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electroradio
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Composer: Paul Dolden Premiere: November 12, 1989, The Banff Centre for the Arts (Banff, Alberta, Canada) The title is only a loose reference to the story in the bible. What interests me about the story is the idea of a large mass of people knocking down a wall through the use of sound. The story gives credence to the notion of music as a catalyst for social change. Beyond the sheer physical impact that a large number of sounds contain, music is a form of language which is capable of stimulating thought. The power of music lies in the simultaneous physical and intellectual seduction of the listener. In the composition, four hundred tracks of sound are often assembled to create the sense of a large mass. Three hundred and thirty-three tracks are created by dividing each of the seven octaves into forty-eight notes. Brass, string and wind instruments from the Western musical tradition and from other cultures are combined to create these textures. The remaining tracks are made from unpitched percussion instruments. This working method allows each track to have its own identity in terms of frequency and tempo. The relationship between each individual layer and the mass effect can act as a metaphor for the relationship between the individual and society. Beyond the music, the metaphor suggests questions of the nature of the walls we have to tear down in order for our culture to move forward. Recorded musicians
Below the Walls of Jericho was realized in 1988-89 at the composer’s studio and was premiered on November 12th, 1989 during the CEC Electroacoustic Days, >convergence<, at the Margaret Greenham Theatre of The Banff Centre for the Arts—as the Berlin wall began to tumble down. The version of this work for percussion and tape, Luminous Hysteresis, was commissioned by percussionist Trevor Tureski with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. Below the Walls of Jericho won 1st prize in the Electroacoustic category of the Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition (Bourges, France, 1990). This work was reprocessed, remixed and remastered in the composer’s studio in 2001-02. 2. Gravity’s Stillness. Resonance #6 (1996) 14m36s imed_0369-1.2 | 13941 | ISRC CAD500316680violin (or viola), and tape Composer: Paul Dolden Julie-Anne Derome: violin Commission: Rivka Golani, with support from the CCA Premiere: June 11, 1999, Salle Tudor (Montréal, Québec) The work is based on fairy simple melodic and harmonic ideas. The interest for me in this type of work is to use the recording studio to create a series of distinct sound worlds, or orchestrations, based on these melodic and harmonic ideas. The tape becomes the catalyst for creating the changes in mood and tone. The live soloist repeatedly states the melodic ideas in a simple to very virtuosic manner. Recorded musicians:
Gravity’s Stillness. Resonance #6 was realized in 1996 at the composer’s studio and was premiered by Julie-Anne Derome on June 11th, 1999 during a concert of the Trio Fibonacci at Salle Tudor in Montreal. The work was commissioned by violist Rivka Golani with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. This work was reprocessed, remixed and remastered in the composer’s studio in 2001-02. 3. Caught in an Octagon of Unaccustomed Light (1987-88) 16m01s imed_0369-1.3 | 13942 | ISRC CAD500316690Composer: Paul Dolden Commission: David Olds / CKLN FM with the support from the Ontario Arts Council Premiere: May 9, 1988, (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) The composition continues the composer’s development of a musical language based on the colour of unusual or unaccustomed acoustic sounds. In this case, the predominant use of inharmonic timbres (metal, multiphonics, and a non-octave tuning system) creates the language that for the most part our musical tradition has ignored. A series of five sections, each of which is based on specific sound sources, has the listener “caught” by their interactions. Musical continuity is maintained by the reuse of similar gestures, colours and tuning system. Overall structural integrity is achieved through a palindromic ordering of the sections. For example, the first and fifth sections use the same sound world, and likewise the second and fourth sections use another sound world. The third or middle section contains aspects of both sound groupings. Recorded musicians:
Caught in an Octagon of Unaccustomed Light was realized in 1987-88 at the composer’s studio and was premiered on May 9, 1988 on CKLN FM in Toronto. The concert premiere took place on May 15, 1988 at the Bathurst Street Theatre in Toronto, a concert produced by the artist thanks to the CAPAC Micheline Coulombe Saint-Marcoux Composition Competition which paid for a concert in the city of the composer’s choosing. The work was commissioned by David Olds (for Toronto’s CKLN FM program Transfigured Night) with the support of the Ontario Arts Council. Caught in an Octagon of Unaccustomed Light won the Prize of the Luigi Russolo International Competition (Varese, Italy, 1988). This work was reprocessed, remixed and remastered in the composer’s studio in 2001-02. 4. The Vertigo of Ritualized Frenzy. Resonance #4 (1996) 13m17s imed_0369-1.4 | 13943 | ISRC CAD500316700reed instrument and/or piano (or accordion), and tape Composer: Paul Dolden François Houle, clarinet; Leslie Wyber, piano Much of my work begins by using the tape medium to create musical situations and dialogues that would not be possible with a fixed live ensemble. In this case the live duo are confronted with jazz, rock or chamber music created by various string, metal, or wind orchestras. At times the live parts seem independent of the tape and at other times the two elements dissolve into each other. These different allusions to musical reality are based on a very simple melody which keeps coming back in an almost irritating manner.
Recorded musicians: 5. In the Natural Doorway I Crouch (1986-87) 15m01s imed_0369-1.5 | 13944 | ISRC CAD500316710Composer: Paul Dolden Commission: GMEB Premiere: January 31, 1988, En Torno a los Sonidos Electrónicos, Museo Rufino Tamayo (Mexico City, Mexico) In the Natural Doorway I Crouch is inspired by the interaction of the two distinct sound worlds: plucked metal strings, and wind instruments. The composition is divided into three sections of 3, 5 and 7 minutes, each of which explores the relationship between the sound worlds as they are constantly changing. This movement in sound is evoked by the title which suggests the transformations from one state to another, as in a doorway that acts as a passageway between areas of sound. In most cases, the crouching is only momentary as we spring from one area to another. The tuning of the composition involves a system of Just Intonation, developed by the composer, in which the harmonics of the fundamental(s) are systematically changing register in relation to each other. Recorded musicians:
In the Natural Doorway I Crouch was realized in 1986-87 at the composer’s studio and at the Sonic Research Studio of Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. Research was completed in the Groupe de musique expérimentale de Bourges (GMEB — now IMEB — France) studios and at the EMS in Stockholm, Sweden. The work was premiered on January 31, 1988 during the international festival En Torno a Los Sonidos Electronicos in Mexico City (Mexico). The work was commissioned by the GMEB. A further commission from the Vancouver New Music Society resulted in Measured Opalescence, a mixed version of this work for piano, percussion and tape. In the Natural Doorway I Crouch won 1st prize in the Electroacoustic category of the Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition (Bourges, France, 1988). This work was reprocessed, remixed and remastered in the composer’s studio in 2001-02. electrocd.com Paul Dolden: Seuil de silences: track detail |
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