Starting

In my journey as a composer I have been connected and influenced in good and bad ways by new technologies. I believe technologies can be used in a good way when making music, performances, opera, theatre and/or any type of art. At the moment I proposed doing this work with electronics I thought that even not being a pro in it, I could explore it as a tool to enhance or even to give a distinctive quality of timbre to the final result. So the process started.

On the 20th September, I started recording the sounds I wanted to use. Exported them into Logic Pro and on the 23rd September I was making a tape. I was really into it and I really enjoyed what I was doing. Suddenly, I remembered that apart from the sounds I recorded I could use fragments from previous pieces, specially the ones that are being projected in my research. That gave me a boost of energy to keep doing whatever I was doing. After using some MaxMSP granulator, Logic, my intuition and some other electronic devices, I finished the maquette of my electronic tape.

Previously to the electronics, I sketched harmony and rhythm. I played chords taken from the odd partials of the harmonic series at the piano, transposed them using the circle of fifths, rotated them using the poles inversion (this time using two types of inversions - inversion by octave and inversion by fifth), created an harmonic bass and an harmonic journey.

After all these, I started to compose directly in Sibelius. Since couple of updates ago, Sibelius is capable to link an external video or sound and compose with them as a guidance. So, that is what I did. After uploading the tape, I started to compose, using the tape as a guide for my composition - and here you have the first mistake. The electronic is made by strong and affirmative clicks and those are suppose to create some activity both in the ensemble and in the tape itself. At the begging, the first song we hear is the click from the tape, and that is the starting point of a sort of choral-melodic-gesture in brass instruments. At the end of that first choral, the click silence the trumpet and the trombone triggering some activity in the winds.

These all sound very exciting, but the reality was not that exciting. I started feeling lost and not controlling what I was doing. I was been controlled by the electronics and the idea of having new technologies as a new tool disappeared. So, I stopped. Closed Sibelius file and had a break.