CNMAT Flashback

A look back at some items in our archives.

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Archive[s]

Program Note:

The conductor raises his arm to cue the entrance of yet another majestic Russian
tune. The French horn prepares for its solo – The solo. It’s the finale of the Firebird.

In the absence of sound, a conductor’s gesture may be perceived as performative, bordering on absurd. It was Stravinsky’s

Project

Losing Touch

Losing Touch (duration 11') for vibraphone and fixed electronics was composed in 1994. The piece is published by Billaudot Editions (Catalog #GB7027) in Paris (Theodor Presser, US representative). A complete published edition with rehearsal CD and mono performance tape is available for student performance from several on-line dealers.

Project

Paper Speakers

This project explores the technical, design, and aesthetic possibilities of 2-D, flexible audio speaker technology. The premise underlying this exploration is the idea that sound can be thought of as a physically immediate, transparent and embodied material. The end goal for me is the use of this material for my art practice: Sound Art, Installation, and Composition.

Project

Patagon

Patagón is the ancient, archaic name for the land of Patagonia. My newer compositions increasingly link to nature and landscape, and this latest string quartet evokes the idea of the far away, the other-worldly, and the remote.

Project

Pianos

Pianos is a concerto for solo piano/sampler keyboard and large chamber ensemble with extensive live electronics. Performed by renowned (former Regent’s Lecturer) Gloria Cheng, the piece is a collaboration with UC Berkeley’s Center for New Music and Audio
Technologies (CNMAT), and makes use of an extensive archive of sampled piano recordings.

Project

La mar amarga

la mar amarga (2007) for piano trio
music by Cindy Cox
Graeme Jennings, violin, Leighton Fong, cello, and Christopher Jones, piano
photo from Sensitive Chaos by Theodor Schenk (Rudolph Steiner Press, 1965)

Project

The Shape of the Shell

Cindy Cox, The Shape of the Shell (2010) for audio tape
text by John Campion
bass clarinet/voice by Laura Carmichael

My daughter brought a shell and bade me put my ear to it:
—That’s the sound of the ocean, I said.
—Is the ocean inside of it, she asked?
—The shape of the shell causes the sound, I said.

Project

…sicut aurora procedit (2015)

…sicut aurora procedit is the composition created by Maija Hynninen for a multidisciplinary work Pix grace – Rosin. The work was conceived by violinist Mirka Malmi, composer Maija Hynninen and aerialist Ilona Jäntti during 2013–15. Interaction between the group members was tight, each producing demo material for the rest of the group to see and discuss. The name Rosin came from the idea of rosin combining the two, violinist and aerialist. By friction rosin creates a contact surface between the bow and strings, the hands of the aerialist and the trapeze.

Project

Hypochondriasis (2014)

Hypochondriasis is for chin (guqin) and live electronics. Chin is an ancient Chinese 7-string zither normally played by plucking with fingers. This piece is my first work to use electronics. For the first experiment on electronics, I choose the chin as the instrument since it’s one of the instruments I’m familiar with. However, the chin is a very personal instrument due to its soft volume and subtle timbral changes, so amplification becomes an important element and thus creates a new kind of environment, an augmented chin.

Project

Pianos (2013)

Cindy Cox, Pianos

Concerto solo piano/sampler keyboard, twelve musicians, and live electronics 

I. Dark, Racing

II. Mercurial

III. Quirky, like a turning wheel

IV. Slowly revolving, wistful

V. Brash 

Project

Language of Dreams (2013)

Myra Melford composer and artistic director, with David Szlasa - video, Oguri - dance, Sofia Rei  - spoken word and Snowy Egret: Ron Miles (cornet), Stomu Takeishi (bass guitar), Liberty Ellman (guitar) and Tyshawn Sorey (drums) and Myra Melford (piano, sampler and melodica)

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