Colin McAllister - electric guitar

This work explores the idea of ‘fuzzy’ downbeats, cloud-like pulses that serve not only to synchronize the performer with the electronics, building composite timbre structures, but to also create illusions of agency between the guitarist’s actions and the electronics. As well, the acoustic expectations of the electric guitar become circumvented by amplifying the electric guitar only to the level of an acoustic guitar, providing a parallel intimacy with an acoustic guitar. Finally, coupled with an imperceptible acceleration, I explore the expressive idea of “moving forward but going nowhere,” a type of busy ambient music. 

My work is rarely political or engages with social issues. However, this piece began in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and I believe this global event has revealed deep inequalities in social economic status within our communities. While this work is not meant to be any direct commentary on these serious issues, I wanted to at least provide a personal musical reflection.

PoseVIII: revealing the divide (2021) - electric guitar and electronics

UnRavel (2009) - Violin, Ondes Martenot Samples and Live Electronics

Horizontal and Vertical Forces (2014) - Stereo Soundfile

I am not an island (etude on orchestra) - 2023 

The work began as an acoustic orchestra piece composed for the Dresden Philharmonie in 2012. I was not satisfied with the outcome of the composition but was always interested in using the reference recording as the basis for an acousmatic work to achieve what I truly imagined. Much of the material has been altered so as to not represent the original. The work was composed in studios at my home and at the University of Victoria. 

In the design by Gottfried Semper for the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, Wagner hid the orchestra underneath a hood so that the orchestra would be completely hidden from the audience. For Wagner, this made the audience focus on the drama on the stage rather than be distracted by the musicians. To me, this is a form of acousmatic experience whereby source and cause are severed. The sound and aura of an orchestra is engrained into our consciousness. Playing with this attachment formed the initial aesthetic impulse for the work. "I am not an island (etude on orchestra)” presents an Invisible and imagined orchestra, where the limitations of the acoustic sources are abandoned and the recognizability of the orchestral sound world is distorted.

I am not an island (etude on orchestra) - (2023)

Ksana I (2014) - for orchestra

Ilana Waniuk - violin

Pose IX: Chorus, uses the ‘Chorus’ audio effect as a metaphor for instrumental composition. The work is intended for a solo violinist, or violinist working with an electronic producer, to record and layer four different violin parts to create the electronics of the work. These parts derive from pitch, rhythmic, and timbral variations of the live solo violin. Alternatively, the work may be played as a violin choir with violin solo. While many violins sound in the final work, I strove to explore the space between harmony and timbre, counterpoint and the ‘fuzzy’ unison. The work is dedicated to and written for Ilana Waniuk.

Pose IX: Chorus (2024) - for amplified violin and multitracked violin (live recording)

Performed by Ensemble contemporain de Montréal - conducted by Véronique Lacroix

Ksana II (2014) - for Ten Instruments - Ensemble Contemporaine de Montréal

Commission by and written for the Blueridge Chamber Music Festival - Sonic Story Brook, new chamber works inspired by children's stories.
Flute, Paolo Bortolussi
Clarinet, Liam Hockley
Cello, Jonathan Lo
Accordion, Taras Luka
Vibraphone, Katie Rife
Piano, Manuel Laufer

recorded by  Piotr Wieczorek

--
Notes
The book, “The little engine that could,” is used to teach children the value of optimism and the belief in one’s ability to complete difficult tasks. It was my favorite book as a child. As adults, we still need to be reminded to believe in ourselves.

i think i can (or the importance of self-efficacy) (2024) - for sextet and localized electronics

Life repeats what is similar, never the same. The repetition of the same material, slightly altered with each iteration, engenders the feeling of going nowhere, yet simultaneously, progressing. 

Recorded live on December 7, 2024 at MacEwan University, Edmonton, Alberta

UltraViolet:
Roger Admiral - piano
Chenoa Anderson - flute
Allison Balcetis - saxophone
Mark Segger - percussion

Recording: Nicolas Arnaez

This performance was made possible with support from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts

Slightly Altered Suns (2024) - for mixed quartet, UltraViolet Ensemble

Performance: January 29, 2019 - Packard Hall, Colorado College

Performed by:
Susan Grace - Piano
Jane Rigler - Flute and tap shoes
Sergei Vassiliev - Clarinet and tap shoes
Martha Muehleisen - Violin and tap shoes
Jane Chan - Violoncello and tap shoes
Colin McAllister - Conductor

Commissioned by the Turning Point Ensemble

On The Sensations of Tone  #1 (2015. revised 2019)- for Pierrot Quintet

Performed by the Ensemble Experimental and the SWR Experimentalstudio
conductor: Detlef Heusinger

Un/Divided (2015) - for Sextet, Contralto and Live-electronics - SWR Ensemble Experimental

Performed by the New Music Concerts Ensemble in Toronto conducted by Robert Aitken

On the Sensations of Tone II (2016) - for Eight Low Instruments and Electronics

Noam Bierstone - Percussionist in Piano
Anthony Tan - Electronics
Recorded and Engineered by Will Howie

PoseIV: in situ (2016, rev. 2018) - for piano and electronics - Noam Bierstone - Studio Recording

Jane Chan - Cello
Anthony Tan - Electronics

The pitch material for this work utilizes a melody derived from 11th century mystic, polymath, visionary, and composer Hildegard von Bingen’s O ignee Spiritus.  I attempt to transform a monophonic (single-voice) melody, into an aggregate vertical structure. Using strict rhythmic pulsation and a very simple sample and delay, I overlap the notes of the melody at different octaves in order to create harmonic and in-harmonic canons.  Aesthetically, my goal is to create a metaphorical space between meditation and violence.

PoseVI: Monody (after Hildegard)- for cello and electronics (2019) live recording

And/Or (2019) - 14 musicians and electronics - Turning Point Ensemble - live-recording

This work explores the micro-synchronicity within a pulsation to create timbral and musical situations that are:
organic and/or synthetic,
mechanical and/or lyrical,
symmetrical and/or asymmetrical,
integrated and/or separated,
on-the-beat and/or off-the-beat,



Performers: Turning Point Ensemble
Conductor: Owen Underhill
Electronics: Anthony Tan

And/Or (2019) - 14 musicians and electronics - Turning Point Ensemble

Ways of Returning (2020) - for string quartet and electronics
Part I (Imitation)
Part II (farbenfuge)
Part III (Monophony)

Performed by: Quatuor Bozzini
Electronics - Anthony Tan

Aesthetically, this work represents the mixing of the Classical String Quartet genre with Noise, and Dark Ambient genre signifiers. Theoretically, the work explores timbre through the historical abstraction of modal and tonal counterpoint. The first movement builds timbre through the imitation of acoustic strings by sampled, and synthetically modelled strings. The second movement is a timbre fugue. The third movement is an Industrial Ritual and explores the micro-synchronicity within a pulsation and its effect on timbral blend.

Ways of Returning (2020) - Part III (Monophony) - Quatuor Bozzini - Live Recording

Ways of Returning (2020) - for amplified string quartet and electronics
Part I (Imitation)
Part II (Farbenfuge)
Part III (Monophony)

Performed by: Quatuor Bozzini
Electronics - Anthony Tan

Aesthetically, this work represents the mixing of the Classical String Quartet genre with Noise, and Dark Ambient genre signifiers. Theoretically, the work explores timbre through the historical abstraction of modal and tonal counterpoint. The first movement builds timbre through the imitation of acoustic strings by sampled, and synthetically modelled strings. The second movement is a timbre fugue. The third movement is an Industrial Ritual and explores the micro-synchronicity within a pulsation and its effect on timbral blend.

Ways of Returning (2020) - Part II (farbenfuge) - Quatuor Bozzini - Live Recording

Ways of Returning (2020) - amplified string quartet and electronics
Part I (Imitation)
Part II (Farbenfuge)
Part III (Monophony)

Performed by: Quatuor Bozzini
Electronics - Anthony Tan

Aesthetically, this work represents the mixing of the Classical String Quartet genre with Noise, and Dark Ambient genre signifiers. Theoretically, the work explores timbre through the historical abstraction of modal and tonal counterpoint. The first movement builds timbre through the imitation of acoustic strings by sampled, and synthetically modelled strings. The second movement is a timbre fugue. The third movement is an Industrial Ritual and explores the micro-synchronicity within a pulsation and its effect on timbral blend.

Anthony Tan

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