Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V0Jk6etzw8

soprano saxophone: Julian Velasco
alto saxophone: Joe Connor
tenor saxophone: Chris Forbes
baritone saxophone: David Schreck

written: 2019-2020
recorded May 20th, 2021 at Evanston SPACE

minus (2020, for saxophone quartet and electronics)

Episode 171 of ADJ•ective New Music's podcast, Lexical Tones. Robert McClure interviews composer, performer, and designer Douglas McCausland. https://www.douglas-mccausland.net

Visit www.adjectivenewmusic.com for more information about ADJ•ective New Music, the ADJ•ective Composers' Collective, and Lexical Tones.

171 - Douglas McCausland

rapid change, anxiety, and exhaustion. 

ScoreFollower video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMoZCoctIGU

cello - Seth Parker Woods
Recorded at Northwestern University in November of  2021.

STRIX (2021, for cello and electronics)

video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zeVTkOYe-E&t

a structured improvisation composed for the experimental duo: MOUTHS 
(Elliott Lupp and Kristopher Bendrick)

Commissioned by: ASCAP/SEAMUS

erase-repeat (2020, for E. Guitar, Viola, and Live/Fixed Electronics)

Out from Under (composition)

Vox and live processed electronics
Composed by Brian Riordan 
https://www.brianriordanmusic.com/
Commissioned and performed by Anna Elder

Succubus by Brian Riordan

commissioned by and written for Collective LoveMusic as part of their "Premieres in Private Places" series.

for video, tape, and flexible ensemble

for visual see this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVfJaQL5ohw&ab_channel=KelleySheehan


program notes:
What are brainzaps? You might also hear them referred to as “brain shocks,” “brain flips,” or “brain shivers.” Often described as feeling like brief electric jolts to the head that sometimes radiate to other body parts. Others describe it as feeling like the brain is briefly shivering. Not a painful sensation but certainly a jolt to the system. ​

BrainZaps (2020) for flexible ensemble, tape, and video

4K Video: https://youtu.be/fXtqIpnBt0c

//

Program Note:

Convergence is a work composed for augmented double-bass and electronics performer in third-order ambisonics, which explores numerous concepts including the interactivity and agency between acoustic / electronic elements, and the interplay of gesture and musical materials in three-dimensional space. Convergence is the second piece in a small collection of works developed for five-string double-bass and ambisonic electronics, in collaboration with bassist Aleksander Gabryś.

In order to perform Convergence, the bass is outfitted with eight microphones placed at various points across the body of the instrument. This causes the physical actions of the bassist to correspond not only to specific sounds / timbres, but also to discrete points in space. However, this perceptual mapping is then manipulated and paired against new electronically generated materials in real-time by an electronics performer using a pair of bespoke electronic performance interfaces, MH & CH. MH is constructed out of a metal frame which mounts to the palm; this structure places five 2-axis control sticks at the performer’s fingertips, as well as a ribbon sensor on the back of the hand, and a 3-axis accelerometer. Meanwhile, CH is constructed with flex sensors, which provide data about the bending of individual fingers, and another 3-axis accelerometer. Both of these controllers feed into machine-learning processes (made with the ml.star package for Max/MSP and Wekinator) which allow for the classification of a number of gestures, as well as shaping the sometimes chaotic control data.

All of these ideas collide in a densely chaotic and gestural work which encourages both performers to push their respective limits musically and technically while interacting with a performance system that encourages intricate and nimble musical interactions. In working with Aleksander, we developed a set of expectations and rules which governed the performance, and which allowed for occasionally subtle, and sometimes pronounced shifts in our musical roles. Convergence also makes use of an audio score paired with visual cues, which is visible to the performers on a small screen nearby. Ultimately, the chaotic nature of the work gives both performers agency to explore the sonic and performative extremes of this complex system, as well as the liminal spaces which exist in-between.

//

Additional Technical Notes:

Both Convergence and its companion piece Conduit make use of some fixed-media sound, as well as a microphone array, which was developed and recorded with the assistance of Mr. Gabryś in January 2020 at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford University. In order to create this system, eight microphones were placed at various points across the body of a five-string double-bass. Each of these microphone inputs were then spatialized into a three-dimensional “exploded map" of the instrument using the ICST Ambisonics Package in Max/MSP. In addition to placing the listener “inside” of the fragmented instrument, this technique also allows for physical gesture, and sound produced all over the instrument to correspond to literal points in space. In both Convergence and Conduit, this technique is further employed in real-time, in third-order and fifth-order ambisonics respectively.

The microphone array was achieved with the following microphone models and placements:

2x DPA 4099 Microphones
One placed at the primary point of bow contact (near the bridge) on the strings
The other placed at the top of the fingerboard

4x AKG C411 Condenser Vibration Microphones
Placed in a “four-corners” pattern on the front of the instrument, with two on
opposite sides of the upper bout, and the other two on opposite sides of the
lower bout.

2x Schertler Bass Pickup Microphones
One attached directly to the bridge
The other attached directly to the tailpiece

Convergence (2020) // Binaural Audio

electric guitar, max msp, wekinator 

Improvising on electric guitar. All sounds come from max msp which has been trained using machine learning on open guitar strings and various pitches. Max Msp/wekinator is listening to e. gtr and responding as it was trained to do. This makes for an interesting improvisation enviroment.

Slightly more info here: https://www.kelleysheehan.com/othermachines

Other Machines

O nobilissima viriditas is a poem written by Hildegard of Bingen, and one of her most frequently set texts. The text exploits one of Hildegard's favorite pieces of imagery - connecting the fresh, green life of nature and the sun's warmth to the Holy Trinity in Christianity. This setting explores the phonemes, or the different sounds that set words apart from one another, of Barbara Newman's English translation. The different sounds of the text can be heard transitioning between the live vocal part and the germinal material of the electronics.

Most noble evergreen
with your roots in the sun:
you shine in the cloudless
sky of a sphere
no earthly eminence can grasp,
enfolded in the clasp
of ministries divine.
You blush like the dawn,
you burn like a flame of the sun.
(Hildegard of Bingen, trans. Barbara Newman)

O Nobilissima Viriditas

O nobilissima viriditas

Douglas McCausland is a composer / performer, sound designer, and digital artist whose visceral and often chaotic works explore the extremes of sound, technology, and the digital medium.

As an artist, he researches and leverages the intersections of numerous technologies and creative practices, such as real-time electronic music performance with purpose-built interfaces, spatial audio, interactive systems, intermedia art, musical applications of machine-learning, experimental sound design, and hardware-hacking.

Described as “Tremendously powerful, dark, and sometimes terrifying…” (SEAMUS) and “Ruthlessly visceral…” (The Wire), his works have been performed internationally, including features at Sonorities, SEAMUS, the San Francisco Tape Music Festival, MISE-EN Music Festival, Klingt Gut!, Sounds Like THIS!, NYCEMF, Sonicscape, and Ars Electronica.  Recent collaborations include artists such as bassist Aleksander Gabryś, cellist Seth Parker Woods, the Quasar Saxophone Quartet, the TAK Ensemble, and vocal ensemble Variant 6.  His work is available through various online platforms, and on SEAMUS, Plyta Z Audiomatu, and Jikken Records.

Recent honors include an award of distinction in the 2021 Prix Ars Electronica for his piece “Convergence”, winning 1st-Prize in the 2021 ASCAP/SEAMUS commission competition, the gold-prize award for “contemporary computer music” in the Verband Deutscher Tonmeister Student 3D Audio Production Competition, and being awarded the runner-up nomination for the International Confederation of Electroacoustic Music's 2019 CIME Prix. 

Douglas is currently the Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) Studio Manager at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.  He holds a DMA in music composition from Stanford University, where he studied with Chris Chafe, Patricia Alessandrini, Jaroslaw Kapuscinski, Fernando Lopez-Lezcano, and Mark Applebaum.  He additionally holds a MSc in Digital Composition and Performance from the University of Edinburgh, a MM in Music Composition from Michigan State University, and a BM in Music Composition, Saxophone Performance, and Music Education from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

Convergence (2020) // Binaural Audio

Douglas McCausland

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