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B'rey'sheet (In the beginning) (Cantillation Study #1)

from The Theory of Impossible Melody (ART 1004, 1989) by Larry Polansky

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(B'rey'sheet) (In the beginning...) (Cantillation Study #1)
1985; revised 1987, 1989)
(For Jody Diamond)

B'rey'sheet is for solo voice and live interactive computer. It is one of the Cantillation Studies, a set of pieces based on computer-aided melodic transformations of the traditional Hebrew tropes and melodies used for singing the Torah. Each piece uses a 17-verse section of the Torah and is named for the first word of the text. Other works in the set are V'leem'shol (And to rule....) for five flutes (verses 18-35 of B'rey'sheet); and Eleh Toldat (These are the generations....) for four marimbas and live computer.

I envisioned B'rey'sheet as an evolution from disorder to order, as manifested in the relatedness between the vocal melody and the musical ideas of the voice-controlled computer. The soloist sings the cantillation melody unaltered. The computer reacts to the voice harmonically, rhythmically, melodically, and timbrally, gradually constraining its variations until the voice and the computer are in unison. Four sine waves, distorted at first by special real-time modulation techniques, respond to the voice by decreasing their depth and degree of modulation as the piece progresses. The computer "invents" a set of tuning rules and intervals for each verse, based on successively more consonant just intonation (starting with 17-limit ratios in the first verse, and constrained to 7-, 5-, and 3- limits near the end). Melodic and rhythmic variation processes are generated in similar ways, resulting, for example in the "chorales" near the end of the work.

Technical notes: B'rey'sheet was first realized and premiered on the prototype of HMSL (VI.0) in 1984 at the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College. It was later adapted for an Amiga computer running HMSL. The two-computer version on this recording was rewritten in HMSL V4.0 with the assistance of Phil Burk.

credits

from The Theory of Impossible Melody (ART 1004, 1989), track released December 24, 1989
Jody Diamond, voice
Phil Burk and Larry Polansky, live computers
Tom Erbe, recording engineer
Digitally recorded live in the Mills College Concert Hall, January 1990

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Artifact Recordings San Francisco, California

ARTIFACT RECORDINGS is a project of Ubu, Incorporated, an artist-run, non-profit organization supporting experimental and electronic music based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our download and compact disk series is dedicated to representing a living experimental music tradition that continues to thrive in the cracks between the commercial, academic and classical music establishments. ... more

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