ACOUSTIC MUSIC and MUSIC with ELECTRONICS (excerpts)
for full piece check out: www.myspace.com/danielwohlmusic
—
1-+ou-
The initial concept for this piece was to compose music that would be heard through a veil of noise. The idea came from waking up in the middle of the night with the television set turned to a “non-channel”. The screen was mostly filled with black and white static, except for a faded image of what looked like an old couple dancing. The image would come in strongly and then recede into the static.
—
—
2-Glitch Mvt 1: “Skip”- (string quartet and electronics)-2009
recorded version
—
Glitch quartet Mvt2 “Postal” -2009 Live version
—
Glitch quartet Mvt4 “I Drone”- 2009
Commissioned by the Carlsbad Music Festival for the Calder Quartet.
Recording by: Chris Otto, Andie Springer, John Pickford Richards and Evelyn Farny
Live version: the Calder Quartet
A glitch is a short lived fault in a system. All audio mediums inherently contain glitches that make them interesting in their own ways. To me they are happy accidents, flaws that take on special meaning or interest: The hiss and pops of vinyl records, the skips on a scratched CD, and mp3 compression errors are glitches that have become emblematic of each medium, and have come to represent an era in music. In the age of mechanical reproduction, a player’s mistake on an acoustic instrument such as a tiny variation in pitch, an inconsistency in bowing, or an accidental scratch in the midst of otherwise “normal’ playing style, can now read as a glitch. It’s interesting to me that these mistakes made their way into standard repertoire in the last century and have come to be called extended techniques. This tendency has also appeared in the “glitch” style of electronic music by bands such as The Boats and Oval.
Errors form the conceptual basis for this piece. Each movement deals with a different kind of glitch in the electronic track. The electronics consist entirely of manipulated string recordings while the quartet itself plays it’s share of intentional pops, hisses, fragmentary melodic motifs and other inconsistencies that comment on or reflect back to the track.
In my own process, accidents have often lead to interesting results. Crucial moments have arrived in the form of mistakes, that I’ve then tried to mold into coherent structures.
—
3-Suite Primaire. Mt1(fl.pft.vcl.perc.melodica s.whistle)-2008
—
In Suite Primaire I was interested in trying to remember what it was like to be creative as a child. The four short movements contained in this suite are inspired by childhood memories of playing music, and represent the ideal of creating innocently. When I set out to write this piece, I gave myself as a guideline only to involve the performers’ voices as a natural extension of their instrumental playing. The first movement is a raucous dance that incorporates the use of two toy instruments. The second movement is an exploration of sound for sound’s sake, and evokes the childlike awe of delving into the world of noises. The third is inspired by the spontaneous creativity that arises during practice. In this movement the piano is a distorted version of a Bach prelude interrupted by loud clusters. It accompanies dissonant scaler passages in the flute and cello, as well as a metronome-like rhythm in the woodblocks. The last movement is a culmination of the other three, and incorporates grunts, yelps and other vocal outbursts.
—
5-Music to Hesitate to (fl.cl.2vln.vcl.bs.pft.perc)-2008
Commissioned by the St Luke’s Chamber Ensemble
Recorded by: Andie Springer, Jessica Schmitz, Sarah Budde, Eleonore Oppenheim, Evelyn Farny, Daniel Wohl
—
6-Monde…Angulaire (excerpt)
(fl.cl.pft.harp.2vlns.vcl.db)
—
