An Interview with Roger Reynolds

Notes for Part 3 - Transfigured Wind: A Guide

1. Fundamental Frequency - The classical physical description of a sound involves a fundamental frequency, which is the lowest of a set of partial frequencies associated with it. Somewhat surprisingly, the aggregate of all the partials is what determines the octave of the pitch that a listener hears, and this heard pitch may sometimes appear to be at a frequency not actually represented in the signal (the "missing fundamental" phenomenon).
   
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2. Glissando - When the apparent pitch of a musical tone gradually changes upwards or downwards, not by scale step, but by a slow, continuous alteration, the sound is said to "glissando" from one note to another. Although this phenomenon is most often associated with string instruments (because of the flexibility with which the left hand fingers can influence the sounding length of the string), other instruments can also achieve or simulate such continuous change.
   
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3. Multiphonics - Instruments in the Western tradition have evolved with a strong bias towards homogeneity of sound quality from one note to another throughout their compass. This normative notwithstanding, it was discovered in the second half of the Twentieth Century that non-standard fingerings and excitation strategies (especially in the case of woodwinds) result in intriguing multiple sounds that can be integrated into instrumental performances.
   
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4. Partials - All sounds that give persuasive impressions of pitch do so as a result of rapid, regular periodicities in the pattern of air pressure fluctuations that carry them. A pitched sound has a fundamental frequency (the lowest in a complex tone) that determines the perceived pitch. But musical sounds have an array of allied components at frequencies which are at more or less integral multiples of the fundamental frequency. These higher components of the composite whole are termed partials.
   
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5. Drones - Some music, notably that of India, depends for its emotive effect not upon the habitually absorbed harmonic conventions of the Western tradition, but rather upon subtle variation in the identity of constantly inflected lines. These highly disciplined inflections are best recognized and appreciated against the background reference of a consistent, stable pitch or drone. In order to allay the potential fatigue of an unvarying pitch reference always sounding, great attention is paid to coloristic variation, created by constantly changing partial weighting.
   
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6. Pedals - In some Western music, the concept of drones is emulated by maintaining for some considerable period of time (in relation to the scale of the whole) a constant pitch reference. This reference will normally be at either the tonic or dominant scale level of the prevailing tonality. Such an orienting function, usually in the lowest register, can also be evoked by recurrent rather than continuous events.
   
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7. ...brain ablaze, she howled aloud... - Written for 1, 2, or 3 piccolos, computer processed sound and optional real-time computer spatialization, this extended work (2000-2003) is a part of Reynolds' The Red Act Project. The title comes from the text that underlies this piece, a text that extracts and combines passages from the Cassandra roles in Aeschylus' Agamemnon and Euripides' The Trojan Women. Three musical "characters" relating to her character are projected: order, process, and variability.

   ... brain ablaze... was premièred on Munich's Musica Viva in 2004.
   
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8. Archipelago 's Overall Plan - This work is comprised of a very complex, but principled mosaic of fifteen themes and their variations. The overall plan shown in the accompanying examples allows one to see how the work's component elements are positioned relative to one another, acting at first to introduce and later to allow culmination of the larger work.
   
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9. Ircam - A research and production facility founded by Pierre Boulez in the mid-1970s, Ircam is located at the Pompidou Center in Paris. It has carried on a unique program whereby innovative music is composed often directly involving either musical experimentation requiring substantial scientific consul, or tools which are in some regard indebted to scientific developments.
   
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10. Odyssey - Reynolds wrote this work on commission from Ircam during 1989-93, and it employs a 16-member ensemble, two vocalists, and 6 channels of computer processed sound. The work enacts a metaphysical journey through four texts of Samuel Beckett's, reflecting stages in his personal and creative life: self, other, inquiry, and credo. The texts are presented simultaneously in French and English.
    
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11. The Angel of Death - A 35-minute chamber piano concerto (1998-2001) that also involves 6-channel, computer processed sound. It was commissioned by Ircam in Paris, and became the subject of an extensive collaboration (primarily) between the composer and psychologist Stephen McAdams. The Project is documented in "Perception of a Contemporary Musical Work: The Angel Project", a special issue of journal Music Perception, 22(4), 2004, and in McAdams, S. & Battier, M. (Eds.) (2004) Perception and Creation of a Contemporary Musical Work, Ircam-Centre Pompidou, Paris [CD-ROM].
    
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12. Shakuhachi - Several traditional Japanese folk instruments have been adopted by contemporary composers as a result of their rich timbral qualities and also because of emerging interest in the stylistic and performance conventions of the musical traditions out of which they arose. The shakuhachi, biwa (a lute-like instrument), and sho (an elaborate mouth-organ), are foremost in this category. The shakuhachi itself is a five-hole, vertical flute that can come in several sizes, each with associated alterations in pitch range and sonic character.
    
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