This month we put the focus on variety, and brought together quite a wide selection of sounds. From solo piano to electronics to sinfonietta, ancient to contemporary themes, animals to computers, delicate to heavy metal sounds. We hope you enjoy the wonderful work of this Eclectic bunch of composers, all featured by Making Waves for the first time.

July 2015: Eclectic Waves

A Symphony for Perth: Between the Desert and the Deep Blue Sea, by Tod Machover

Ligeti's Walls of Perception

Composer, writer and AYO Music Presentation Fellow Sam Gillies explores how the limitations of our perception shape how we listen to the music of György Ligeti.
 
MUSIC:
PÉROTIN Viderunt Omnes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpgaEFmdFcM)
LIGETI Atmosphères (Berlin Philharmoniker conducted by Jonathan Nott TELDEC CLASSICS 256469673-5)
LIGETI Piano Concerto (Ensemble Intercontemporain conducted by Pierre Boulez DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 439808-2)
LIGETI Poème Symphonique for 100 Metronomes (Françoise Terrioux SONY CLASSICAL SK62310)
LIGETI Chamber Concerto (Schönberg Ensemble conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw TELDEC CLASSICS 256469673-5)
 
PRODUCTION CREDITS:
Written, produced and presented by Sam Gillies
With thanks to Yvonne Frindle (Sydney Symphony Orchestra)

Podcast 201408 Ligeti’s Walls of Perception SG

3 adoxographies:  Example 2

3 adoxographies:  Example 1

For bass clarinet and electronics
Bass Clarinet - Dr Lindsay Vickery

Snowden (Eyes in the Sky) is the second work in the Snowden series. 

The generation of audio by opening raw data files as sound is a technique I've used in many works, most notably in the Music For Computers (2012) EP. More recently I’ve been using these raw data files to derive pitch and gestural material for acoustic instruments. In Snowden (Eyes In The Sky), web browser data and cache files were opened as audio and then analysed with a spectrogram, resulting in structural and gestural ideas that could be manipulated and notated graphically across the range of the bass clarinet. 

What results is music given shape and form by the recorded data of online behaviour. The performer is instructed to shift between different intensities of texture and articulated pitches, as well as to interpret graphical approximations of multiphonic relationships. Throughout the performers mediation of the graphical score, the computer monitors the performer and extracts information about the component parts of their performance. This metadata – pitch, volume, noise, and brightness - governs the electronic output, creating music built from the relationships of these changes in musical phrasing and timbre, creating an electronic manifestation of surveillance to accompany the acoustic performer.

The score for Snowden (Eyes In The Sky) was created use with the Decibel ScorePlayer, an application that scrolls the score at a fixed rate, allowing for the easy coordination of graphic materials. The application is available via the Apple App Store and will work on any iPad. The score has been reproduced on the following pages for reference and while it is possible for the score to be read as a conventional graphic score, it is recommended that the ScorePlayer app is used for convenience sake. 

Snowden (Eyes in the Sky) was commissioned by Dr Lindsay Vickery and premiered at ‘Improvising Across Borders’, Mzog, Bydgoszcz, Poland on 20 July, 2014. 

Duration is  approximately 8 minutes.

Snowden (Eyes In The Sky), for bass clarinet and electronics

3 adoxographies: Example 3

Madeline Caine (soprano) & the Eastman Composers' Sinfonietta Kilbourn Hall, The Eastman School, April 11, 2015

Penelope Hymns: I. Morning

Penelope Hymns II. Afternoon

Making Waves is a monthly series of curated playlists streaming one hour of quality, new composed music.  Founded in 2015, Making Waves shines a spotlight on the music of Australian composers. Fresh playlists are released on the first day of each month and older playlists are made available all year round via our archives; perfect for those with just a few minutes to explore one track or for hours perusing a myriad of diverse sound-worlds.


The project offers wider exposure to emerging composers, their music and the talented performers who champion it. We also provide an easy-to-access platform for listeners to sit back and enjoy a curated hour of exciting new music or explore our living composers more actively.  The playlist themes (and media through which they’re shared eg. Soundcloud, YouTube) evolve each month depending on the content received directly from our talented composers.

At its core Making Waves is a curated listening space. In 2016 we branched into producing our own content through a special project, Making Conversation, thanks to a successful crowdfunding campaign. Making Conversation: Australian Composers Project is a series of podcasts and vodcasts presenting the human side of living Australian composers, released on popular audiovisual and social platforms mid-2017.
Composers Lisa Cheney (Melbourne) and Peggy Polias (Sydney) are curating this project.

 Listeners, we encourage you to explore current and past playlists and discover more about our featured composers. 

Composers, we encourage you to send us links to your streamable audio via our website. Visit: www.makingwavesnewmusic.com for more information.

Sam Gillies is a composer and sound artist with an interest in the function of noise as both a musical and communicative code in music and art. His work treads the line between the musically beautiful and ugly, embracing live performance, multimedia and installation art forms to create alternating sound worlds of extreme fragility and overwhelming density. 

Sam’s music has been programmed at both national and international conferences and festivals, including the Test Tone Series at Superdeluxe, Tokyo and the International Computer Music Conference. Sam is currently studying a Masters in Composition at Goldsmiths, University of London.


Snowden (Eyes In The Sky), for bass clarinet and electronics

Sam Gillies

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