Nice piece Matt. Very well paced. I like how it starts slow and develops some serious momentum as it unfolds.

The story behind Scorpions & The Many Songs goes back to 2011 when I learned about a field of scientific study known as Soundscape Ecology. In this field scientists record vast amounts of audio and use these recordings to learn about ecosystems. For example, acoustic diversity can be used as a proxy for biodiversity. Recording audio over a period of years can reveal how biodiversity changes over time, how an ecosystem is affected by human land use, etc. Additionally one finds that the natural soundscapes themselves are beautiful, intrinsically valuable and sadly endangered by anthropic (human-generated) noise.

Intrigued, I found an online audio database hosted by the Global Sustainable Soundscapes Network (GSSN). Using a file I found there, I composed Blankets & Bioluminescence for Violin, Cello, Piano, Drumset and Recorded Soundscape. This work led to an invitation to participate in GSSN’s Sonoran Desert Workshop in Oracle, Arizona in July 2013. Scorpions & The Many Songs is the result of this experience.

The desert has a unique acoustic signature. It is open and unobstructed, allowing you to hear sounds at a great distance. It can be very quiet and still, but surprisingly alive and diverse. The desert is both beautiful and extreme.

Two recordings are used in Scorpions & The Many Songs. The first movement, Scorpions, begins with a nighttime recording, which sits in the sonic foreground. This soundscape was recorded in Oracle, AZ (coordinates 32.601278, -110.736383) at 10:30 PM on July 13, 2013. The string quartet accompanies this soundscape with delicate stillness. A long series of chords starts with brittle, cold harmonics at the top of the range and descends through the entire range of the string quartet. As we approach morning, the chords become more consonant and warm. Scorpions is about the heightened sense of listening and scanning for danger that we experience when out in nature in the middle of the night. At the end of this tension, we experience the relief and comfort of the sunrise as warm consonant chords are played over a morning chorus soundscape.

The morning chorus was recorded at the Bonita Grasslands acoustic listening site in the Chiricahua National Monument (coordinates 32.011472, -109.38625) on May 8, 2013 at 5:00 AM. It was recorded by an SM2 acoustic sensor as part of a study by the GSSN. I chose this particular morning chorus for its richness and diversity and because a white-winged dove can be heard. I find the presence of the white-winged dove’s distinctive call to be a personal keynote from the region; something I am not accustomed to hearing elsewhere.

The soundscape continues as the second movement, The Many Songs, begins. This movement uses a Native American song as a launching point. Barnaby Lewis, Tribal Historian and member of the Akimel O'odham tribe, came to the workshop to share with us songs of the Akimel O'odham. One of the songs was particularly inspiring. The translation was given as:

Who among you has seen!
Over at the foot of the sunrise, the bright ancient house stands.
Inside are many kinds of song.
I opened, and saw the many songs.

You will hear the melody played by pizzicato cello near the beginning of the movement. As if the bright ancient house has been opened, the many songs begin to spring forth until they take over the entire string quartet.

Scorpion cover photo by Mark V. Lomolino
released 20 December 2013 
Mitchell Drury - Violin 1 
Candice Chin - Violin 2 
Stephen Creswell - Viola 
Brad Hawkins - Cello 
Recorded at Opus4 Studios Bothell, Washington October 6, 2013

Bandcamp

Scorpions & The Many Songs (String Quartet No. 3)

instrumentation: 3333/4331/timp/3perc/hp/pno/strings

The opening of Automation unfolds like a vast machine coming to life. The first sounds we hear, from the unpitched percussion, are vividly machinelike. Each instrument plays in a repeating cycle, but the cycles are all of different lengths. As other instruments enter the texture, new processes begin, overlapping with those already in progress. I imagined that from the moment this great machine is switched on, it operates of its own accord, each component coming into operation and eventually triggering other components. The orchestral texture is composed of several layers, each layer a component of the machine, if you will. As new layers emerge and come to the fore, other layers recede into the background or else turn off entirely, their function completed. Subsequent sections of the piece explore other types of processes. The energy level waxes and wanes in a series of valleys and plateaus, but the constant whir of the machine continues throughout, until just before the end. Here the orchestra plays all in unison, beginning quietly and slowly, but quickly growing and accelerating to a cataclysmic peak. The vast machine, overburdened and overheated, makes a final attempt to reboot, but its meltdown is inevitable.

Please visit <a href="http://davidschneidermusic.com">davidschneidermusic.com</a> to order score/parts or to report a performance of this piece.

Performed by Indiana University Concert Orchestra, David Effron, cond. Recorded Nov. 19, 2008 in the Musical Arts Center, IU Bloomington.

Recording © 2014, The Trustees of Indiana University. Used by permission. All Rights Reserved.

Automation, for orchestra (2007-2008), 13'

Created by Steve Barsotti and Eric Leonardson at Experimental Sound Studio 1998. Engineered by Lou Mallozzi. Released on CD "rarebit," 2008. Mimeomeme/Transparency CD0125.

Rarebit

Near And Distant Relations

This was my first try of recording singing vine glasses. Also I recorded the sound of some cookingpot lids. Listen to the combination of the sounds.

Used items: four Riedel Vinum XL glasses and two different cookingpot lids.

Lamentum

solo electric guitar with an Eventide Pitch Factor and some lush reverbs - enjoy!

Song for Caryl

Recording made at Oak Lake Field Station outside of Brookings, South Dakota at approximately 6:30 AM. M/S setup with Sennheiser MKH 30 + MKH 40.  Due to a broken tripod, the microphone blimp was balanced in the branches of a small tree. 

Prairie Dawn

You're invited to the GSSN Ants Party!

Ants. Formica Obscuripes. The Thatching Ant. Touching all of our different mics that we placed on their home. We used to PCB Accelerometers (the high tingly touches), two JRF C-Series contact microphones, one Sennheiser lav mic, one cetacean audio C-55 hydrophone... 

This track is only 30 seconds, in part because CONTACT MICS CAN STILL PICK UP YOUR DARN VOICE, AND I TALK WAY TOO MUCH. Oh how i like to talk... 

Shoutout to fellow recordist Michelle Hauer!

Ants Party

Steve Creswell, Viola
Sean Osborn, Bass Clarinet
Catherine Case, Harp
Rob Tucker, Percussion
Al Berg, Piano

Matthew James Briggs, Composer, Producer

1. Glacier
2. Northeast Harbor, Snowbound
3. March of the Polar Bears
4. Lonely Icicle
5. Melting Piece

Freezing Pieces is a set of five miniature movements composed in December of 2000 and finished in January 2001 at Indiana University in Bloomington. It was premiered in March 2001 at a composition department recital.

Each of the movements depicts an imagined winter scene. The style is sparse, cold and pointillistic. I was quite taken with the music of Anton Webern at the time, which is apparent in the thin textures and brevity of the pieces.

With Melting Piece, winter breaks. A distant thunderstorm is heard (bass drums) and winter drips away (viola pizzicato). The storm passes and Freezing Pieces fades to silence.

Score © 2001, 2015
Recording © 2015

QM-MJ9-15-00201
QM-MJ9-15-00202
QM-MJ9-15-00203
QM-MJ9-15-00204
QM-MJ9-15-00205

Scorpions & The Many Songs (String Quartet No. 3)

Matthew James Briggs

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