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DAFx '06 Concert: Sept. 18, 2006, 8:00 pm


The following program is from the concert of the 2006 DAFx Conference held at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University. The 9th edition of the International Conference on Digital Audio Effects was held in Montreal, Canada, from September 18 to 20 and was organized by the Music Technology Area of the Schulich School of Music, McGill University. The DAFx 2006 concert was produced by CIRMMT, with the financial support of DAFx 2006 and the technical assistance of the McGill Digital Composition Studios.


The program was composed of 4 pieces, as follows:

    * "Multiplication Virtuelle" (2004)
      for percussion and electronics (12'00")
      by Mei-Fang Lin (Taiwan/USA)
      Performer: Fabrice Marandola

    * "Little Box" (2005)
      for amplified laptop and realtime devices (10'00")
      by Claire-Mélanie Sinnhuber (Switzerland)
      Performer: Fernando Rocha

    * "deflector" (2003)
      for clarinet and interactive DSP (14'20")
      by Laurie Radford (Canada/England)
      Performer: Jean-Guy Boisvert

    * "Erba nera che cresci segno nero tu vivi" (1999)
      for soprano and synthesized sounds (14'30")
      by Mauro Lanza (Italy)
      Performer: Julieanne Klein

Technical support: Richard McKenzie, Joe Malloch, Kent Walker
 

Program Notes


Multiplication Virtuelle

The main idea for the piece is to have the percussion instruments multiplied by sample sounds triggered in real time by the percussion itself. Thus the electronic part acts more like an agent that doubles (or multiplies) the percussion, rather than just as an accompaniment. Object "bonk~" written by Miller Puckette in the Max/MSP environment is used to capture the percussion attacks in real time. The information about the intensity of the attacks is then used to trigger and control the playback rate of the stored samples. In another words, the pitch of the sample is determined by how loud the percussionist plays.

The secondary idea of the piece has a different take on the meaning of its title "Multiplication Virtuelle". As already implied by the setup of the instruments on the stage, the idea of circular motion and of repeated patterns come into play not only in the surface material but also in the more global structure of the piece itself. Specific rhythmic patterns are repeated (or multiplied several times in a more visual sense) before moving on to the new but related patterns. The local structure of the piece also proceeds in a circular motion in terms of how its rhythmic patterns evolve.

Multiplication Virtuelle is dedicated to percussionist Jean Geoffroy, who premiered the piece on Oct. 14, 2004 at the Espace de projection at IRCAM during the Festival "Résonances". Emmanuel Jourdan was the assistant for the premiere performance.



Little Box

Little box... I see clearly again the reflections of the magic lantern described by Marcel Proust in Combray:

    "...it substituted for the opacity of the walls of impalpable
    iridescence, of multicoloured supernatural apparitions,
    where legends were depicted as in stained glass wavering
    and momentary." 

For little box I wanted a purely electric sound; that the instrument be a product of electricity in the same way as electronic equipment. I wanted a surface rendered sensitive by amplification, playable by the bare hands of the performer.

I wanted the movements of hands on this surface to be analyzed and for this analysis to control the parameters of the sound. During my research, I realized that I had already been playing this instrument for some time, and that it was my aluminum portable computer.

The clicking of the keys, of the mouse, the feedback of the microphone, the touch of different amplified surfaces, smooth or perforated...



deflector

A myriad of musics and styles engulf my ears on a daily basis. Composition is often an activity of response and conversation with the sonic world in which we reside. During the act of conception and writing, I often feel that I am deflecting the sound objects being thrust at me: sometimes defensively (rejection), more often inquisitively (adoption and transformation). In deflector, the clarinet is the principle reactive agent in this compositional act, to which is added a prerecorded layer of manipulated sound materials and a layer of "deflections" (transformations) of the live clarinet materials. In addition to a variety of basic DSP transformations of the clarinet sound, granulation as well as audio capture and subsequent transformation of the live clarinet's material "deflect" the live clarinet and provide a self-generated counterpoint.

deflector is in many ways also an homage to Luciano Berio who left us in 2003. Fragments of clarinet music by Mozart and Brahms join with that of Berio to "deflect" the current intentions of the live clarinet as well as to "reflect" upon the enduring contributions of these creators.

deflector was commissioned by clarinetist Jean-Guy Boisvert.



Erba nera che cresci segno nero tu vivi

At the basis of this piece lies a reflection on the relationship between music and language. It is not a question of an analogical relationship. What interests me about language from a "musical" point of view is not its rhetoric, but its form, its capacity to manage complexity with a reduced number of intelligible symbols. I was particularly influenced by the theories of generative linguistics; I find a lot of similarities between the model of language as a tree-like structure with several hierarchical structures, and the rhythmic idea that I developed in this piece. Indeed, in Erba nera che cresci segno nero tu vivi, the rhythmic component is preponderant (despite the idea of "lyricism" that is always associated with solo voice), the superposition of different meters and speeds approaches the point of saturation. It is the principle of hierarchy derived from linguistics that avoids this saturation: all the patterns have a common ancestor, a veritable rhythmic skeleton that develops in an organic manner over the entire duration of the piece, making it pregnant with potential meanings and transparent, by giving an orientation to our perception of complexity. The richness of the rhythm contrasts with an extreme restraint in all the other parameters. Even the choice of text reflects this logic; all that is sung is the title, without consecutive repeats, expanded to the point of aligning its own form with the form of the piece itself. This fragment struck me by its obscure simplicity, a first attempt in Italian by its author, Amelia Rosselli, who grew up in France and England (the anthology from which it is taken is entitled Prime prose italiane); a couple of septenary verses, inserted into this prose collection, express a sober and mysterious tone.



Composer Bios

Mei-Fang Lin was born in Taiwan. She got her bachelor's degree in composition and theory at the National Taiwan Normal University and her master's degree in composition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is currently pursuing her doctoral degree in composition at the University of California at Berkeley. She has studied composition with Guy Garnett, Sever Tipei, Zack Browning, and electronic music with Scott Wyatt. She is now working with Edwin Dugger and Ed Campion at UC Berkeley. In 2003-04 she attended the IRCAM's Cursus computer music course in Paris. Among her honors include the Kate Neal Kinley Memorial Fellowship, Dr. and Mrs. James C.Y. Soong Fellowship, Geraldine Cooke Fellowship, Second Place in the 2001 Left Coast Chamber Ensemble Composition Contest, Third Place in the 2001 SCI/ASCAP Student Composition Commission, First Prize in the 2000 NACUSA Young Composer's Competition, First Prize in Prix SCRIME 2000 in France, winner of the 21st Century Piano Commission Competition in 1999, finalist at the Concours International de Musique Electroacoustiques, Bourges in 2000 and the Concorso Internazionale Luigi Russolo in 1999. Her compositions have received performances and broadcast in the United States, Europe and Taiwan.

Born in 1973, Claire-Mélanie Sinnhuber studied flute and received a diploma with Patrice Bocquillon. She studied composition at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, graduating in 2006. Her music has been performed in France and elsewhere, notably at the Manca Festival, Musica, The Darmstadt summer academy, Voix Nouvelles (Royaumont), the Montreal Young Composer Forum, the Dunois Theatre (Paris) and at the Alicante Festival (Spain). She has collaborated with dance (Laurence Marthouret), theatre (Anne Fabien), audiovisiual (Marc Petitjean) and is currently undertaking a collaboration for the Grand Atelier of Royaumont with a video artist from Fresnoy for music for a film with live performance. She received support from Sacem from 2002 to 2004, the Meyer Foundation in 2004 and the Nadia and Lili Boulanger Foundation in 2005-06.

Composer Laurie Radford has been creating music for instruments, voices and a variety of electroacoustic media for the past twenty-five years. His recent activities include compositions for orchestra, chamber ensembles, acousmatic works, and works increasingly involving computer-controlled signal processing in combination with live performers. His output of over sixty works have been commissioned, performed and broadcast by a variety of ensembles, soloists, orchestras and festivals broadcast throughout North and South America, Europe and Asia. Recent performances have taken place in Los Angeles, Montréal, Antwerp, Dusseldörf, Gent, Amsterdam, London, Hawaii, Manchester and Edmonton. Radford's music has received awards from SOCAN, the International Composers' Competition "Kaszmierz Serocki", and the WSO New Music Festival Composers' Competition. His music is available on McGill Records, PeP/CEC Productions, Fidelio Audiofile Recordings, Clef Records, Eclectra Records and empreintes DIGITALes. Laurie Radford has taught electroacoustic music and composition at Concordia University, Bishop's University, McGill University, University of Alberta and the Domaine-Forget. He is presently Senior Lecturer in Composition and Electroacoustic Music at City University, London.

Born in Venice in 1975, Mauro Lanza, after studying piano and composition in his native city, was selected by the reading committee of the Ensemble Intercontemporain and by Ircam to participate in the composition and computer music course in 1998-99. He has worked at the institute ever since as an instructor and a research composer in the areas of physical modeling synthesis and computer-assisted composition. His works have been premiered during the Ircam season, the Presences Festival, the Venice Biennale, the Strasbourg Musica Festival, the Gaudeamus Music Week in Amsterdam and the Europäische Musikmonat de Bâle, in close collaboration with performers such as the Court-circuit Ensemble under the direction of Pierre-André Valade, Donatienne Michel-Dansac, Francesco Filidei, Vincent David, David Zambon and Pierre-Stéphane Meugé. Ircam and the Achipel Festival of Geneva dedicated three monographic concerts to his music in 2002 and 2004. He has just written the original music for "Le Songe de Médée" by choreographer Angelin Preljocaj, commissioned by the Opéra de Paris and Ircam.



Performer Bios

Born in 1972, Fabrice Marandola began his musical studies in Montluçon (France). He then continued his studies in Paris at the Conservatoire du XIII arrondissement, the Conservatoire National de Région, and finally at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse, where he obtained a Diplôme de Formation Supérieure (first prize in percussion) in 1997, in the class of Jacques Delécluse. He is currently Percussion Area Chair at McGill University, Montreal (Canada) and has previously taught at the CNR de Grenoble and the CNR d'Angers; from 2002 to 2005, he also held the position of percussion pedagogy instructor in the Département de formation à l'enseignement of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. A large part of his musical activities is devoted to new music - he collaborates with the ensembles Les Jeunes Solistes and Zellig, as well as with the composer Arnaud Petit. He remains equally attached to orchestral music and has participated in numerous concerts with the orchestras of Radio-France (Orchestre National de France, Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France) as percussionist and timpanist, from 1998-2005. The recording Chants that he recorded with Les Jeunes Solistes (dir. R. Safir), devoted to the vocal works of Claude Vivier, won the Académie du disque Charles Cros Grand Prix 2003, in the category of contemporary music.

In parallel to his career as a musician, Fabrice Marandola carries out research in ethnomusicology. Holder of a doctorate, with very honorable mention and the congratulations of the jury, he is a member of the Langues-Musiques-Sociétés (Unité Mixte de Recherche CNRS-Paris V) laboratory and in collaboration with Nathalie Fernando, published three compact discs on the topic of the traditional music of Cameroun (Inédit and Ocora/Radio France).


Fernando Rocha has been professor of percussion at Minas Gerais Federal University (UFMG) since 1998. He holds a Master's Degree (MM) from UFMG and a Bachelor's Degree (BM) from Sao Paulo State University, where he studied with professors John Boudler and Carlos Stasi. He is currently on leave from his position to pursue Doctoral studies at McGill University in Montreal with D'Arcy Philip Gray. He has a scholarship from the Brazilian Agency APES. As a performer Fernando Rocha has premiered some percussion works by composers such as Lewis Nielson, Almeida Prado, Sergio Freire, Nicolas Gilbert, Jacobc Sudol, Rogerio Vieira and Mario Alfaro. In 2005, he appeared as solo performer at PASIC (Percussive Arts Society International Convention). Both as a solo and a chamber music performer, he has appeared in the most important music festivals in Brazil and also played in Argentina, USA, Portugal and Canada. He has also directed the UFMG Percussion Ensemble performing about 60 concerts from 2000 to 2004 and recording a CD with works by Brazilian composer Villa-Lobos arranged for percussion ensemble. In addition to working with contemporary music Fernando Rocha has played jazz vibes with some great Brazilian musicians, such as flutist Mauro Rodrigues, drummer Nenen, and guitar player Magno Alexandre. In 1997 he was awarded a scholarship to study jazz vibes in New York for 8 months with Joe Locke and Stefon Harris. He also played with Bobby Sanabria's Big Band.

Fernando Rocha has presented workshops, including one at the First Percussion Day organized in Brazil by PAS BRAZIL Chapter in 2001. In August 2004 he was the host of the First International Music Festival that took place in Belo Horizonte (Brazil), presenting about 20 percussion concerts and workshops with musicians from Brazil, USA, Portugal, France, Italy, Canada and Senegal.


Particularly interested in 20th and 21st century music, Jean-Guy Boisvert has often performed premieres of Canadian works. Among those are the Concerto 2000 et des poussières by Alain Perron, quintets by Tim Brady, the late Bengt Hambraeus, Bruce Mather, Piotr Grella Mozejko, and numerous solo works with electronics. Whenever he can, he enjoys working on new music with the composers themselves or their preferred interpreters. His favourite repertoire includes rare gems from previous centuries and multi-media new ventures.

He has recorded a first CD, Zodiac, that includes, besides the eponyme work by Stockhausen, first recordings of works by Boucourechliev, Donald Steven and Bruce Pennycook. With support from Canada Council he makes two CD's, in 2004, Amours, including works by Canadian composers Denis Gougeon, Christos Hatzis, Jacques Hétu, Alcides Lanza, and the 1970's eponyme masterpiece by Stockhausen, and in 2006, Remembering Reger, featuring quintets by Lesage, Mather, Grella-Mozejko with the Bozzini quartet.

A graduate of Conservatoire de musique du Québec and London's Guildhall School of Music, Jean-Guy Boisvert holds a Doctorate in contemporary music performance from Université de Montréal. He has studied with such diverse musicians as Rafaël Masella, Yona Ettlinger, Robert Marcellus and Suzan Stephens with whom he especially worked on the choreographic works of Stockhausen, including Harlekin.

He has taught clarinet, saxophone and chamber music at Université de Moncton since 2000.


Soprano Julieanne Klein, hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "expressive", is a versatile singer who has performed in numerous cities throughout North America, including Montreal, New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Charleston, and Washington D.C. Specializing in contemporary music, she is the resident soprano soloist for Ensemble Prima, which recently performed George Crumb's Ancient Voices of Children, Berio's Folk Songs, and O King. Last November saw her debut at Place des Arts with Ensemble Prima, singing works from the Second Viennese School, including arias from Wozzeck. In March of 2006 she appeared in Chicago with the renowned American contemporary ensemble Eighth Blackbird, singing Roberto Sierra's Cancionero Sefardi. She recently recorded Orpheus on Sappho's Shores by Luna Pearl Wolff for Oxingale Records, conducted by Véronique Lacroix. Last summer Ms. Klein traveled to England, where she was one of three singers accepted into the prestigious Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme for Contemporary Performance. She performed excerpts from Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire, Changing Light by Kaija Saariaho, and several world premieres of the Britten-Pears Composers-in-Residence program.

In 2002 she was the featured guest artist of Music of Changes, a Los Angeles based chamber group established to assist contemporary composers in the presentation of their music. Performances with the Music of Changes ensemble include the works of Chris Dench, Alba Potes, and Roberto Sierra (previous Composer-In-Residence with the Philadelphia Orchestra). In 2004, Ms. Klein made her debut with Montreal's SMCQ Orchestra (Société de musique contemporaine du Québec) as a last-minute replacement for an ailing soprano, and sang Petra Vermote's Tsizj with tremendous success. Claude Gingras of La Presse stated, "Julieanne Klein accomplit tout cela avec beaucoup d'aplomb." In March she premiered Yannick Plamondons L'Ange Casseur with the SMCQ Orchestra for the Montreal MusiMars Festival.

Julieanne is completing a Doctorate of Music at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, specializing in the performance of contemporary vocal music. Her research includes the Her research includes the utilization of voice with interactive electronic compositions, and she is currently compiling a comprehensive reference and analytical guide of works in this field. In February of 2004, Ms. Klein was a finalist in the prestigious McGill Concerto Competition, and was awarded a McGill Major Fellowship for the 2004-06 school years. She is a recipient of the Phyllis and Bernard Shapiro Fellowship, as well as the Gladys Turk Scholarship. She has been a member of the Pi Kappa Lambda Honor Society since 2002.