CAPTCHA for Baritone and Piano
Duration: 16'
Text by CAPTCHA
Performers: American Modern Ensemble, Jesse Blumberg, baritone; Blair McMillen, piano
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1473
Online Perusal Score: https://issuu.com/robertpaterson/docs/paterson_captcha_perusal
For More Information: https://robertpaterson.com/captcha-baritone-version

PROGRAM NOTES
CAPTCHA originated with an assignment I was given as a participant in the American Opera Projects (AOP) Composers & The Voice program. Throughout the year, we wrote a variety of arias and songs and were given various "challenges." Some of the challenges included using no more than four lines of text, using found text, using prose, and also trying to avoid the passagio (a term used in classical singing to describe where different voice ranges cross over, for example, where the chest voice and head voice cross). I neglected to incorporate any of the challenges into previous pieces, and I only had one song or aria left, so I had to incorporate all of the remaining challenges into a single piece.

For found text, I decided to use CAPTCHA texts. The term CAPTCHA (for Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart) was coined in 2000 by scientists at Carnegie Mellon University. A CAPTCHA is a program that protects websites against bots by generating and grading tests that only humans can pass. For example, humans can read distorted text presented as a graphic, but current computer programs cannot. To find interesting words and phrases, I spent many tedious hours in front of my computer loading CAPTCHA texts. Actually, what I ended using are reCAPTCHA texts, which are derived from a free version of CAPTCHA that uses combinations of real words from scanned books that need human confirmation and gibberish text.

I initially wrote one song entitled CAPTCHA, but later decided to compose an entire song cycle that incorporates the original song. Each songs uses a few key words (the few that are actually real words and phrases) as a springboard. I attempt to phonetically interpret the other words and phrases that don’t make sense, infusing emotion where none exists. Ultimately, my goal is to create an emotionally moving experience, despite the nonsensical nature of the words.

Winter Songs

CAPTCHA - IV. voix Gustroor

A long-time fave/underappreciated number of ours, where my tongue in cheek rhymes set up Sweed's all jokes aside shit as nicely as ever.   the Tres Hombre of the Feloniou$ Munks, Dewdrow Mann, stepped up to save the chorus from my failing falsetto & drop a few voice overs to add the icing on this cake, boss.

Hope you all catch as big a lift from it as we did getting it done;  with the back & forth bass riff to guitar melody,  i always found it an easy song to bounce along with.

Produced by Spinman FInn
music composed by Orme / Krain
lyrics by Orme / Brewster
Background vox, courtesy, G. Lindo
Originally Produced by Spinner / Krainmaker
2016-25, Urban Must Music (SOCAN).
direct inquiries to spinmanfinn@gmail.com
finally followable on Twitter @SpinmanFinn #Death2theLoop
for sonic inspirations search Spinman Finnlist on youtube

Unknown album (5/14/2016 9:11:

No Struggle (f. Babyface Finnster & S'weed 'Chillus' Knox)

Written: 2018-19
Duration: ca. 25'
Commissioned by J.K. Billman
Premiere: Euclid Quartet, Mostly Modern Festival, Arthur Zankel Music Center, June 25, 2019
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com
For more info.: https://robertpaterson.com/string-quartet-no-2

PROGRAM NOTES
In some ways, String Quartet No. 2 is similar to my String Quartet No. 1: the five movements are stylistically diverse, I use a few snippets of pre-existing music, and the music, while idiomatic, is technically demanding. As with my first quartet, this work explores technical and aesthetic ideas I didn’t have a chance to explore in other works.

The first movement, Colored Fields, is inspired by abstract expressionist painters such as Mark Rothko, Kenneth Noland, and Barnett Newman, but also pointillist painters such as Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. There are textures that emerge and submerge using articulations that gradually shift from soft to loud, or short to long, and there are a few transitions that utilize a technique I call pitch phasing or phase modulation, as opposed to tempo phasing. In these transitions, two or more instruments gradually modulate (raise or lower) notes, motives, or phrases by gradual, very refined, microtonal, non-chromatic increments, settling on new pitch areas that directly reflect the previous areas, just modulated up or town. The movement ends softly with a virtual desaturation of the rhythmic material. I remove notes, one by one, until there’s nothing left.

The second movement, Rigor Mortis, is inspired by a comic strip by David Lynch that newspapers ran for many years. In this strip, Lynch sketched a stressed-out, pitch-black dog, looking very mean and almost buzzing with anger; it looked like it was about to explode. Every strip began with an accompanying paragraph that read, “The dog who is so angry he cannot move. He cannot eat. He cannot sleep. He can just barely growl. Bound so tightly with tension and anger, he approaches the state of rigor mortis.” This made me envision musicians playing with such ferocity and tension that the music seems to eventually cancel itself out, anger imploding in on itself.

The third movement, Dolente, is sad, lush, and mournful. The only request I had when writing this quartet was to incorporate a Norwegian fiddle tune or theme by Edvard Grieg, so I chose themes from Grieg’s String Quartet No. 1. The form of this movement mimics the form of a song by Edvard Grieg’s entitled Spillemaend (Minstrels, or Fiddlers). The poem that Grieg set in 1876 as the first of Six Ibsen Songs (Op. 25) is based on the Norwegian folktale of the fossegrim, a male water spirit who could teach the art of violin-playing, but often at the price of personal happiness. In some versions of the story, the poor violinist drowns in the end. Like the song, and echoing the second movement, this movement beginning with the protagonist’s longing, his desire for the beloved. Next, he encounters the fossegrim, who promises that becoming a master of music will allow the protagonist to become master of his beloved. In the final stanza, the protagonist becomes a master fiddler, but he is now a cursed, wandering musician deprived of earthly love, so he drowns himself.

The humorous fourth movement, Scherzando, capitalizes on effects that at times, often make the string players sound inebriated. I make use of copious glissandi and tempos that fluctuate between 3/4 and 6/8, giving a sense of unease.

The final movement, Collage, is similar to the first movement in that it is inspired by the visual arts, and specifically, collage painting and works by surrealists. Many themes from the first four movements are brought together in this odd-metered movement.

String Quartet No. 2 commissioned by J. K. Billman and is written for and dedicated to the Euclid Quartet.

The Indianapolis Quartet: Robert Paterson - String Quartets 1-3

String Quartet No. 2 - IV. Scherzando

FREE DOWNLOAD: https://pumpyoursound.com/f/pys/gamandellogate/90306

This song is inspired by what I remember of my early 80's as a kid.

FREE DOWNLOAD

[Electronic] - 1984 [FREE DOWNLOAD]

This is Actually a demo. It is my first time as a one man band man + "sound engineer", i have never recorded anything by myself before that.
Consider this demo as a proper experiment, a bunch of ideas. Enjoy and spread the word eheheheh

Caffellatio

From the album, “Wet Work (Vol. II)” A musical ode to the gals who strap on to go to work every day (strap on their HOLSTERS, I mean, whaddit ya think?)

Wet Work (Vol. II)

Dyke Cop

Buy it, now!

Cloud Walker

Automaton III: Turing's Rebirth

A song from the point of view of chaos.
To Purchase this track and album go to 
https://sonicsky.bandcamp.com/album/tremors

Call Me Chaos

Written: 2019-20
Duration: ca. 21'
Instrumentation: string quartet
Commissioned by The Indianapolis String Quartet
Premiere: The Indianapolis String Quartet, Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, New York, NY, March 5, 2020.
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/composers/robert-paterson/
For More Information: https://robertpaterson.com/string-quartet-no-3

PROGRAM NOTES
String Quartet No. 3 consists of five movements that explore “other voices,” either literally or figuratively. In a literal sense, this could mean speaking or singing in a way that is not considered normal or even out of one’s control. It could also mean speaking differently for a desired effect. Figuratively, “other voices” could mean a voice that is not one’s own. All five movements touch on these definitions in one way or another.

The first movement, Twist and Shout, uses musical patterns that sound like stuttering or someone who has a severe form of Tourette’s Syndrome. I use these sounds as a technical point of departure, incorporating jagged rhythms, erratic melodic patterns, and sudden volume shifts throughout the movement.

The second movement is entitled Poet Voice, and uses this style of reciting poems as a point of departure. In particular, this movement is based on a video of Louise Glück reading her poem “The Wild Iris,” which is included in a book of poems of the same name for which Glück won the Pulitzer Prize. Glück’s poem compares human suffering and finding a voice to the growth of a wild iris that makes a “passage from the other world” underground, despite the difficulty of breaking through. In the image of the wild iris, the explosion of color symbolizes new life. In this movement, I mimic Glück’s speech patterns and structure the movement around the sound of her voice and the content of her poem, essentially giving new life to her poetic reading. 

The third movement, Auction Chant, is inspired by North American auctioneering, which is a rapid-fire, rhythmic repetition of numbers and “filler words” spoken by auctioneers in the process of conducting an auction. This movement is also inspired by country fiddle music, which is a type of music often played in areas where auctioneering takes place.

In the fourth movement, Effects Pedal, I mimic sounds made by electronic effects pedals—and in particular, a vocal effects pedal, but without the use of actual electronic effects on the stringed instruments. I also use musical effects that sound somewhat like swallowing helium, which raises your voice when you inhale it, or sulfur hexafluoride, which lowers it.

The final movement is entitled Anthem. In this patriotic-sounding, yet slightly humorous movement, I weave together various sports themes and state songs from around the United States that are used to rile up fans at sports games.

String Quartet No. 3 was commissioned by The Indianapolis Quartet.

String Quartet No. 3 - V. Anthem

Rainfall

Original Rock from Cleveland.
Solo as Brian Teubl
Bands: HeraCyra and Sonic Sky

Call Me Chaos

Brian Teubl/Songwriter