Performance of Alvin Lucier's "Music for Solo Performer" by Neal Markowski (brainwaves)and John Mallia (electronics). Opening for Phil Niblock (April 4, 2012)in Boston as part of Non-Event series.

Music for Solo Performer by Alvin Lucier — Neal Markowski, brainwaves; John Mallia, electronics

In this study, realized for the Boston-based presenter Non-Event's "At Home Series" near the start of the pandemic,  a noise-veiled chord progression with slowly oscillating trills is grafted onto the upper harmonic structure of a ‘hidden’ chorale melody that lies below the lower limit of audible frequency. The majority of recorded sounds utilized in "Vestige" were produced by bowing string instruments (guitars, mandolin, banjo, phonoharp, and e-bowed dulcimer). Noise and artifacts resulting from bowing with unstable materials pervades the composition. Sustained tones from the reeds of a pump organ are also present. All recordings were made by the composer and carefully re-tuned to match the construct of the hidden model.

Vestige (study for Illapse)

Vortex, boxcar, scored for flute and electronically-processed recordings, juxtaposes the acoustical properties of two contrasting spaces:

1) Richard Serra’s massive, sixty-eight foot COR-TEN steel sculpture “Vortex” which stands in front of the entrance to the Forth Worth Museum of Modern Art. It is a sanctuary, doubling as a playful zone freely accessible to an enthusiastic public, commissioned from one of the world’s most celebrated contemporary artists.

2) An abandoned railroad freight car that sits in a roadside field in Wartrace, Tennessee — a discarded container crafted by unknown workers. Suspicious debris found inside the boxcar indicates that it is now a site of escapism for youth. 

Impulse responses of both ‘spaces’ were recorded by the composer and analyzed for frequency content. Pitches played by the flute in certain sections of the work correspond to resonant frequencies of either the Serra sculpture or the boxcar. Electronic resonances are based on the actual spaces. Recorded sounds from other locales are also processed through the resonance of these spaces. For example, the sound of breathing renders the vortex as a steel lung — an organ that, in some ways, the sculpture actually resembles.


“Vortex, boxcar,” for example, a composition of mine scored for flute and electronically-processed recordings, is based on recordings I made inside of Richard Serra's massive "Vortex" sculpture that stands in front of the Fort Worth, TX Museum of Modern Art as well as recordings realized inside of an abandoned railroad freight car that I came across in a roadside field in Wartrace, TN. Analyses of the prominent resonant frequencies of each space were used as the basis of materials for the flute and recorded processed sounds. The work juxtaposes the acoustical properties of two contrasting spaces — 
one, a large-scale public sculpture commissioned from one of the world’s most celebrated contemporary artists and frequented by visitors to a world class museum; the other, a discarded container assembled by unknown workers, its interior serving now only as an escapist pod for local drug users, its exterior an industrial relic for passersby.  “Vortex, boxcar” was recently premiered in Denmark by Marie Sønderskov.

This work is part of a planned series of compositions exploring the resonances of architectural spaces, objects, and the inherent soundscapes of natural and manmade environments. As with “Vortex, boxcar,” the subsequent pieces in this series will present contrasting spaces that form analogies with disparate social conditions.

"Vortex, Boxcar" for flute and electronics (Marie Sønderskov performing in Denmark)

Work realized in the Studios of the Institut International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges / IMEB.
Anastasis is a five channel composition realized in the Studios of the Institut International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges (IMEB). The work is programmatic in its representation of Christ's Descent into Limbo, a frequently treated subject in Medieval art. The majority of sounds used are derived from concrète sources, some of which carry conceptual weight. For example, the recurring sound of wax being scraped away from the metal surface of the candle trays at Bourges ' Cathedral St. Étienne: the residue of prayer — its removal, a daily chore (or performance ritual) captured in sound. Also, the emergence of a field recording of windmills at the work's close: transformation, by man, of nature's breath into energy as a storm blows in on the mountainside.
The piece itself is a stormy, transformative descent. Sounds of friction and resistance represent the interpenetration of spheres of existence. Long intense strokes of sound such as the dragging of wood along wood, glass on glass, and the grinding and scraping of metal against metal are fractured by abrupt, pointed declamations which lead, ultimately, to a representation of the breaking of the gates of hell. The only purely electronic sounds used in the composition are dense, bristling textures that occur as interruptions of the long descent. They represent the accumulation of a mysterious, electrical energy in the empty tomb above — static glimpses of that middle sphere.
Technical notes:
The orchestration of sound objects in the field of five loudspeakers adheres to an elastic gravitational plan assigned to each point in space. Generally speaking, the field of five speakers is “weighted” so that rear point sources support sounds lower in pitch than those occurring in the front of the projection plane where frequencies are raised. The relationship between each point source and its corresponding interval of transposition is in constant flux and its size serves to emphasize the degree of spatial depth present at any given moment. Sound sources are decorrelated to support and exaggerate the listener's experience of space.
— John Mallia


Anastasis

Husk, with aura (2015) is in four connected parts:

1) “I dream of the dead…”
A ritualistic exploration of a resonant soundfield comprised of hanging metals. Points aglow like stars. The resonance of metals becomes liquid (elixir of life) and transforms, via ‘touchless’ recorded eBow technology, into the resonance of an object not yet touched (dulcimer). The percussionist mentally ‘speaks’ the words “I dream of the dead,” periodically, throughout this section, articulating speech rhythms on the hanging instruments, as if attempting to conjure a spirit.

2) Tremors.
In Celtic Mythology, the harp was thought to provide a means for, among other things, summoning spirits or animals, manipulating emotions, and inducing sleep. In “Husk, with aura,” the hammered string instrument stands in for the harp to summon the spirits of the Dead. The hammering is incessant, unrelenting — a focused intensification of the wider range of gestures and colors explored in the first section of the piece.

3) Starkness.
The frame drum is the first instrument actually touched by the player’s hand. With this point of physical contact comes a dramatic shift in texture and implied ‘space.’ The rhythmic complexity of gestures played on metals in the first section of the piece (based on a background structure of very slow, layered polyrhythms intuitively decorated at the surface) are snapped to an accelerated grid of evenly–spaced articulations (dulcimer), and are then reduced to points in isolation with sparsely positioned, but aggressive, frame drum and tambourine articulations. Between the cracks in the music’s surface, a distant resonance seeps into the listener’s field of hearing; one that seems trapped in some remote region of previously inaccessible space. Voices, presences. Barely audible responses to the incantation that led up to this section. 


4) “The lost return to us…”
The rhythmic material of this closing section acknowledges conjured presence. It is a repetitive, celebratory chant and is somewhat akin to a participant in a ritual achieving a trance-like state. The performer plays rattles — instruments devoid of resonance — some held in the hands, others touched while resting on a table. Recorded sounds provide an ambient ‘ground’ and include grains poured onto, and sifted across, a dry, wooden surface — intimate touching of materials. Also, a layer of sound recorded inside the mouth with a tiny microphone capsule — withheld breath, inner resonance.

This work was written for, and is dedicated to, my friend Scott Deal.

— J.M.

"Husk, with Aura" for percussion and electronics (Scott Deal, percussion; John Mallia, electronics)

Within

18 minute single movement work by John Mallia for violin, viola, cello, and electronics. Gabriela Diaz, Violin; Kate Vincent, viola; David Russell, cello; John Mallia, electronics.

"Peripheral Gain" explores the softening of boundaries erected to direct and protect, through cautious limitations, a given sphere of existence such as a path of life or an artworks’ formal narrative. The trio, aided by live electronic processing, allows that which exists outside the perimeter of a given musical space to bleed in, entering not only at the edges of a sonic field but at a tolerant central node capable of radiating, more evenly, the effects of the external. The appearance of foreign elements, at the surface, threatens the stability of regions grounded in musical treatment perceived as primary. As the persistent intrusion of this outer “debris” is intensified, its effects are absorbed into the work’s basic fabric and the form is rendered “open.”

— J.M.

Peripheral Gain

11 minute, single-movement work by John Mallia for sho, clarinet, prepared piano, koto, shamisen, cello, and electronics.

The materials and structure of  “Crevice, sky” (2009) reflect the activity of peering
through a small, present opening in order to see/hear that which is vast and remote.
The latter is represented by the sounds of the sho, as it emerges from, and replaces
the tactile detail of the “crevice.” 

— J.M.

Crevice, sky

11 minute work for piano and electronics by John Mallia. Shannon Wettstein, piano; John Mallia, electronics.

Vestibules is a new work for piano and electronic sounds exploring reflection, ambiguity, and presence as one might experience standing at the threshold between spaces or situations. Thank you to my longtime friend and colleague Shannon Wettstein for requesting and premiering this composition. 

Underwritten by the American Composers Forum
with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation.




Vestibules (live)

39 minute, single-movement work for alto saxophone and electronics by John Mallia. 
Eliot Gattegno, saxophone; John Mallia, electronics.

Intezonal Hap (2009) is dedicated to Eliot Gattegno, one of the most dedicated proponents of 
contemporary music I know. 

In this work, a plan generated through quasi-random ordering of a small set of spatially descriptive musical behaviors and sound fields yielded the current formal structure. Each behavioral detail was composed intuitively while attempting to remain within the generated form. The process meant positioning myself between spaces and between behaviors that describe each partition of the given premises. Each segment is set against an ambient ground composed from processed field recordings. Electronic resonances imposed on both the saxophone and the recordings smooth the boundaries of adjacent sound fields and wrap the materials in a series of long exhalations. 

- J.M.  


Interzonal Hap (live)

7 minute, microtonal work for cello and electronics. David Russell, cello; John Mallia, electronics.

Dodo (2009) was written at the kind request of Julia Werntz for the occasion of the Boston Microtonal Society’s 20th anniversary. The piece was composed for cellist David Russell, who has performed the piece several times. 

Last year, during a visit to New York City’s Museum of Natural History, while my 6-year-old son William was spending time looking at the expertly stuffed tigers, the skeleton of a dodo bird that happened to be  housed in the same large glass case caught my attention. I was reminded of the sad story of the extinct bird, and decided to treat it as the subject of a musical composition. The microtonal melodic lines used in the piece are characterized, alternately, by slow micro-descents and striving, angular lines that tend toward ascent but fail to reach a clear goal. The electronic component includes sounds coaxed from a
rare, and injured, vintage Buchla synthesizer.

— J.M.


Dodo (live)

Conveyance (Live 10-22-15)

John Mallia’s compositional process is informed by spatial constructs and concepts, and a fascination with presence, ritual, and the thresholds standing between states of existence or awareness. He lives and works in Boston, where he is a member of the Composition Faculty, and directs the Electronic Music Studio, at the New England Conservatory of Music. He is also a member of the Composition Faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts. In addition to composing chamber music and works combining acoustic instruments with electronics, he creates fixed media compositions, and collaborates with visual artists on multimedia works, including installation.
 
His music has been performed throughout the U.S. and internationally by organizations such as Musicacoustica (Beijing, China), MediaMix (Monterrey, Mexico), the National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.), RAMA Festival, Aarhus, Denmark, L.A. Freewaves (CA), ZeroOne New Media festival (CA), Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Gaudeamus (The Netherlands), International Computer Music Association (Huddersfield, UK), Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States, Zeppelin Festival of Sound Art (Barcelona, Spain), Festival Synthèse (Bourges, France), Interensemble’s Computer Arts Festival (Padova, Italy), Barbican Centre (London), and Medi@terra`s Travelling  Mikromuseum (Greece, Bulgaria, Germany, Slovenia).  
 
He was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia (CEMI) at the University of North Texas (2004-5) and was composer-in-residence at the Institut de Musique Electroacoustique (Bourges, France; 1993, 2002). Additionally, he has taught composition, electroacoustic music, and sound art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, College of the Holy Cross, Northeastern University, Clark University, Brandeis University, and Franklin Pierce College.

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