Jeremy C. Baguyos
Double Bassist and Computer Musician
"UNCOILED OSCILLATIONS"
Music for Double Bass and Computer
Assisted by Chryssie Nanou, Piano
1) Uncoiled Oscillations (2004) by Samuel Burt
2) One More Time With Feeling (2004) by Jeremy C. Baguyos
3) Music For Double Bass and Computer STD I "SOF"(2005) by Andrew Seager Cole
4-5) Ripped-up Maps (1997/2003) by Andrew May
6) Museau de Singe (2003) by Robert Hamilton (with Chryssie Nanou, piano)
Recorded and produced at the Computer Music Studios of the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
Additional recordings at CCRMA, Stanford University, California, USA
Additional production at CCMIX, Paris, FRANCE
Engineers: Andrew Cole, Samuel Burt, Robert Hamilton, Chryssie Nanou
Producer: Jeremy and Sara Baguyos, OCD Media
OCD Media / OObermusik 2005
http://ocdmedia.net
(This album was initially released on May 1, 2005, late 20th-century-style on a physical CD with paper liner notes and hard plastic standard jewel case.)
PROGRAM NOTES
Track 1: Uncoiled Oscillations (2004) was written by Samuel Burt (b. 1980). A performer once described Samuel Burt's music as "inhuman." After admitting that the piece was indeed playable, she discovered it demanded that she abandon many former preconceptions of performance practice and adopt new methods of approaching instrument technique. In Uncoiled Oscillations, Burt chose to limit the bassist to perform only with the wood of the bow. The exclusive use of col legno focuses on the eccentric sounds that the double bass is capable of making but on which it so rarely dwells. Formal elements in Burt's music are also unconventional. He asks the listener to approach the music without expectations. The flow of the music, though superficially jagged and eventful in many places, is subtle with layers of independent processes creating compound forms. The content that underlies the unity in the piece is not immediately perceivable, producing a sensation of disparate events that somehow seem to all belong to the same family and a feeling of unpredictable inevitability. [5:18]
- - - - - notes by Samuel Burt
Track 2: One More Time With Feeling (2004) by J. Baguyos (b. 1968) is modeled on Richard Zvonar’s Two in the Hand. It uses MAX/MSP to capture improvisations and play back those improvisations as the performer continues to improvise. One More Time With Feeling, however, departs from the Zvonar model. The ambient background can toggle between fixed media drone and/or interactive sound. If the performer chooses the interactive option at any point in the piece, the ambient background can modify itself according to the performer’s intervallic predilections. In addition, the double bassist has the option of adding real-time processing to the double bass. The title alludes to the notion that an idea is being recycled (delay lines), but the performer along with the computer can attempt to add additional layers of subjectivity (improvisations and interactivity in the computer part). [8:54]
- - - - - notes by J. Baguyos
Track 3: Music for Bass and Computer: STD I “SOF” (2005) by Andrew S. Cole (b. 1980) was written using Csound, Metasynth, Digital Performer, Audacity, and MAX/MSP. The tape part features a contrast between thick drone-like textures created using granular synthesis and thinner more complex and chaotic sounds using a variety of DSP techniques. The bass is processed live by a comb filter to add a slight shine to the sound of the bass, particularly the col legno sections. The inspiration for the form and style of the piece was provided by a recording of Tibetan religious music. The main melodic line is influenced by a whale song. [8:36]
- - - - - notes by Andrew Seager Cole
Track 4/5: Ripped-up Maps (1997/2003) by Andrew May (b. 1968) is an environment for improvisation by violinist (or solo instrumentalist) and computer together. Each conditions the other: the computer decides on its behavior based on the actions of the player, who in turn must respond to the machine's actions and predilections in order to guide the machine through the piece. The computer switches abruptly between four very different states of behavior (it's a very moody and temperamental computer part). In each state, the computer has a different rationale for how and when to switch to another state based on what it "hears." The player can suggest, but cannot command. The performer can also shape the computer's "instrument" by giving it new samples to use (the piece may begin with the computer silent, or with a set of sounds pre-loaded). The title of the piece refers to the process of mapping by which input data about the violinist's playing are correlated with output--creating tunes, patterns, and tendencies whose shapes may be ripped apart at the continental divides. [20:38]
- - - - - notes by Andrew May
Track 6: Museau de Singe (2003) by Robert Hamilton (b. 1973) is an interactive work for double bass, piano, and live computer processing. In Museau, the composer wanted to create an environment within which the computer could extend the capabilities of both the bass and piano, while at the same time retaining the elements that make each instrument unique. The voice of the double bass is transformed into a hyper-bass of sorts, with no constraints on duration or pitch. The piano’s voice is similarly released from the restrictive decay of its strings to be heard at tempi and pitches previously unimaginable. By realizing the computer’s voicing in a vertical-quadraphonic soundscape, he attempted to introduce a new dimension to the performance, that of motion. The technical goal of Museau was to create a flexible audio-processing architecture that would afford the user complete pitch and spatial control over short sample sets of the live instruments. To this end, the composer utilized multiple instantiations of Max/MSP’s poly~ object to allow either individual or group manipulation of each sample or sample set. By introducing randomized dynamically generated buffer~ objects alongside a fully scripted computer performance score, a balance between deterministic and indeterminist events was achieved. [12:04]
- - - - - - - - - - notes by Robert Hamilton
Chryssie Nanou, piano
$ USD
