- Tommy McPhee • Windows • For live electronics • 5
- Dan VanHassel • Aftershock • for piano and electronics • 7
- Tony Lewis • Point Blank • Live processing/ electronics • 4
- Andrew Walters • Volts and Kettles • for Modular Synthesizer and Fixed Media • 6.5
- Tyler Rumore • Burgonian Daydream • For trumpet and electronics • 6
- Nathan Wheeler • Nusuth (extended version) • 8
- Total: 55 mins
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Windows
For live electronics
Tommy McPhee
Windows (2022, video created in 2024) is a live electronic improvisation consisting exclusively of digital sounds synthesized in real time. The improvisation is not guided by a score or deterministic form beyond any premeditated ideas or strategies the performer may bring to the performance. The instrument itself, a synthesizer scripted in ChucK, is the only limitation to the possibilities of the work. The eight channels of sound are generated at audio rate through a combination of performer inputs and random chance.
The improvisation functions as an exploration of how the performer and audience perceive time intervals. The piece intentionally obfuscates any distinctions between timbre, melody, and form. It is the responsibility of the performer to coax the instrument to imply these distinctions. Windows strives to function as a study on the psyche of the performer and the listener within the context of live performance, rather than a commentary on pre-selected sounds or ideas.
The underlying processes that guide the generation of sound in Windows are stochastic. More specifically, the patch generates singular segments of sine waves that continuously change through a random walk. The performer can only control the upper and lower boundaries of these changes, or rather, they can establish “windows” within which the next possible values can occur. The patch allows the performer to control the boundaries of changes between the successive magnitudes of these changes themselves. This enables broad formal control of the piece in real-time and results in fractal-like sonic motifs.
Tommy McPhee (born 1998) is a media artist and researcher studying compositional abstraction through real-time synthesis. McPhee uses algorithmic aesthetics as a framework to critically examine our perception. He utilizes parallelism on a technical and conceptual level, amassing the synergy of distinct instrumentations, mediums, and performances to collectively generate antinarrative works. With the support of a full academic scholarship, McPhee studied Music Composition at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas and obtained his BM in May of 2021. Entering university as a predominantly commercial musician, McPhee’s studies at Lamar introduced him to a plethora of musical styles beyond his experiences in school ensembles and the local hip-hop scene. Since then, he has produced a prolific output of music that challenges conventional notions of genre, instrumentation, and form. McPhee obtained his master’s degree in music technology at Georgia Southern University in May of 2023, where he taught Digital Audio Workstations and Recording Studio Techniques. McPhee is currently in the second year of his DMA in Interdisciplinary Digital Media at Arizona State University, where he teaches music theory and works on the MILES (Music Immersive Learning ExperienceS) project. McPhee is pursuing a career in academia to continue his work as an algorithmic artist.
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Aftershock
for piano and electronics
Dan VanHassel
“Aftershock” was commissioned by pianist Angela Kim as part of her multimedia program “Chaos Magick” and was premiered in January 2020. The video was created by Michael Boswell and Peter John Kearney. The music was inspired in part from re-reading Charles Rosen’s “The Classical Style,” one of my all-time favorite books about music, which made me start re-thinking my stance on classical forms. In much of my music up to this point I had always tried to structure my music with distinctive forms tailored to the specific piece, and was generally highly suspicious of any structures ending with recapitulations of their opening material. Upon re-reading Rosen’s book however, I began to consider if there might be a way to adapt ideas from “classical” forms into my musical language. In this piece I attempted to imagine a version of sonata form with timbre taking on a structural role, with harmony relegated to more of a supporting role analogous to texture in Classical music.
The electronics are made up of short samples taken from various recordings of music I love, ranging from Lachenmann to Rage Against the Machine, along with piano samples that extend the piano with fast stuttering loops. Although the electronics are all pre-recorded it is meant to sound as if the pianist is triggering and controlling all of these crazy sounds in real-time, with the acoustic and electronic merging together into a hybrid super-instrument.
The music of composer and multi-instrumentalist Dan VanHassel has been described as “energizing” (Wall Street Journal) and “an imaginative and rewarding soundscape” (SF Classical Voice). His compositions have been presented at top national and international music festivals including: the MATA Festival, Gaudeamus Festival, International Computer Music Conference, Bowling Green New Music Festival, Shanghai Conservatory Electronic Music Week, and the Bang on a Can Summer Festival, and by ensembles such as the Talea Ensemble, Dinosaur Annex, Verdant Vibes, and Transient Canvas. His work has received grants from Chamber Music America, the Barlow Endowment, the Boston Foundation, and New Music USA. Dan is the artistic director and electric guitarist of the Hinge Quartet and was a founding member of San Francisco’s Wild Rumpus (now Ninth Planet). Dan has degrees from UC Berkeley, New England Conservatory, and Carnegie Mellon and is an Assistant Professor of Composition at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee.
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Point Blank
Live processing/ electronics
Tony Lewis
I love experimenting with sounds and so thats that what I did and i added several different sounds to my snare and floor toms using a mic and audio affects until i found one that i liked. Dr. Smith encouraged me to use a drum trigger and thats what happened and i found sounds i liked on there as well!
Hello, my name is Tony and I am a sophmore at th University of Central Missouri. I am a Music technology major and a percussionist. I love experimenting with different sounds and making music all around ! And i like to bring people along with me and enjoy a good time !
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Volts and Kettles
for Modular Synthesizer and Fixed Media
Andrew Walters
Volts and Kettles refers to the electricity of the instruments and sounds of the piece and it’s references to boiling and steam. However, it also conjures images of the many vultures that roost high in the trees near my house. All sounds contained in this piece are produced by a Moog Mother32 analog synthesizer.
Andrew Walters composes a wide variety of electroacoustic and acoustic music and has degrees from Northern Illinois University and the University of Illinois. His music is featured on volumes 9 and 16 of the Music from SEAMUS recordings. Walters’s music has been performed at various conferences including NYCEMF, Electronic Music Midwest, SEAMUS, ICMC, and the Electroacoustic Barn Dance. He is presently Professor of Music Theory, Music Composition, Music Business, and Music Technology at Commonwealth University–Mansfield in Mansfield, Pennsylvania.
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Burgonian Daydream
For trumpet and electronics
Tyler Rumore
Burgonian Daydream is a 9-minute improvisation that merges the acoustic beauty of the trumpet with electronic elements, utilizing custom plug-ins and soundscapes created in Max4Live and Ableton Live. The piece invites the performer to engage in a spontaneous dialogue with the electronics, resulting in a rich sonic landscape that features ambient textures, rhythmic grooves, and noise-based elements. This interplay allows the trumpet to explore its expressive range while being transformed by real-time processing, creating an immersive experience for the audience.
As the music unfolds, listeners are transported into a dreamlike realm where structured ideas and improvisational freedom coexist, blurring the lines between instrument and technology. Burgonian Daydream not only showcases the trumpet’s unique voice but also celebrates the evolving landscape of music creation, challenging perceptions and inspiring imagination.
Tyler Rumore is a multi-instrumentalist and audio engineer in Kansas City, Missouri. Primarily a session musician, Tyler has performed on hundreds of projects for clients and friends around the world. He has also released various EPs and singles, all of which feature his wide capabilities as a musician.
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Nusuth (extended version)
Nathan Wheeler
In Ursula K LeGuin’s speculative fiction novel “The Left Hand of Darkness,” the term “nusuth” is central to the mystical Handdarata’s spiritual practice and means “no matter,” and attitude of inactivity and non-interference, drawing from Taoist and Buddhist principles.
Nathan Wheeler (they/them, b.1986) is an improvising composer and media artist based in New Orleans. Their work pursues hybridizing the creative contemporary, traditional, and imaginary to investigate new approaches to art making and community building. Their multidisciplinary works and collaborations have been shown at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA PS1, Museum of the Moving Image, Fridman Gallery, and various Off-Broadway theaters in New York, as well as museums and venues in Berlin, Taiwan, Indonesia, Vienna, Chicago, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Houston, and Denver. Additionally, they are Composer-in-Residence for Bitedown Dance Company in Brooklyn, NY.
Nathan Wheeler’s performance is supported, in part, by a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant.