PROGRAM NOTE

Last modified 19 February 2024

PERSISTENCE [SHARESPACE VI] (2022-2024)
(Cello and Computer Musician)

by Roger Reynolds

PERSISTENCE: SHARESPACE VI (for solo cello computer musician, and spatialized sound) is a study in manifesting – and occasionally violating – a complex and demanding continuity of double-stops (spinning out a continuous two-part counterpoint). An interactive duo comprising a cellist and a computer musician (who manages various computer algorithms that manipulate the character of the performed sound, in addition to spatializing it). An alternative – an “other” – space lurks behind the apparent tranquility of the respiratory surface continuity. There, the weightlessness of lightning fast articulation is the norm. On occasion, this other world is heard between fissures in the surface continuity, reminding the listener of an unimaginable rush of potential urgency that always lurks beneath the subtly evolving surface. Algorithmic enhancements also dimensionalize the soloist’s journey.

         PERSISTENCE: SHARESPACE VI (for solo cello computer musician, and spatialized sound)is a study in manifesting – and occasionally violating – a complex and demanding continuity of double-stops (spinning out a continuous two-part counterpoint). It is one a series of chamber music duets that complement an instrumental soloist with a computer musician whose performed materials sometimes reinforce, sometimes challenge what the cellist is doing.

        In the SHARESPACE series (There are also parallel compositions involving guitar, contrabass, piano, and violin.), I seek an ideal interaction between real-time computer manipulations and live materials performed by an instrumental soloists. The materials under the control of the computer musician are all derived from recordings of “seed” passages in the notated instrumental music. These become the metaphoric genetic materials that the computer elaborates. There is also an alternative – an “other” – space lurking behind the apparent tranquility of the respiratory surface continuity. There, the weightlessness of lightning-fast articulation is the norm. On occasion, this other world is heard between fissures in the surface continuity, reminding the listener of an unimaginable rush of potential urgency that always lurks beneath the subtly evolving surface. Algorithmic enhancements also dimensionalize the soloist’s journey.

        My collaborators in the development of the PERSISTENCE project include Jacob Sundstrom, Miller Puckette, Alexis Descharmes, and Peter Ko. A superb art film of Descharmes’s performance has been created by videographer Kyle Johnson (with his collaborators).

– Roger Reynolds