Date completed: winter 2013

Duration: 7'15"

Instrumentation: flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano

Recording: 
SONAR New Music Ensemble conducted by Lee Mills in Baltimore, MD

Man With A Black Bag (2013)

A Dialogue, In Linear A (2021) 
by Andrew A. Watts

 Linear A is a writing system that was used by the Minoans (Cretans) from 1800 to 1450 BCE to write the hypothesized Minoan language. Linear A was the primary script used in palace and religious writings of the Minoan civilization. It was succeeded by Linear B, which was used by the Mycenaeans to write an early form of Greek. No texts in Linear A have been deciphered, and thus, it is unknown what this dead language should sound like. 

A Dialogue, In Linear A utilizes text from libation artifacts and (presumably) religious objects, imagining what these fragments might have sounded like when spoken by various text-to-speech dialects. A heightened ritual is created, trading any semblance of semantic content for timbral transformation of the voice. A Dialogue, In Linear A seeks to blend features of musique concrète, aural theatre, vocal synthesis, field recordings, and an unknowable ceremonial rite among the sands of time. 

www.andrewawatts.com

A Dialogue, In Linear A (2021)

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