Wayne Siegel: Domino Figures
for 10 - 100 guitars (18')
1979

Domino Figures was inspired by and dedicated to the Danish guitarist Erling Møldrup. The piece can be performed by any number of guitarists from ten to one hundred, and despite the unusual ensemble required for performance, Domino Figures has been widely performed since it was composed in 1979, including a television production with 105 guitarists, made to celebrate the 5th aniverssary of Denmark's TV2 - a record-breaking performances that in fact found its way into the Guiness book of records!

Essentially, this piece is a strict canon constructed around 97 different musical figures. The performers sit in a semicircle, and each musical figure is passed around this semicircle in a kind of slow chain reaction similar to that of falling dominoes by means of a unique system of visual cues. The guitarist on the audience's extreme left begins playing the first figure, signaling the player to his left by dipping the neck of his guitar slightly as he begins. The second player then waits one beat after receiving this signal before beginning the same figure and signaling the player to his left. In this way the musical figure is sent around the semicircle, each guitarist beginning one beat after the player to his immediate right. Any given figure reaches the last guitarist about 36 seconds after the first guitarist has set the new figure moving around the semicircle, and these new figures are combined with previous figures while they are in the process of replacing them.

A sonic effect not usually associated with the guitar is created by the large number of guitarists performing the same figure in different tempi. Massive, sustained, almost choral textures are produced, and these textures evolve and change slowly, creating a spatial effect as elements gradually move from one side of the semicircle to the other.

Domino Figures (1979) excerpt

Wayne Siegel: Rosewood Afternoon for solo guitar and delays. Available on CD from DaCapo records.
http://www.dacapo-records.dk/da/recording-wayne-siegel---terra.aspx

Rosewood Afternoon(1980) excerpt

Wayne Siegel: Watercolor, Acrylic, Watercolor
for chamber ensemble

Watercolor, Acrylic, Watercolor (1981), excerpt

Wayne Siegel: 42nd Street Rondo
for percussion duo (15')
1984

42nd Street Rondo is written for two percussionists with two matched sets of percussion instruments. Each measure is repeated several times, the number of repetions being decided by the players. In some cases player A decides when to move on to the next measure, in other cases player B decides when to move on and in some cases both players must agree on when to move on. This gives the performers a certain amount of freedom to shape the piece during performance.

The title refers to the corner of 42nd Street and Broadway in Manhattan, where street musicians often perform. I originally imagined the piece being performed in this location when I wrote it. 42nd Street Rondo was commissioned by the Danish Percussion Group with financial support from the Danish State Art Foundation. The piece has been performed widely by the Safri Duo.

Recorded by the Safri Duo on Chandos
Score available from http://www.norsk-percussion.no

42nd Street Rondo (1984), excerpt

Wayne Siegel: Three Canons
for two guitars (16')
1987

Three Canons for two guitars was commissioned by the guitar duo/couple Leif Christensen and Maria Kämmerling with support from the Danish Art Council. The piece was completed one month before Leif Christenen's tragic death in January 1988 and was therefore never performed by the two guitarists. The piece consists of three movements, all three of which use strict canon technique. That is, the two guitar parts are exactly the same, but they are performed delayed in relation to one another. Each of the three movements has its own character and canon technique is often used in such a way that the technique is hidden. The first and second movements are performed without a break. The three movements are dedicated to Leif Christensen and Maria Kämmerling. The work has been performed widely by the Danish Guitar Duo as well as the Assad Brothers. It is available on CD on the Point label recorded by the Danish Guitar Duo (PCD 5120).

ThreeCanons for two guitars (1987), excerpt

Wayne Siegel: Cobra
for 4 channel tape (20')
1988

Recording available on DaCapo

Cobra (1988) was commissioned through the Danish Art Council by the Randers Art Museum in celebration of the museum's 100th anniversary and realized at DIEM's studio in Aarhus, Denmark. The piece has since been presented at the Rostrum for electronic music in Stockholm, the Bourges festival, the International Computer Music Festival in Columbus, Ohio and as a ballet at the South Bank Centre in London. The work is available on CD on the Da Capo label.
The sound material is derived mostly from the voice of the Danish alto, Hanne Stavad. The material has been digitally processed using the Karplus-Strong algorithm and cross-fading to create hybrid instruments - essentially crosses between sung vowels and plucked string instruments. The work is a strict twenty-voice canon with a delay of 1.5 seconds between each voice. These twenty voices are distributed between the four speakers in a large circle.

Cobra (1988), excerpt

Wayne Siegel: Tunnel
for 4 channel tape (11')
1995

Tunnel for four channel tape was commissioned by Warren Spears of Nyt Dansk Danseteater for the ballet CMXCV . Another of my four channel pieces, Cobra, was the basis for the ballet. One day Warren Spears called me and asked if I could extend the long final drone of Cobra an extra ten minutes. After pondering the idea, I decided to write a new work consisting of a single long note. This task may seem simple, but for me it meant trying to create a long drone note which would undergo constant process of change: always the same yet never the same. I used a number of recordings of water, fire, crowds, children at play, etc. These recordings were processed by a computer using the programming environment Csound to apply complex filtering to the recorded sounds. The computer was used to extract the same note from these various sound sources. This technique might be compared to a kind of tube or tunnel, which, though creating no sound of its own, colors any sound passing through it. In addition, the computer was used to create a gradual transition and transformation from one state to the next, passing through the tunnel. The ballet CMXCV was premiered in Copenhagen in September 1995 .

Tunnel (1995), for four channel tape, excerpt

Wayne Siegel: Burning River
for 4 channel tape surround sound (14')
1999

Available on CD from DaCapo Records
http://www.dacapo-records.dk/recording-iliaden.aspx

The composition Burning River was inspired by a particular section in Book 21 of The Iliad by Homer. In this section, Achilles runs amok against the Trojans. He chases them to the river, Scamander, and forces them into the water, where he continues his merciless slaughter. The river is soon blocked by the many corpses and Scamander pleads with Achilles to end the bloodshed. Achilles refuses to cease straightaway andScamander is shocked by Achilles’ arrogance. The river responds by overflowing its own banks and creating a veritable deluge. Finally the Gods intervene and Hephaestus sends a huge fire across the plain to stop the flooding.

I was attracted to this section of the Iliad because of the many references to sounds. In addition to the battle, there are references to the sounds of the river, the flood, the great fire and the transition between and blending of these contrasting elements. Some quotations from Book 21 of the Iliad are also included in the composition recited by Professor Otto Steen Due in the original language, Ancient Greek. Often the voice is transformed into something unrecognizable, but at times the voice is brought into focus and heard clearly. Burning River begins and ends with a quote from the Iliad, which roughly translated reads:

“As when the smoke rises up towards the broad arch of heaven
Over a burning town, and is sent by the rath of the Gods
Suffering it brings to all, and to many it brings death;
Such were the torments and sorrows Achilles brought to the Trojans.”

Burning River was commissioned by the New Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum with financial support from the Danish Arts Foundation and produced at DIEM in Aarhus, Denmark. The composition was premiered along with works by five other Danish composers at the Glyptotek Museum in Copenhagen in the Autumn of 1999 in connection with a complete reading of The Iliad in a new Danish edition translated by Professor Otto Steen Due.

Burning River (1999), excerpt

Wayne Siegel: Terra
for mezzo soprano and electronics
2000

available on CD from DaCapo Records:
http://www.dacapo-records.dk/da/recording-wayne-siegel---terra.aspx
Terra was composed for the  Danish mezzo soprano Helene Gjerris and later widely performed by Christina Dahl. The work is in three section with lyrics by the composer.

I
Meaning
Meaning, seeming, being, dreaming
Feeling, seeing, kneeling, leaning
Gleaming, needing, singing, sleeping
Shining, showing, sharing, knowing
Moving, falling, calling, moaning
Dawning, growing, wanting, flowing
Waking, naming, changing, waiting
Taking, caging, chaining, failing
Aching, hanging, aging, changing

II
Did you change
Did you change the channel?
Did you change it?
Did you?

III
I Dreamed
I dreamed there was meaning.
I was sleeping but I know I was singing.
The dawn was growing and I was waking.
I was waiting, trying to name the waiting.
I felt the chains and the aching.
The light was failing and the song was changing.

Terra (2000), excerpt

Wayne Siegel: Guernica Revisted
for 5 channel tape surround sound (11')
2002

April 27, 1937 was another traditional Monday market day in the small Spanish village of Guernica when German warplanes emerged in the sky above. Church bells rang as Guernica was bombed relentlessly for over three hours, leaving the town devastated and up to 1/3 of its civilian population dead. The town burned for three days.

In support of Gen. Franco's fascist forces, Hitler's Luftwaffe had chosen Guernica for bombing practice in perfecting the war machine that would play a major part in the coming world war. The plane's machine guns cut down townspeople as they ran from crumbling buildings. Over 32 tons of high explosive bombs were dropped on the village in the world's first saturation bombing raid on a civilian target. Inspired by this terrible event, Picasso's famous mural Guernica was commissioned by the Spanish Republican government for the 1937 International Exposition in Paris.

Guernica Revisited is similarly inspired by the unfathomable horror, cruelty, terror and destruction of war: a topic that sadly seems to be ever relevant. Guernica Revisited was commissioned by Rien a voir with support from the Danish Arts Foundation for premiere in Montreal on September 11, 2002.

Guernica Revisited, (2002), excerpt

Wayne Siegel: Sappho Fragments (2004)
for mezzo soprano and guitar
commissioned by Orpheus Duo with support from the Danish Arts Foundation
 
The work consists of eight songs based on poems by the ancient Greek poet Sappho of Lesbos (ca. 620 – 570 BC). Reliable sources (including Plato!) have described Sappho as being one of the greatest poets of her age. Yet nearly all of her works have been lost, only a few small fragments remaining.

Some of these fragments freely adapted by the composer comprise the lyrics.

On Beauty
Some say the most beautiful thing
on this dark earth
is an army of horsemen,
some say an army of foot soldiers,
others again say a fleet of warships, 
but for me it is the sight of my lover

On Beauty (2004, from Sappho Fragments), excerpt

Wayne Siegel: Close Orbit (2005)
for mezzo soprano, guitar and electronics
commissioned by Orpheus Duo with support from the Danish Arts Foundation

Close Orbit was commissioned by Duo Orfeus and premiered as a theater concert in 2005. The work consists of eight songs based on poems by the ancient Greek poet Sappho of Lesbos (ca. 620 – 570 BC). Reliable sources (including Plato!) have described Sappho as being one of the greatest poets of her age. Yet nearly all of her works have been lost, only a few small fragments remaining.

Some of these fragments freely adapted by the composer comprise the lyrics for Close Orbit. The songs are intertwined with electronic sounds and interludes. A version of this work entitled Sappho Fragments includes the eight songs without electronics.

Close Orbit (2005), excerpt

Nykker
dance and computer music
2007
Watch video at: www.waynesiegel.dk

Choreography: Louise Friis
Music: Wayne Siegel
Dancers: Liv Sanz & Vittoria Lazorella

Nykker is an abstract pas de deux based on the concept of having notions, or the observation of what might be called nervous female behaviour: crotchety, eccentric, restless, whimsical. The performance touches on exchanging, holding, enjoying, confronting and celebrating these notions. Often this concept is considered to be negative, but it also expresses femininity, a desire for attention, an excuse to cock one’s head and slam a door or two, to be funny and engulfed in naughty thoughts.

The music to Nykker was commissioned by and created in close collaboration with the choreographer. The choreography and dance performance were created first. The music is tightly synchronized with the dance. The sound material consists mainly of computer processed recorded sounds, including slamming doors, interviews with two ballerinas in Canadian English and Russian, an interview with a famous British pop star as well as other vocal sounds.

Nykker (2007), excerpt

Wayne Siegel: Bloopers
ballet music
2008

available on CD from DaCapo Records
http://www.dacapo-records.dk/da/recording-wayne-siegel---terra.aspx

Bloopers was commissioned by the Mrs. Miller Dance Company with support from the Danish Arts Foundation. The ballet was the result of a close collaboration between the composer and the choreographer Louise Friis.

Bloopers (2008), excerpt

Wayne Siegel: Jericho 2.0
for two trombones and computer

available on CD from DaCapo records:
http://www.dacapo-records.dk/da/recording-wayne-siegel---terra.aspx

commissioned by Niels-Ole Bo Johansen and Chris Houlding with support from the Danish Arts Foundation

Jericho 2.0 is composed for two trombones and computer. References are made to various scenes in the history of Jericho, including the battle of Jericho of biblical times as well as to the destruction of the Oasis Casino in 2000 AD.

Jericho 2.0 (2008), excerpt

Wayne Siegel: Road Movie
for 16 trombones

Published by:
http://www.brassmusiconline.com/en/siegel-road-movie-for-16-part-trombone-ensemble-1368
Road Movie was commissioned by Professor Niels-Ole Bo Johansen of the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, Denmark and premiered in Salt Lake City, Utah in connection with an International Trombone Festival in 2008. The work consists of three movements, each depicting a scene in an imaginary road movie. The first movement, AM, is set on an early morning on a country highway. The abbreviation AM is, of course, ambiguous, implying both the early hours of the day as well as a type of radio that was most common in cars in my youth. The second movement, Canyon Canon depicts a landscape inspired byt the Grand Canyon.  And in the third movement, Highway, the movie comes to a most tragic end.

Road Movie (2008), excerpt from 3rd movement

Wayne Siegel: Concerto for Organ and Orchestra (2010-2011)

This organ concerto was commissioned by the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra with financial support from the Danish Arts Foundation and The Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus. The concert is dedicated to the soloist, professor Ulrik Spang-Hanssen. My collegue Ulrik Spang- Hanssen and I had agreed to collaborate on a new work for orchestra and the planned new organ already about a year before the wonderful Klais Organ was completed and inaugurated in the Symphony Hall in the Aarhus Concert Hall. The concerto is perofrmed in three movements without interuption. Sources of inspiration include the rich classical organ tradition and concerto form and minimalism, but also electronic music and film music, from Hollywood to Bollywood. The work was premiered on March 1st, 2012 by the Aarhus Symphony conducted by Douglas Bostock.

Organ Concerto (2011), excerpt from ending of 3rd movement

American born composer, Wayne Siegel, has resided in Denmark since 1974. He has written music in many genres ranging from electronic music to orchestral works, from chamber music to a full-length science fiction opera. Leading international artists, including the Kronos Quartet, Singcircle, Safri Duo and Harry Sparnaay, have commissioned works from him. His music has been performed widely throughout Europe, the Americas and Japan. Many of his works fall between genres, combining diverse cultural elements and compositional techniques, encompassing influences from folk music, rock and minimalism. He often uses computers with live musicians, and he has explored the possibilities of interactive sound installations. In 1986 he became director of Denmark`s national electronic music center, DIEM, and in 2003 Siegel was appointed professor of electronic music at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus.

Wayne Siegel

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