Neil Rolnick: Live Performance Archive

Recorded Live at Roulette in Brooklyn, NY 2/17/2014
Vicky Chow, piano; Neil Rolnick, computer

Neil Rolnick: Dynamic RAM & Concert Grand @ Roulette 2014

by Neil Rolnick
performed by Ashley Bathgate (cello & laptop computer)
from "Neil Rolnick: Ex Machina" (Innova CD 950) released 2016
© Copyright 2015 by Neilnick Music (BMI)

Writing this piece for Ashley Bathgate, cellist for the Bang On A Can All-Stars, was a unique and rewarding experience, not just because she’s a spectacularly talented and accomplished cellist (which she is), but also because she is utterly unafraid of technology, eager to explore the possibilities it presents, and engaged enough to toil through crashes and malfunctions, in order to get to the musical heart of the piece.  

Cello Ex Machina is the most recent of the pieces on this CD.  It was composed with the explicit goal of eventually making the piece something that Ashley can perform on her own, without me playing the computer.  And this is, in fact, how she now performs the piece, playing the very demanding cello part while controlling the computer with pedals and with her articulations and dynamics on the cello.

This piece aspires to an orchestral sound world, with the depth and variety of sound you might expect from a large ensemble, not from a solo cello.  There are layers of voices, contrasting timbres, and opportunities for the performer to play freely within the musical structures.

The title means:  the cello emerging from the machine.  But I don’t think of it as describing a futuristic sci-fi world of machine-like automated cellos.  Instead, I imagine a symbiotic world in which the cello motivates the machine to sing, the computer motivates the cello to expand its voice, and together they can construct sweet, expressive and complex musical worlds, different from what either can produce alone.  

Neil Rolnick: Cello Ex Machina

Movement 2: Maximum Change in Carbon Emissions, RCP 2.6

Recorded at the opening concert of Visiones Sonoras Festival, Teatro Ocampo, Morelia, Mexico.  11 October 2017.  Abel Romero & Pedro Andrés Rodríguez, violins; Judith Reyes, viola; Edgardo Espinosa, cello; Neil Rolnick, computer.

Oceans Eat Cities can be thought of as a musical sonification of data which projects the likely impact rising sea levels will have on cities globally.  It is also a musical statement of why we need to address climate change now.

The research organization Climate Central, of Princeton, NJ, supplied me with the data used in the composition of the piece.  The data details how rising sea levels will inundate individual cities.  It considers various possible scenarios based on the degree to which we mitigate the release of carbon emissions in the atmosphere.  For each city, under each scenario, there is data which shows the percentage of the population which will be displaced.  I have used the two most extreme scenarios.  

The first movement uses data from the scenario in which carbon emissions continue as they are now.  The second movement uses data from the scenario in which we are successful in cutting most carbon emissions, beginning right now.  The first movement uses data from Shanghai (China), Mumbai (India), Bangkok (Thailand), and Osaka (Japan).  The second movement uses data from Miami (USA), Sidoarjo (Indonesia), and Tianjin (China).

The basic data mapping of the piece is very simple:  After an initial statement of a one-minute musical idea, the idea is repeated with slight variations in instrumentation.  In each movement, I’ve mapped the approximately 8 minute time span to reflect the years of 2015 to 2100, as in the data supplied by Climate Central.  The data describes the percentage of the 2015 population which will be impacted by sea level rise in a particular carbon emission scenario.  I reflect this in the composition by subtracting that percentage of the notes from the music.  The data changes every 5 years, and that time frame is reflected with a musical change every 20 seconds or so.  The years from which data is taken are marked in the score as boxed text.  As you might expect, the first movement nearly disappears, since it reflects the scenario of “business as usual” in terms of carbon emissions.  The second movement changes, but not nearly as drastically.

The piece can be accompanied by a video track, created by R. Luke DuBois, which shows street maps of the cities whose data is being used in each movement, and the year.  As the score moves through the years of the 21st century, each map is overlaid with blue, representing the encroachment of the ocean as projected in Climate Central’s data.   

A second level of data mapping involves the processing of the acoustic sounds of the quartet, and it is more or less the inverse of the process described above.  Using the same data sets as are used to subtract notes from the musical materials, the volume of the processing is increased to reflect the percentage of population in the city which will be displaced by the rising sea level.   The processing covers portions of the music, just as the ocean will cover portions of the cities.

Neil Rolnick: Oceans Eat Cities, mvt 2

Movement 1: No Change in Carbon Emissions, RCP 8.5

Recorded at the opening concert of Visiones Sonoras Festival, Teatro Ocampo, Morelia, Mexico.  11 October 2017.  Abel Romero & Pedro Andrés Rodríguez, violins; Judith Reyes, viola; Edgardo Espinosa, cello; Neil Rolnick, computer.

Oceans Eat Cities can be thought of as a musical sonification of data which projects the likely impact rising sea levels will have on cities globally.  It is also a musical statement of why we need to address climate change now.

The research organization Climate Central, of Princeton, NJ, supplied me with the data used in the composition of the piece.  The data details how rising sea levels will inundate individual cities.  It considers various possible scenarios based on the degree to which we mitigate the release of carbon emissions in the atmosphere.  For each city, under each scenario, there is data which shows the percentage of the population which will be displaced.  I have used the two most extreme scenarios.  

The first movement uses data from the scenario in which carbon emissions continue as they are now.  The second movement uses data from the scenario in which we are successful in cutting most carbon emissions, beginning right now.  The first movement uses data from Shanghai (China), Mumbai (India), Bangkok (Thailand), and Osaka (Japan).  The second movement uses data from Miami (USA), Sidoarjo (Indonesia), and Tianjin (China).

The basic data mapping of the piece is very simple:  After an initial statement of a one-minute musical idea, the idea is repeated with slight variations in instrumentation.  In each movement, I’ve mapped the approximately 8 minute time span to reflect the years of 2015 to 2100, as in the data supplied by Climate Central.  The data describes the percentage of the 2015 population which will be impacted by sea level rise in a particular carbon emission scenario.  I reflect this in the composition by subtracting that percentage of the notes from the music.  The data changes every 5 years, and that time frame is reflected with a musical change every 20 seconds or so.  The years from which data is taken are marked in the score as boxed text.  As you might expect, the first movement nearly disappears, since it reflects the scenario of “business as usual” in terms of carbon emissions.  The second movement changes, but not nearly as drastically.

The piece can be accompanied by a video track, created by R. Luke DuBois, which shows street maps of the cities whose data is being used in each movement, and the year.  As the score moves through the years of the 21st century, each map is overlaid with blue, representing the encroachment of the ocean as projected in Climate Central’s data.   

A second level of data mapping involves the processing of the acoustic sounds of the quartet, and it is more or less the inverse of the process described above.  Using the same data sets as are used to subtract notes from the musical materials, the volume of the processing is increased to reflect the percentage of population in the city which will be displaced by the rising sea level.   The processing covers portions of the music, just as the ocean will cover portions of the cities.

Neil Rolnick: Oceans Eat Cities, mvt 1

Delta Space, for Yamaha Disklavier played by live pianist + electronics
Kathleen Supové, piano
From the CD Mystery System (Tzadik 7099)

Delta Space

Recorded in concert at Roulette, Brooklyn, NY Nov 12, 2019
Jennifer Choi, violin; Kathleen Supové, piano; Neil Rolnick, computer

I began writing Deal With The Devil during a residency at the Bogliasco Foundation, near Genoa, Italy.  I was particularly interested in the music of Genoa’s most famous composer and violinist, Nicolo Paganini (1782-1840), who was the first internationally renowned violin virtuoso.  His technique was so astounding that it was rumored that he had made a Faustian deal with the devil, trading his soul for his superhuman violin chops.  

Paganini was a major inspiration for the famous piano virtuoso and composer Franz Liszt (1811-1886). When Liszt was 20, he heard the 50 year old violinist play in Paris – an event he credited with changing the course of his musical life.  Because my piece was to be for violin, piano and computer, I initially planned to use the virtuoso technique which underlies Paganini’s and Liszt’s music, and to enhance it with real time digital processing.

However, as I studied their music, the piece started to move in a different direction.  There is definitely something magical and awe-inspiring about fingers zipping across a keyboard or up and down the fingerboard, about notes which fly at superhuman speed or reach stratospheric heights. But the more I immersed myself in the works of Paganini and Liszt, the more I also felt that the extraordinary technique was being used primarily to show off, to impress the audience.  Rather than saying “listen to the music,” it’s saying “look at me!”

Viewed from this perspective, this wasn’t the kind of piece I wanted to write.  Flashy playing may be awe-inspiring, but there can be something equally magical about a beautiful melody, played with directness and simplicity.  And while digital processing may be able to produce sonic effects that even Paganini or Liszt wouldn’t have been able to create, it only really adds to the music if it supports the narrative, the shape and the emotional impact.

So while Deal With The Devil makes use of many of the virtuoso techniques I picked up from studying Paganini and Liszt, it avoids using them simply for the purpose of showing off.  And I try to use the digital processing with restraint and purpose.  I hope that the half-hour long piece brings you on a musical journey exploring and developing themes, gestures and emotions.  Rather than impressing you with dexterity and speed, the goal is to give you a musical experience which can enrich and delight.  

In the end, you can decide whether or not virtuosity is necessarily a deal with the devil.

Deal With The Devil - Roulette

Recorded at Roulette, in Brooklyn, NY Nov 12, 2019
Kathleen Supové, piano & computer

This piece, commissioned by pianist Kathleen Supové, grew out of my experience of caring for Wendy, my wife of 45 years, and ultimately losing her to cancer. Kathleen observed Wendy’s heroic fight against the disease, then her peaceful acceptance of her mortality when the fight became futile. She asked if I could write a piece which would somehow describe or respond to that ultimate combination of struggle and acceptance. In Journey’s End, the piano is pitted against an increasingly invasive computer part.  As the piece progresses, the pianist has control of how and when the electronic part moves forward, but the electronic part becomes increasingly more difficult to integrate with the piano part.  Eventually – at the pianist’s final decision – the piece ends with a lyrical chorale as the computer settles into increasingly overpowering but consonant drones.

Journey's End - Roulette

Performed at the Center For New Music, San Francisco, Oct 26, 2019
laptop performance by Neil Rolnick
Copyright © Neilnick Music (BMI)

My wife Wendy passed away in August 2018. Two days later, in a panic that I couldn't remember the sound of her voice, I found that I could un-delete voice messages on my phone. I found about a dozen messages from her there, dating from the beginning of her long illness until her final days. Messages is made of samples of those messages, and some of the music she mentions in them.  It gives testament to her strength, graciousness, cheerful outlook, and ultimate acceptance of her fate.

Neil Rolnick: Oceans Eat Cities, mvt 2

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