WofS 2009 is the second year that Inclusive Improv have run a Week of Speakers event at the University of Huddersfield. WofS is a 28-channel loudspeaker array set up in a large space for several days of installation and concert works, last year it was in st Paul's Hall, and this year in the atrium of the new Creative Arts Building.
This year I had two works in the event. Hibberts Doublets, a work for Max/MSP, and Micro, for improvising musicians and actors.
Hibberts Doublets takes as material a synthetic bell spectrum based on Bill Hibberts' analysis of an 1859 Mears bell. Doublets are the name given by campanologists to the beating patterns created from the audible friction arising when two of the bell's partial frequencies lie very close to each other.
In this piece, Hibberts' spectrum is used as the substrate for a series of doublets (beating pulse-patterns) that run through the piece and also explore the atrium space: 3-6hz (beats/second) are the most usual pattern but the piece uses patterns from 1-18hz.
In the space of the CAB atrium, their are two ways to listen. By standing still, one can appreciate the slowly shifting patterns of beating as they move in 3D around the space: they follow a path from speaker to speaker through the space. Alternatively, it is possible to follow the beat patterns as they move through the space, and finding the points at which they cross each other, causing secondary beat patterns.
This work especially indebted to the music and ideas of Alvin Lucier.
Micro has three sets of interacting agents:
- Four soloists, isolated in individual rooms so they cannot hear the overall sound. These soloists are limited to playing extremely quiet sounds, which are then amplified and diffused into the main space. These players are free in their choice of materials and performance, as long as they stay within the constraints of the score: see below for soloists score.
- In the main space there are a group of musicians working to a different score. Their instructions revolve around different ways of interracting with the sound of the solists. The scoring for these players is more free because they have more options, but also more limiting as the types of interaction are tightly controlled: see below for group score.
- The third element on the day was the inclusion of two improvising actors (John Britton and Hilary Elliott). Their performance was completely free, as the music was quite static and undemonstrative I decided to let the actors do whatever they felt worked.
Soloist score pdf: note that the first 40seconds were not played as performers needed time to begin their clocks and return to their places (my oversight in the score).
Group players' score pdf
The Week of Speakers 2009 - Micro - Scott Mc Laughlin from Scott Hewitt
Full (28mins) audio of Micro from WofS 2009.
Jess Baker - Ukelele and bells
Tom Riley - electric mandolin and feedback
John Britton and Hilary Elliott of Quiddity Theatre
The performance space
