One1A (1982) This was the first of my own compositions. Earlier, I had produced a version of Bach's Invention No. 4 and a very racy version of Ligeti's Continuum for Harpsichord (Actually there are 2 versions of this work. One from 1982 and another from 1985.)

In scoring this work, I used a matrix notation scheme showing where the notes would go according to the data structures I had to work with.
What I probably didn't realize at the time was how the mode of producing and performing the work inclined me towards a compressed compositional style. It was easy to run out of memory and together with the difficulty of entering the data, led to the work being unusually intense.

One1A

Two1A (1982) This is the second work and more ambitious in its compositional scheme than One1a. Same technical approach. I like this piece because it hints at a kind of extreme aesthetic that was just waiting to break out.

Two1A

Atlantic Fears (1983) This work was composed in late 1983 on a prototype instrument that I crudely constructed from an old upright piano. I can't remember how long I took to compose but it wasn't long just tedious. What was difficult about the compositional process was experimenting with the instrument without using the computer. The instrument was very primitive (as you can see by the photographs) with only one moving part, the hammer, which was activated by the computer and returned by spring. Not that efficient but simple. In order to hear what sounds were possible, I flicked the solenoids and listened as they hit the strings. Very crude performance technique considering the density of the final piece. There were no individual dampers on each hammer so the instrument could become very resonant very quickly. 2 large damper bars could be lowered onto the lower 2 ranks of strings to quell some of the sound but it was still resonant.
I also used a different scoring system developed by my brother-in-law, Chris Vaughan. Chris wrote a Basic program which interpreted a score format which could be assembled in a text editor. This allowed me to think on a more abstract and detailed compositional level. It also complimented the new interface hardware built by Harry Tagaris which at this pre-MIDI stage it was very sophisticated for the time. There were two wire-wrapped interface cards which could be "daisy chained" allowing the instruments and the computer to be conveniently positioned in relation to each other. Even after MIDI appeared it was still physically a faster communications system.

Existential Constellation

Atlantic Fears

Fantasie (1984) Fantasie was scored using two formats. For the first movement, I used a simple matrix scheme for time/pitch.The squares could be coloured to reflect dynamic differences. In the final section, I used standard notation. This proved to be difficult to translate but gave me a better idea of the kind of music I wanted to hear.
It's a fun kind of piece. It begins with an almost cliched kind of mechanical presentation which is eventually swamped as the voices accrue, closing with 8 parts, oscillating in octaves. The instrument tended to gently sway at this point. The final part sweeps away the idea of mechanical music as the intensity dissipates.

Fantasie

Variations for 2 Instruments (1984) Well, it ultimately had to happen. Two instruments at once. This was an awkward to compose for simply because of the instrumental configuration. Fortunately, I had both instruments in the one place at the time and was able to move the computer around often enough to get an idea of how the piece was developing.
The modified instrument was used with the damper bars down occasionally. This created a kind of pitched drumming sound that I would have liked to have explored in more detail in another work. But alas...
Another interesting effect that I discovered was that I could delay data to one instrument by a certain duration which resulted in a kind of echo effect. However, it also meant that the piece slowed down in tempo. One of the side effects of using a slow 8 bit machine.

Variations for 2 Instruments

Tales from Transitions (1986) This tale is one of a number that I recorded as they were algorithmic composition. I wrote a program in Pascal which played the instruments from a set of data which was manipulated in real-time. Algorithmic composition becomes very attractive when you realize that both the composition and the performance can become part of the fun of writing a program. That's assuming one likes writing programs.
I was to later spend a lot of time programming script languages to process audio signals (see CD "42" for a collection of works in this genre and my PhD dissertation, chapter 4.)

Tales from Transitions

Black Moon Assails (1987)This work is the last and most extreme work I was to produce for the modified instrument and in fact, it was all performed on the lowest two octaves of the instrument. In 1988 I cannibalised both mechanisms in order to build the Meta-Action which to date has not been explored to its full potential.
Black Moon Assails was a radical departure from the other works for a number of reasons. Perhaps this was stimulated by the fact that I used a new computer called an Amiga which I bought in 1986. This computer was the way of the future in 1986 being more powerful and user-friendly than my previous 8 bit micro.
The work is also a live improvisation where I played the computer keyboard to make the sounds. From computer only performance, I had progressed to performer machine interaction and it was certainly one of the strangest compositions to come from that kind of collaboration in 1987.
The mechanical details and performance technique are extensively discussed in my MA thesis which you can access right here.

Alistair Riddell

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