How do we actually experience musical form? There are theories, but such larger-scale questions have not yet been seriously investigated by experimental psychology. Now, Stephen McAdams (CIRMMT, McGill University), Emmanuel Bigand (Université de Bourgogne), and their collaborators are trying to understand both how a composer (Reynolds) plans the formal aspects of his music, and whether listeners actually hear things in the way he expects.
The Sonor Ensemble at UCSD recorded five thematic elements which Reynolds composed as material for his piano concerto, The Angel of Death . At Ircam, pianist Jean-Marie Cottet recorded their direct parallels in the solo piano medium. Psychologists in France then undertook extensive testing to explore how skilled (and unskilled) listeners actually hear Reynolds's materials.
During a series of residencies at Ircam, where Frédéric Voisin was his musical assistant, Reynolds composed a 35-minute chamber concerto with 6-channel computer sound. It was premièred at the 2001 Agora Festival. Pierre-André Valade conducted the Ensemble Court-Circuit with pianist Cottet on four occasions before audiences that were asked to register their responses in real time during performance. The following Spring, parallel performance/experiments were undertaken at UCSD with Sonor conducted by Harvey Sollberger. Gloria Chen was the soloist. The data from these concert/workshops were analyzed to see how closely fluctuations in listener response correlate with the formal structure of Reynolds's work.
The Ircam CD-ROM publication documents and explores the significance of this pathbreaking, art/science enterprise from compositional, psychological, and analytical perspectives, tracing the multi-year history of the entire collaborative undertaking.
Première performances of The Angel of Death: Ircam's Agora Festival, 6 and 7 June 2001, at the Pompidou Center, Paris.
Successive performances occurred at the 2001 Why Note? Festival (Dijon), on 17 April 2002 at UCSD's Mandeville Center for the Performing Arts, and at the 2003 June in Buffalo Festival.
A SPECIAL 200-PAGE ISSUE:
"Angel of Death Project"
Music Perception (Vol. 22, No. 2, Winter 2004)
Edited by D. J. Levitin and L. L. Cuddy, this journal contains a detailed history of the Angel Project, five extended articles, a Prolog by editor Levitin, and an Epilog by composer Reynolds.
Questions? ping@rogerreynolds.com
This page was last modified on 4 January 2005.