About Sources/scenes
by Denis Smalley |imed_0054-0001|
The idea of a principal sound source as provider of the central material
and concept unites three works on this CD, and is embodied in their titles —
Tides, Empty Vessels, and
Base Metals. In each case a characteristic sound acts
as a central reference as well as ‘irrigating’ the piece. But it also
inspires and guides the choice of other sounds and the play of relationships
among them, thereby influencing musical form. In Empty
Vessels it is the sound of air resonating in large garden pots along
with recordings of the surrounding environment. In Tides it is two water recordings — a closely recorded water
texture which furnishes the ‘pool’ sequences, and a recording of the
approaching sea which gives the second movement (Sea
Flight) its wave forms. Finally, in Base
Metals, the resonances of a family of metal sound sculptures provide
the rich reservoir of colorful sound spectra which enable harmonic and
timbral evolutions.
This idea of sources and their musical development is central to the more
abstract preoccupations of the composer’s agenda, as a vehicle for creating
families of relationships, and as a means for building musical logic and
coherence. But the invisible world of acousmatic imagery also conjures up
scenes in the imagination. Such ‘scenes’ can be quite close to reality. This
is the case with Empty Vessels where nature,
environment, the elements and broad exterior spaces are graphically featured,
often without much alteration. However, recording techniques can considerably
transform our aural view of the sounds: exaggerated magnification can turn
peaceful bees into a threatening swarm, or allow us to perceive the finer
timbral changes of raindrops falling on a hollow ceramic pot. Empty Vessels can be regarded a series of episodes which have a
visual and experiential logic as a well as making musical sense. This is the
closest my music gets to composition based on the soundscape. In Tides the water-based proposition is clear enough, but the more
literal references are left behind as the concepts of ‘pool,’ ‘current,’ and
wave-shaped morphologies are developed more abstractly. With Pentes the only clear link with the real world is the Northumbrian
pipes, and so this piece is only scenic by analogy and metaphor — its
spectral energies and motions. With Base Metals, too,
the imagery is evoked by spaces and motion, quite remote from reality,
although the energetic metallic impacts, which act as reference-points, are a
type of sound we are all familiar with.
Quite noticeable in all these works is the absence of a human presence in
the sonic fabric. With the exception of the pipes in Pentes, a few distant traces of human activity near the start of
Empty Vessels, and possibly some reminders of
instrumentally instigated timbres in Base Metals, the
listener-spectator is left to observe and experience the scenes and spaces,
alone. Between and beyond the loudspeakers virtual, metaphorical worlds
approach and encroach in sonic flow, and are revealed for imaginative
contemplation.
Denis Smalley, London (England, UK)
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