The present thesis comprises a musical score and a set of specifications for a programmer to employ in the creation of a computer patch required to run the electronics. Scored for symphony orchestra and solo cello, the work also incorporates a computer operator and sound engineer who function as performers, following detailed instructions to store, activate, shape, spatialize, and regulate electronic material. The computer patch manifests two main components: the recording and playback of live sound (with the solo cello acting as the input source) and a virtual instrument feedback module. Electronic superimpositions of solo cello samples, ranging in density between a single layer and many simultaneous layers, intertwine with the live instrumentalist, forming timbrally distinct polyrhythmic contrapuntal lines. The feedback component allows for an interaction between the soloist and electronics, in which the computer operator manipulates faders connected to a series of feedback sub-patches, each employing a range of diverse delay parameters. The musical language of the work, which evolves from a series of expanding and contracting pitch clusters, continually transmutes, shifting back and forth from atonality, tonality, and polytonality. Formally, the work both opposes and espouses traditional paradigms; and it is this dichotomy, the tension created between old and new, which ultimately unifies the structure. Finally, the expansion of the role of the soloist, which entails not only the integration of multiple superimposed electronic layers but of the immersive diffusion of sound in multidimensional space, broadens the concerto form.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:OTU.1807/35185 |
| Date | 20 March 2013 |
| Creators | Nerenberg, Mark |
| Contributors | Hatzis, Christos |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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