Scott Good

Xenakis: Reflections - 2006

30min

 

2 Trombonists/Actors, Baritone Sax, Actor, live amplification/processing effects

 

• Premiere: June 7, 2006, Architecture Building-Ryerson University, Toronto/Ontario, Earshot Concerts

 

“Hundreds of thousands of people chanting a slogan which reproduces itself like a gigantic rhythm.  Then combat with the enemy.  The rhythm bursts into an enormous chaos of sharp sounds; the whistling of bullets; the crackling of machine guns.  The sounds begin to disperse.  Slowly silence falls back on the town.  Taken uniquely from an aural point of view and detached from any other aspect these sound events made out of a large number of individual sounds are not separately perceptible, but reunite them again and a new sound is formed which may be perceived in its entirety.  It is the same case with the song of the cicadas or the sound of the rain, the crashing of the waves on the cliffs, the hiss of the waves on a shingle.” - Iannis Xenakis

 

In 2002, the coalition of new music presenters decided to join forces to put on a new music festival.  Wanting to reach out to a larger community, a decision was made to join forces with the community of architects, connected through composer/architect Iannis Xenakis as a focus of attention for the festival.

 

I have been an admirer of his work since first hearing its unique sound, but he was an exceptional person for more than just his musical output and building designs.  He also wrote passionately about many subjects. Xenakis: Reflections explores these texts, setting them to largely improvised materials, but organized around spacial concepts, surrounding the audience in the unique structure of the Architecture Building at Ryerson University.

 

A special thanks to David Ogborne for working with me on the 8 channel amplification effects.