Performed by Kamo Maraba on cello and live electronics in April 2022. Engineered by Jess Delacy.

This piece is based on the sports science theory by Izumi Tabata.

TABATA

Reflecting on Agnes Martin's Advice for Young Women Artists, this piece explores the oppression females faced and still face in the creative world. In order to show the "struggle against its own conditioning", the low-pass filter almost mutes the spoken voices. The spoken voices reveal themselves more throughout the piece with the gradual removal of the filter. As the voices are heard more, the distortion of the surrounding environment becomes more apparent, as the voices cause a disruption. The disruption is also heard in the bass guitar, which gradually moves down in pitch and eventually distorts. All samples used are from compositions by female composers (Anna Meredith and Errollyn Wallen). 
This is a solo piece for bass guitar and live electronics.

Performed by Holly Gowland in May 2022.

Femme

Outram is the first purely stand-alone electronic piece I have written and is also the maiden name of my grandma. She was a typist and an electrician when she was younger. Unfortunately, she recently got diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, so I wanted to write a piece that included audio samples that related to her past. As she did jobs that, at that time, were not usually occupied by women, I wanted to compare these samples to sound that linked to other stereotypically male jobs.
In order to develop my skills further, I explored the use of effects in this piece. Throughout the course of the piece, I use ping pong delay, normal delay, echo, a low-pass filter and two types of resonators. The rhythmic qualities of filament light and typewriter samples are explored at the start of the piece. The typewriter is also transposed to create an ascending feature. A resonator is then used to bring tonal qualities out of the rhythms. After the gradual increase of resonation, the resonator is used constantly on the main light fixture sample. A short typewriter sample with resonation then enters and repeats. As the light fixture sample loses resonation, anvil sounds begin to enter, initially reversed. This marks the movement into the section of stereotypically male job sounds. Supported by a low frequency from light fixtures, anvil and construction sounds use low-pass filters and retrograde to add rhythmic complexity, without the aid of any resonators. Marked by the introduction of ping pong delay onto anvil samples, the light fixtures re-enter, slowly gaining in resonance. The piece ends with a morphing of both light fixture and reversed anvil samples.

OUTRAM

Lost Frequencies explores the relation between synthetic human sound and natural frequencies. The piece orientates around the natural sounds of the Earth's atmosphere: whistler, chorus and hiss waves. Satellite sounds blend in and out with these sounds, as the piece becomes more synthetic throughout the piece, providing a microcosm of our own world.

This piece is for stereo sound and diffusion (if live).

Lost Frequencies

This recording is taken from a performance at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) in Manchester, UK on 18th May 2019. It was performed by Alexandra Clarke (flute) and Jerome Ness (Guitar).

This piece is about the life of my dog who passed away early 2019 due to heart failure. I therefore used her life journey for the structure of my piece in dedication to her. The piece is in 4 movements with each one gradually getting slower in tempo. It is also based on the flute melody at the start that takes different transformations throughout the piece both rhythmically and melodically.

The movements follow her life chronologically with the first movement being about her lively early years and therefore having a faster tempo and a lot of disjunct movement in both parts but mainly the flute. In the andante, though the guitar initially brings a major accompaniment, it quickly turns into a loud frantic solo, which has crotchet-quaver bass notes thus showing breathlessness. The movement ends with a violent slam from both instruments. This section symbolises my dog’s calm nature before having a fit due to the lack of oxygen in her brain then collapsing. The adagio begins with the soothing flute before the guitar enters with on-the-beat bass notes, which represent the beating of her heart especially as crotchet is equal to 60 at this point. These bass notes pick up once again with a heavily chromatic flute melody. This uneasiness leads to a loud staccato end to the section, representing her last collapse that led to her death. Finally, the finishing lento section is in a tempo below what a living beating heart should be and therefore is a hymn-like dedication to her life which outlines Ab minor, despite the intense chromaticism. The guitar enters with extended major chords, creating dissonance, before ending with a plagal cadence alongside the flute.

I used the duet of a flute and a guitar due to the unique sounds that they can create together but also because of the symbolic meanings they have. For this reason, I use this combination of instruments as the flute is thought to be God’s voice and the guitar symbolises the positivity and control of life. Therefore, my piece has a spiritual meaning to it and shows the heavenly journey she is currently experiencing.

Requiem For Daisy - Concert

My piece is about an argument after speaking badly about someone behind their back. Therefore, my piece follows the stages of the argument in 3 different movements: Whispers, The confrontation and Resolution. The whole piece is based on different variations of the beginning theme.
During Whispers, I use many percussive effects on the flute that are usually projected quite quietly, therefore supporting the whispering idea. The theme is used in order (like it is displayed above). The breathing idea becomes more constant as the tension rises throughout the movement, displaying anxiety for the confrontation that is to come (similarly to how it is used throughout the rest of the piece).
After being set up by a disjunct leap to a high flutter tongue note, The confrontation starts where the upper register of the flute uses the theme forwards but the lower register uses it in retrograde before they meet near the end on the 3 note chromatic idea (originally G G# A) in the middle of the theme showing the conflicting ideas and the clash between the two sides. The climax of the clash ends with a flutter tongue multiphonic that leads to a high staccato note.
In the final movement, like in the second movement, the upper register and lower register usage of the flute represents the two different sides of the argument. This time, as the upper part is victorious, it becomes more melodic and there is some usage of tonality, especially in a major key. The lower part returns with the repeating pizzicato tritones, before it develops into more agitated disjunct hemi-demi quavers, as provoked in retaliation to the upper part bragging about its victory. This quickly develops into an upwards flourish but doesn’t climax, as it is prevented by a whistle tone. It then accepts defeat and uses the theme in its normal and retrograde form, therefore seeing both points of view in the argument. It wishes for the victorious one to stop and tells it to be quiet, which finishes my composition similarly to how it started.

Silent Whispers

2:32pm is the time someone changed from being caring to cold in the same minute. Therefore, 2 contrasting ideas are utilised in this piece: the high-pitched glissandi are to represent alarm bells and the lower range of the bassoon moves a lot more quickly which symbolises the horrible hidden messages that were a lot of information to process at once.
The piece starts with smaller fragments that grow into larger sections both in the upper and lower ideas. This is due to more horrible messages being sent and the problem escalating, therefore more alarm bells appear. This is supported by the repeated alarm bell in bar 21, augmenting its intervals each time it returns until it has become too much for the person receiving this news, therefore causing a nervous smorzato note. Retrograde and inversion versions of the beginning lower ranged theme are adopted in an attempt to blame the victim in this argument by turning the argument around onto them. Upper register and lower register themes start to become mixed between registers as the argument starts to become mixed up and unsupported with evidence. There are not a lot of rests in this section as this has become a dispute. After a dramatic flutter tongued note, the line begins to descend in pitch until it stops at a helicopter note, barely resembling a pitch. Air notes now appear with speech as the disbelief means the victim is not able to produce pitched notes anymore.
Performed by Catriona McDermid on 12th May 2020.

2:32

Written for double bass and tape.

This piece is about how one’s actions affects another. The piece is divided into 3 sections: ‘fight’, ‘reflect’ and ‘independence’. It should be noted that these are not movements written into the score but were used for reference during the composition process. I have used samples of a double bass throughout the piece to show the reflection of the instrument itself. I divided the bass recordings into 4 textural ideas: screeches, bowed/harmonic, glissando/vibrato and percussive. Sections indicated by the poem: (‘fight’, ‘reflect’, ’independence’)

FIGHT:
Once upon a time
Everything is a similar opposite
Every action triggered by another
Is but a dependent independence

In this bizarre world
There is a distorted reality
A battle against every reflection
Though actuality mirrors itself

When the fight is stopped
The dirt and mist is wiped away
The reflection of truth stands pure and clear
Endless loop of the dependent opposite

REFLECT:
Mirror, mirror
Who am I?
Am I dependent on another

Mirror, mirror
Am I you?
Why do my actions affect yours?

Are we the same or different? 
We tread a similar path
Who are you?
Who am I?

Mirror, mirror
Snapped in half
Lies seep through the cracks
Is but independent independence

INDEPENDENCE:
Take yourself away from the mirror
Look at yourself for who you are
No action triggered by another
Left alone

In ‘fight’, an opposite textural group is used in the double bass when a certain textural idea is heard on the tape, for example if the tape is using a sample from the “screeches” category, the double bass cannot use techniques classed under this textural group. The tape here acts as a reflection to the reality of the double bass, similarly to the rest of the piece. By the end of this section, the ideas in both the tape and the double bass are in retrograde form as you start to view the actions in a different way and therefore you can no longer fight against the reflection.
In ‘reflect’, the same textural group is used in both the double bass and the tape at the same time. The bow screech, which can also be heard at the beginning, shows the underlying factor below the actions done by the reality and the reflection. Retrograde becomes prominent throughout this section as the reflection is seen in a different light. As the real double bass walks away from the reflection at the end of the section on the word “independent”, it leads into the last section.
In ‘independent’, only the double bass and voice can be heard and the double bass uses the original line in the original form with some alterations. This shows being dependent on another before did actually change its ways minorly. There are no actions impacting on another since the reflection, also known as the tape, is now not being shown.

Mirror, mirror

22 year old composer from Manchester who is currently studying composition at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

Holly Gowland

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