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heard (live)

from Chambers by Ryan Patrick Maguire

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about

All of the musical material in "Heard, for solo piano" was derived from a field recording of a herd of cows during a summer thunderstorm. Last year, I was given a book and CD published by David Dunn, entitled "Why Do Whales and Children Sing?". The disc contained a collection of field recordings made by David and his friends. One, in particular, caught my ear. Set against the ambient backdrop of a passing summer thunderstorm was the plinking melody of cowbells, drifting slowly around the listener. I could almost smell the pasture.

Working in the recording studio, I took a section of this field recording and slowed it down to 1/32nd of its original speed, dropping the pitch two octaves as well. I then copied this and dropped the pitch of the copy another 2 octaves. Layering these two time-stretched recordings on top of one another, I used heavy reverberation and selective filtering to bring out the overtones of the various bells. The result was a soundscape of shifting harmonies creating a subtle, fluid structure. This recording became the basis for the piece you hear today.

After creating a patch in Pure Data to automatically transcribe the pitch content of the new recording, I scanned the sound file by ear. The piano score was created by listening very carefully for steady pitches, checking it against what the computer had "heard", and notating what I believed to be the best overall representation. The result is a crystalline distillation of David's field recording and I hope captures something of its aura, in addition to the pitches and rhythms of that summer scene.

*This work was commissioned by the Wisconsin Alliance for Composers with the generous support of the Wisconsin Arts Board.

credits

from Chambers, track released October 21, 2012
Jeri-Mae Astolfi, piano

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Ryan Patrick Maguire Chicago, Illinois

RPM is an audiovisualist searching for signals in static.


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