ON DEMAND
Nicolas G. Miller
(instructions)
(text)

The score is divided into four documents: the text for recitation, the instructions (which read as stage directions), an audio file, and a video file for projection.

In speaking with Miller it was explained he had intentionally left recitation instructions rather vague in keeping with anteroom’s preference for openness and indeterminancy in scores. After numerous attempts at vocal delivery, it was decided to present the words much in the vocal tradition established by Robert Ashley and extended by Miller (A POTENTIALLY GOOD EXPERIENCE, IM NOT A BAD MAN IM JUST A BAD WIZARD) of punishing and difficult monotony which, according to several audience members, had the tendency to transition with time into soothing and atmospheric ambiance.

The film and textual material in ON DEMAND is appropriated from online browsing experiences of analog playback devices having been digitally documented and uploaded by members of Youtube, a popular video sharing virtual community. The audio of said videos was stripped and transposed into a single text document left for the performers to interpret. The seperate audio file included in the score was created by the composer and seems to be influenced by dub-step, a current and popular dance music style.

performed 27 May 2012 in Dallas, Texas at The Reading Room by anteroom.

Nicolas G. Miller

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§287 · August 31, 2012 · audio ·


II. I.
Adam Goodwin
(score)

The piece is divided into two untitled movements which, with permission from Goodwin, anteroom performed in reverse order. In movement II. Goodwin, inspired by a recent interaction with Jaap Blonk, has arranged a system of connected groups of phonetic characters the performers are to move through freely. The phonemes are pulled from the first word of movement I. consider. Movement I. is entirely text-based and offers a meta-structure for a piece. It is an excellent example of the kinds of text-scores which originally sparked our interest in the medium. It’s openness allows the performer to pour oneself freely into the music and into the performance, while its general guidelines offer helpful direction which aid in preserving a coherent intention throughout an ensemble.

Our process for realizing movement I. was as follows: improvise with the words with no prior discussion, discuss patterns and metaphors we noticed, improvise under more guidance, sketch a general graphic score, refine delivery. Through this process we were able to agree upon a point of unity which was realized by dropping metal coins into metal pots and revolving them in a counter-clockwise motion. We established two stages to precede the point of unity. First, Miller moved wood against wood in a vertical motion while Jackson moved wood against metal in a circular motion. Second, Miller moved skin against skin in a sweeping motion resulting in a rapid vibration between the two materials; Jackson, meanwhile, rapidly vibrated metal against metal. Each stage was divided into two characteristics: material and gesture. In stage one neither material nor gesture aligned between Miller and Jackson. In stage two gesture aligned while material did not. In stage three both material and gesture aligned. Thus, a simple three step motion towards a point of unity, followed by a pause, and, finally, a slow detachment.

performed 27 May 2012 in Dallas, Texas at The Reading Room by anteroom.

Adam Goodwin

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§281 · August 31, 2012 · audio, scores, video, writings ·


Nocturne Series: 4
Chaz Underrinner

Having just finished studies in composition with Michael Pisaro, Underrinner has arranged a piece steeped heavily in the tradition of Cagean silence established by Cage and extended recently by groups like the Edition Wandleweiser, of which Pisaro is a part. Interestingly, Underrinner has chosen to merge the practice of field recording and performance by providing previously composed field recordings and asking the performers to place speakers about the space. The performers are to interact with the speakers, ultimately filtering out various frequencies and adjusting the spatiality of the field recording being interacted with.

In contrast with the stillness and quietness of the sound, the composer has asked quite a bit of the performers in the sense that, in addition to playing notes on pitched instruments and interacting with the speakers, each of the ten field recording is to be turned on and off at particular second markings. To achieve this accurately, anteroom composed an additional track for each recording provided with the playback cuts composed in so that we could avoid having to achieve this manually in performance.

performed 27 May 2012 in Dallas, Texas at The Reading Room by anteroom.

Chaz Underrinner

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§274 · August 31, 2012 · audio ·


Back

Each Sound Longer than the Last
Martin Back

Back presents a fibonacci sequence as an initial pallette of temporal options along side several restrictions which reveal multiple paths into timbral and rhythmic choices for the performers to make.

anteroom has decided to remain true to the implied instruction of the title by selecting numbers from the fibonacci sequence which increase in magnitude; additionally the options of using the numbers as a system of counting, and repeated striking of percussion instruments were chosen.

The resulting experience for the performers was that of particular cognitive interest. Throughout the performance a silent tempo, agreed upon by visual cues and faith, was sounding within our imaginations as well as the two tempos being performed on our instruments for the audience. While the audience may have experienced Reichian phasing of two tempos, the performers were experiencing phasing occuring on a third intellectual level, making the piece particularly difficult and interesting to perform.

performed 27 May 2012 in Dallas, Texas at The Reading Room by anteroom.

Martin Back

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§234 · August 31, 2012 · audio, video, writings ·


and then
Francesco Gagliardi
(score)



Looking at the score structurally, we find three sections of articulation. First a section of single words, followed by a section of photographs and finally a phrasal section consisting of full sentences. Each section features four groups. The first three are always isolated individuals while the final fourth is composed of a pair, suggesting a correlation between each group across the three sections. The final instruction of suggested duration, perhaps the most objective and easily attached to a historical practice of music, falls just outside the noted pattern.

The intention in performance was to wade the area along the spectrum of listening which this piece addresses; which seems to be somewhere between casual listening and a kind of unperceived ambiance. We wanted to encourage a kind of listening where sounds are experienced but not always noted so closely, so as to allow them to blend into one another without the complete awareness of the listener. This intention was embedded within a higher goal of facilitating a time of serene monotony, where no single moment stands out, no form or narrative is remembered, rather, an experience for which a state of mind or a certain color would suffice as a description. Kind of like remembering a walk through the park, and not thinking of a woman seen, or a puddle stepped in, or any other details in particular, but just that it happened, and that somehow it was very nice.

The chosen instrumentation consisted of amplifier hum, field recording pushed through small speakers, peruvian flute, yarn, coins, lighter, rain jacket, book, along with various woods, metals, glass, and ceramics.

performed 20 october 2011 in Denton, Texas at UNT on The Square Gallery by anteroom.

Francesco Gagliardi

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§141 · September 21, 2011 · audio, scores, video, writings ·


To restore silence is the role of objects
Sam Sfirri
(score)
(listen)


Here Sfirri considers the the ambience of natural silence not only a palette of musical possibility, but also the extreme dynamic of the piece. Silence becomes a kind of inherent screaming tutti, arranged and laid atop the reflection of its very intention.

The sounds of this recording are produced by a small array of objects including one guitar amplifier, one am radio, and two field recordings each being pushed out a set of small speakers. The sounds are intended to meld into a certain composed silence which, layer by layer, is stepped into the silence intrinsic to the time of listening to the recording. Microphones were placed quite close to each object, encouraging a contextual dissonance between the production and the metaphor of the sounds.

performed march 2011 in Denton, Texas by anteroom.
recorded by Brian Hernandez at the University of North Texas.

Sam Sfirri

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§71 · July 18, 2011 · audio, scores, writings ·


A Few Silence (Room 239, 21 march 2011, 2pm)
G. Douglas Barrett
(score)
(listen)


This recording was made in the familiar environment of Room 239. The door to the adjacent computer lab was left open – allowing the sounds of peoples’ conversation, computer fans, fluorescent ambiance, and the occasional footstep of passerby on linoleum and carpet to reach the ears of Jackson and Miller.

The score indicates that the performer’s are to listen to the sounds present in the performance space for the first five minutes of the piece. During this time, the performers transcribe the sounds they hear by writing down descriptions of the “overall shape or contour of the sound, dynamic level, duration, etc.” Each description is written next to a marking of the time at which that sound is heard. Time is measured by stopwatches. Thus, the first five minutes of the recording exists predominantly as quiet scribbling sounds as anteroom listen to their surroundings and translate what they hear into written language.

Following the initial five minutes of transcription, the performers reset their stopwatches and begin translating the written descriptions of sounds into instrumental performance. The timings of the original heard sounds and the performance of their respective instrumental translations are to coincide – thus, a “loud strike” listed at the 0:18 mark in the first half of the piece may be translated into a tambourine strike at the 0:18 mark in the second half of the piece (5:18 on the recording).

A number of sounding objects/instruments were used for this realization: acoustic guitar (played in various ways, mostly on the wooden body), autoharp, a small South American marimba, tambourine, bongos, paint can, pans, vocal percussion sounds, and a pillow.

The resulting performance exists as the direct manifestation of a process of listening, transcribing, and translating everyday sound to instrumental performance. “The silence of the performance space is acoustically reflected, passing first through language, then mediated through performers’ music-technological engagement with instruments and objects,” G. Douglas Barrett.

performed march 2011 in Denton, Texas by anteroom.
recorded by Brian Hernandez at the University of North Texas.

G. Douglas Barrett

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§61 · July 18, 2011 · audio, scores, writings ·


Boundaries
andrew jordan miller
(score)
(listen)


In Boundaries, the point of observation is aimed upon the edges of a concept and the bleeding over from one to its more general description. Focusing on the linguistic and perceptual overlap between Sound and Vibration, it is hoped one be pushed into the butterflies of an ungrounded tilt during moments of utter trying.

In this recording, Jackson and Miller are striking cymbals of various characteristics along with an autoharp, desk bell, nylon strung guitar, and tibetan singing bowl. Here, the decline of amplitude has been chosen as a path from Sound into Vibration. Their ears were held always quite close to the instruments during delivery, carefully and patiently guaging the change in dynamics over time after each strike. Microphones were also placed quite closely to each instrument as to emulate, for the listener, the experience of the performer.

performed march 2011 in Denton, Texas by anteroom.
recorded by Brian Hernandez at the University of North Texas.

andrew jordan miller

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§27 · July 11, 2011 · audio, scores, writings ·