World Premiere: Recording of Performance by the New York Philharmonic for the Contact! Series Concert on Friday, December 21, 2012.  Conducted by Jayce Ogren

Composed by Andy Akiho: Sept.-Oct., 2012

Oscillate (NY Philharmonic Premiere)

Three Shades, Foreshadows is a cello solo with stereo digital playback written for Mariel Roberts. The live solo part is often shadowed, or mimicked by the other three electronic parts.

The title and much of the material was inspired by Auguste Rodin’s sculpture “The Three Shades” – a sculpture composed of three identical bronze casts positioned so that the viewer can observe multiple perspectives simultaneously. My goal was to create a similar effect acoustically while blurring any distinction between the live performer and the three digital playback parts.

Every live sound that is being created by the performer is also present in the electronics part, and every available sound of the electronics part is a sample from the acoustic cello. This was achieved by recording Mariel executing isolated percussive sounds across the entire range of the instrument. These samples included scratch sounds, col legno battuto attacks, pizzicati, snap pizzicati, clothespin-prepared string pizzicati, knocks/slaps on the wood and strings, and perpendicular bowing on the bridge. The samples were then combined to form impossible, superhuman hyper-rhythms in the electronics part, thus creating a quartet of mimicking shadows with the live cello part.

The piece begins with pizzicati on strings prepared with mini-clothespins attached near the base of the fingerboard – a technique that was introduced to me by composer colleague Christopher Stark in the summer of 2011. The preparations create bell-like tones that sound very similar to tuned gongs. Throughout the rest of the work, one clothespin remains on the highest string, so that the open-stringed pizzicato serves as a recurring gamut.

To replicate the spatial relationship of different angles in Rodin's sculpture, the electronic playback makes use of panning/stereo effects to resemble three different acoustic perspectives. The live cello is acoustically in the center, while the digital playback is spread in three-dimensions between extreme left, right, and center. This further enhances the kaleidoscopic effect where the performer and electronics interact to move the audience’s focus and perspective back and forth throughout the piece.

Audio available on innova Recordings #247 - Mariel Roberts - Nonextraneous Sounds

Three Shades Foreshadows (Sample)

Described as "mold-breaking," "alert and alive," "dramatic," and "vital" by The New York Times, Andy Akiho is an eclectic composer and performer of contemporary classical music. Recent engagements include commissioned premieres by the New York Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and Carnegie Hall's Ensemble ACJW; a performance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic; and three concerts at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Akiho has been recognized with awards including the 2014-15 Luciano Berio Rome Prize, the 2015 Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund, a 2014 Fromm Foundation Commission from Harvard University, the 2014 American Composers Orchestra Underwood Emerging Composers Commission, a 2014 Chamber Music America (CMA) Grant with the Friction Quartet and Jenny Q. Chai, a 2012 CMA Grant with Sybarite5, the 2012 Carlsbad Composer Competition Commission for the Calder Quartet, and the 2011 Finale & ensemble eighth blackbird National Composition Competition Grand Prize. Additionally, his compositions have been featured on PBS's "News Hour with Jim Lehrer" and by organizations such as Bang on a Can, American Composers Forum, and The Society for New Music.

Oscillate (NY Philharmonic Premiere)

Andy Akiho

Recent comments

ericlindsay

Related tracks