythmical subdivisions were computer-generated using IRCAM’s OpenMusic, via random permutations of prime numbers. The OM algorithm also determined that the probability of rhythmical subdivision was proportional to tempo, so, as the tempo increases, so does the surface activity. The main research question was how to enable maximum surface diversity and proliferation of materials whilst maintaining an underlying formal coherence, using notational assistance via appropriate technologies. The resolution of the dialectic between tempered and non-tempered microtonalities, manifest in the inharmonic artificial spectra used in the brass materials and the overtone harmonics of the reeds, was necessary in order to achieve this aim. Many sonic nuances specific to the piece e.g. use of mutes, multiphonics, overtone harmonics, extended techniques and notational solutions, evolved via a constant dialogue with the musicians. There is no literal repetition, yet the algorithmic permutation processes yielded highly self-similar materials, maintaining a certain consistency (often hyper-virtuosic gestures, pulsing poly-rhythmic textures or more static sustained sonorities). The ensemble is conceived as a collective, although the texture can suddenly break down into smaller subgroups, often (but not exclusively) into the pairings of the brass and reeds. Quasi-soloistic passages emerge from the polyphonic layers, but such moments are fleeting and subordinate to the overall cyclical formal articulation of abstract sonic masses. As the only non-doubling instrument, the trombone provides a point of departure and relative stability, from which other more unstable and varying sonorities can emerge. The title refers to how the computer (mis)guided the composer towards outcomes, which may not have otherwise occurred.