Flute & Electronics

glass ceilings

Anderson, C

'Glass Ceilings' was written as part of a commission-performance project initiated by Claudia Anderson in late 2019, requesting four-minute works from a group of four notable women composers to include in performance with 'Glass Ceilings.' 2020’s abrupt overthrow of our way of life had an inevitable effect on all of our works, and each composer in her own way incorporated the horrors of the pandemic and racially motivated violence that defined much of that year. Reflecting on those populations who were most at risk from disease and violence, who were front-line workers due to their social and financial status, 'Glass Ceilings' is dedicated to all of them.

Based on an Armenian troubadour song, I WILL NOT BE SAD IN THIS WORLD is a uniquely beautiful work for alto flute (or bass flute) accompanied by a pre-recorded audio track made purely from the composer’s own singing. The result is a fluid interplay between the live flute and the composer’s multi-tracked and processed vocal sonorities. The work was created for Marya Martin’s Eight Visions collection (published by Presser), and is now available as a single publication.

Please note this publication includes a score only and no separate flute part.

Preciosilla is a song setting of Gertrude Stein’s poem that places the text in the realm of the rhythm section instead of in the realm of the melody where lyrics are conventionally found. The composer’s reading of the text was sampled by an Akai S1000. The flutist’s melody has quotes from pop love songs and other familiar music embedded in musical stream-of-consciousness writing that attempts to emulate Gertrude’s handling of text.

Tower of Ivory, for piccolo and pre-recorded track, is one of a series of pieces in an ongoing project called Where Your Treasure Is, about the gradual decay of a large painting of an Irish burial mound. Each piece in the four-part series is a meditation on a text from James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The music for Tower of Ivory takes off from an Irish traditional tin whistle tune known as Salamanca.

Gerard Beljon presents Something Wicked, for flute, piano, and electronics.

Something wicked is music about witches and witchcraft. In the music first an enchanting spell is wrought, slowly bringing to life something horrible. When the spell is cast eventually, a wild dance starts in which even the witches themselves are unable to control what they have just created. No electronic sounds have been used on the CD that accompanies the live instruments. All sounds are natural samples. Except for the vocal effects, all samples have been derived directly from the flute and the piano.

Duration: 10'. For advanced players.

The title Kaja Bjorntvedt s Ut, for alto flute and electronics, stems from the syllable formerly used in solfege to represent the key note of the Ionian mode (the major scale), now replaced by do . The piece Ut evolves around the key note of the E flat major scale, also moving on to other medieval modes.

Ut is written as a solo piece for alto flute, yet it forms a duet with a pre-recorded and processed tuba part. However, in spite of the fixed nature of the tape, the piece will never sound the same twice, as there are several improvised sections where the performer has to choose how to respond to the tape part.

ALIEN LOOP DE LOOPS for flute electronics, by Howard Buss, is a fantasy that appeals to a wide range of audiences. Buss envisioned a flutist playing during an air show by an alien craft. At first the flute is unaccompanied, but then is joined by the recording that includes traditional instruments, an 'alien' voice, the spacecraft, and electronic effects.

Mark Chambers Glass Darkly for alto flute, piano, and electronics.

From the composer:

Theological reflection in music has been an interest to composers such as Bach, Mendelssohn, and Messiaen, as well as others. I also have been influenced by my theological interests which is brought out quite deliberately in glass darkly

glass darkly is the first work in which I have utilized computer software from IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique.) Though the work is influenced and borne out of electronic music techniques it is not a work that is cold and lifeless. It is highly structured in terms of form and harmonic content yet contains moments of quiet reflection that are contrasted with episodes of dramatic peaks.

I then thought of the passage from I Corinthians. If one were to explore in musical terms what this passage means how would that affect the outcome? How does one see into eternity with mortal eyes? What do we see when we look through a glass darkly? As I considered my material in light of this passage I thought it best to fit the material to the particular instruments. To do this I needed to round up the various microtones so they would fit the given instrument. So for example say one tone had a frequency of 427.65 Hz (the half-way point between G# - 415.30 Hz and A 440 Hz.) I could keep the pitch for the flute, as it can readily play quartertones, but I would then round up the pitch to 440 Hz for the piano. I then added an electronic portion to the music to further realize the other microtones that the flute couldn t play.

The result of all this is that there are three layers that are incomplete reflections of the each other.

Dan Di Maggio s Baby Can t Sleep, for alto flute and electronics.

From the composer:

Basically, this piece is my first encounter with the alto flute. Scored for alto and tape, it is intended as a playful piece for this wonderful instrument. Basically it is a funny way to talk about sleep problems. The musical speech of the flute is disturbed by the sounds and noises from the tape. An Optional Background Trouble maker could also take part in the performance... With this piece I had my first premi

Dan Di Maggio presents Same Old Monsters, for bass flute and electronics.

From the composer:

I m going to record a concept album called Monsters, someday. Same Old Monsters will be the main composition, along with Bardhezi, for unaccompanied voice, with which it forms a diptych. The title suggests that the characteristics of human violence, oppression and malice are the same over the centuries. The idea of the piece is an activity that requires attention, delicacy and commitment (the bass flute part, with its rhythmic intricacies, quartertones and multiphonics), opposed to the obtuse brutality of the Same Old Monsters. Our antihero tries to resist and to fight back, but at the end gives up, and his voice becomes nothing but an inarticulate babble. The final version of the score was done with technical supervision by Carla Rees.

Duration: 9 . For the advanced player.

Alexandra Gardner presents Fade for flute and soundtrack.

From the composer:

'Fade was commissioned by the National Flute Association for the 2019 Young Artist Competition. It is the 12th work in my series of compositions for solo instrument with electronics. As is my habit with these pieces, the two parts are woven together into an aural landscape of shifting rhythms and textures based upon the sonic material of the acoustic instrument. The electronic part of Fade is comprised entirely of acoustic flute sounds, some of which are easily identifiable, and others of which have been processed into completely different forms using a variety of software tools. The work is an exploration of the nature of human memory; which memories 'stick' with us, the ways in which memories transform and mutate over time, and how they can seem to vanish, only to reappear at later unexpected moments.'

Duration: 6'43. For the advanced player.

Yeonpyeong Island

Jones, DE

David Evan Jones presents Yeonpyeong Island for flute and electronics.

Yeonpyeong Island (2011) is one of a series of recent compositions that use computer processed versions of actual news broadcasts in combination with live instruments. These pieces transform reports of some of the difficult news of our day and bring them into the contemplative frame of the concert hall. Yeonpyeong Island, for Daegum and computer sounds, features a report from South Korean radio broadcast on the day after the North Koreans launched an attack on Yeonpyeong Island in South Korea, killing several people.

Calling

Gibson, R

Calling was written for Jean DeMart, who gave the premiere performance at the University of Maryland Computer Music Festival on March 4, 1987. The electronic score was realized at the University of Maryland Computer Music Studio using a Yamaha CX5 Music Computer and DX7 Synthesizer. The title of the work, while purposely ambiguous, relates to the “vocation” (from the Latin vocare, i.e., to call) of composing and the compelling mystery of sound in music. Support from the Creative and Performing Arts Board of the University of Maryland, College Park for the composition of Calling is gratefully acknowledged.

David Evan Jones presents Yeonpyeong Island for flute and electronics.

Yeonpyeong Island (2011) is one of a series of recent compositions that use computer processed versions of actual news broadcasts in combination with live instruments. These pieces transform reports of some of the difficult news of our day and bring them into the contemplative frame of the concert hall. Yeonpyeong Island, for Daegum and computer sounds, features a report from South Korean radio broadcast on the day after the North Koreans launched an attack on Yeonpyeong Island in South Korea, killing several people.

Myrto Korkokiou and Apostolos Loufopoulos present 59 Winds for flute doubling bass flute and electronics.

The idea of 59 Winds is the experimentation and exploration of 'wind', one of the most important features in flute playing. In this piece the 'wind' creates a variety of timbres. The electronic part is based on flute sounds, which are electronically manipulated.

Duration: 7 30. For the advanced player.

Myrto Korkokiou and Apostolos Loufopoulos present Anatole for flute and electronics.

Inspired by images and sounds of the 'East' (Anatole = East/Dawn). The electronic part is made by electronically elaborated natural sounds of the flute, voice and percussion. The pre-recorded flute material in the electronic background is selected from individual flute improvisations on musical modes of the eastern Mediterranean.

Duration: 5 15. For the advanced player.

Myrto Korkokiou and Apostolos Loufopoulos present Behaviours for flute and electronics.

This piece presents a co-existence of flute sounds in the live instrument part with transformed sounds borrowed from the natural environment in the electronic sounds part. The musical context combines timbres resulting from particular flute techniques with sound behaviours deriving from the elaboration of environmental recordings (rain, wind, birds, insects etc).

Duration: 12 20. For the advanced player.