X

The core research idea in this work is to address the problem of integrating electroacoustic redesign of instrumental sound spectra within a live performance context. The piece consists of 70 pre-composed sound files triggered by the pianist in performance. While the exact duration and structure of these files is fixed, they are designed to interlock and overlap with an element of flexibility, facilitating key moments of synchronisation in keeping with the performer’s shaping of the material. A fixed constellation of 24 piano chords colour a consistent attack-resonance morphological framework. The form is developed as a series of interlocking modules in which the fixed identities of the chordal sonorities are continually recycled while being energised and articulated texturally. These are counterbalanced through noisy sonorities which provide an alternate line of gestural and spectral development. Stylistically this mixes elements of tight gestural synchronisation and spectral blending to combine the suggestion of an ‘extended instrument’ with a more ‘sound sculpture’ approach wherein electroacoustic sounds have a developing structural integrity in parallel with the piano material. The piano chords were subject to processes of detailed spectral deconstruction, reducing these down to clusters of partials or individual partials which were then refashioned through a wide range of pitch and time processing techniques. When re-integrated with the sonority of the piano, this allowed perceptions of tonality and/or spectral focus to be explored by using the piano’s stability of pitch as a probe of the ear’s propensity for resolution of complex spectra into simple forms. Central to this is the observation that there exist ‘spaces’ between clearly defined pitch and ambiguous timbres, exemplified by motion between pure tones, harmonicity, inharmonicity and noise. X explores the experience of drift and interaction between these broad states of sound and demonstrates the fluid way in which these can be articulated.