QCRC videos

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Music, Recording, and the Art of Interpretation

Presently working on a new research project with pianist extrodinaire, Dr Stephen Emmerson. The project examines the recordings of a series of classical piano works, but rather than try to attempt to record these 'authentically' (following the recent fascination with recordings 'as' music), the project aims to deliberately manipulate and re-construct the pieces as sound art or 'phonography', with a view to expanding of some of the underlying narratives.

As a starting point, we took a series works performed by Stephen on the 29 October 2008 in the Queensland Conservatorium’s Ian Hanger Recital Hall. The compositions date from 1908, regarded as a landmark in the history of European Modernism with a number of the 20th century’s most remarkable composers finding their distinctive voice around that time via seminal works for solo piano. These included Alban Berg’s Sonata Op.1, Arnold Schoenberg’s 3 Piano Pieces Op.11 and Béla Bartók’s 14 Bagatelles Op.6.

Here's a few excerpts from the concert:

Boomp3.com

Boomp3.com

Boomp3.com

Next, we're working to present a paper and interactive session in the IMERSD recording studios as part of the CreateWorld 2008 digital arts conference, this coming December. In particular, we will be preparing 5 of Bartók’s Bagatelles, famous as a collection of pieces which explore a range of innovative compositional techniques (polytonality/bitonality, symmetry, twelve-note collections, quartal harmony, clusters etc.) as well as reflecting his explorations with folk music.

The range of the musical languages employed has encouraged the view that they are a collection of separate individual and almost incompatible pieces. However, as a musciologist, Emmerson is convinced that the sharp contrasts in style are part of the overall concept of the work as a cycle of pieces that successively builds with a cohesive sense of narrative progression. Beyond merely a collection of compositional experiments or exercises, he understands them as having strong emotional and programmatic implications that develop through the cycle.

Stephen has come up with a range of 'sound types' to parallel musicological arguments about the personal emotions and historical settings for the pieces, and we'll be producing these though a variety of multi-track and post-production techniques, including varing treatments for right and left hand parts . .

. . . overdubs, layers, compression, tape distortion, a host of microphone placements and manipulations of spatiality. 

Fundamentally, the project challenges the predominant approach in the recording of classical music where such works promote the illusion of capturing a concert experience and that sound production decisions appear to be transparent. Here the authors argue that classical music language can benefit from deliberate interference in the recorded product provided this is congruent with research into the underpinning musical meanings. 

And so the music is not just manipulated/remixed to produce an essentially a different piece (although this remains a valid possibility) but maintains that central aspect of musicking which leads to new ways of experiencing music. If this can be realised, then perhaps the artists have begun to master the art of interpretation and the ability to speak music’s language more effectively.

We'll be continuing the project following CreateWorld by producing all the works on Steinway and recorded in the Conservatorium's Concert Theatre. Aiming for a journal articel early in the new year, accompanied by a two CD set and booklet. Perhaps 'before and after' CDs, and what we're most interested in is – which one is really the 'fake'?

Clocked Out

Back in the studio again, and in concert recording with Clocked Out, a wonderful Brisbane based duo who have been writing, rehearsing and recording for their album Foreign Objects.


We spent about five days trying out ideas and getting sounds for some of their more unusual ideas for instrumentation, arrangement and subsequent sound production interpretation. Prepared piano, strange percussion objects scattered about the floor, really unusual combinations of timbres, but orchestrated remarkably and performed with professional precision - terrific performers and composers. Quite challenging but a very enjoyable experience for us all.


After the studio work, we moved directly into a live concert event, and from my perspective, moved the technology approaches of what I had learned from them into the concert environment. The IMERSD studio was patched into our Ian Hanger Recital Hall and off we went with the concert entitled Dedications - compositions that paid homage to 2 giants of contemporary music: Terry Riley, the master of expanded space, and Morton Feldman, the master of intricate patterns.


This was then a premier for the new works, centred around six pieces, viginettes entitled Foreign Objects. Later back to the studio, the thing now was to produce and edit all of the material from both studio and live recordings - in some cases, by comp-ing together both environments together within a single piece. Normally, I would find this somewhat of a challenge, but these people are so professional and given that we got to know each other so well, I think the outcomes are really beautiful. Some snippets and teasers here:

Boomp3.com

Boomp3.com

Boomp3.com

Clocked Out will be touring the US West and East coasts late November /early December 2008, so look out for them around Los Angeles and New York if you're in the area. Just wonderful in concert. Foreign Objects the album will be out in early 2009.

Music for the banal . .

Great to be back in Brisbane, and back in the recording studio (IMERSD) once again, following the first half of the year writing, teaching & travelling. This time, working with Con resident percussionist and musician extraodinaire, Dr Vanessa Tomlinson.

These studio sessions were originally intended to be somewhat of a 'warm up' for an album and a concert in September with Vanessa's pianist/composer partner Erik Griswold in their Clocked Out Duo. However, they've now taken on a life of their own, with some stunning improvisations from Vanessa. Look out for a new solo album in the near future, perhaps a parallel SAC-D release because this stuff is just made for surround.

The major work is  a 40-odd minute piece that features Vanessa using all kinds of 'ordinary objects' to make the most extraordinary sounds, rhythms and timbres. Entitled Music for the Banal, the Obvious, the Everyday, this piece moves in and out of all kinds of perspectives and harmonics - sandpaper, kitchen bowls, clay tiles, rice and bottlers, all played with a variety of sticks, mallets and techniques.

On a second, as yet untitled piece, Vanessa goes to work with water and percussion.

When we started, there were all kinds of ideas for post-production and re-interpretation in the mix. However, now its seems more like Vanessa borrows much from the electro-acoustic tradition yet performs this live. Therefore we've mic'd and recorded from a whole range of perspectives and sense that the final mix will involve more about changing perspectives in the performer's mind, and in re-interpreting this in a 'performance mix' of the piece.

Here's a few teasers. First , a section from a performance on everyday metal kitchen bowls (good for beating eggs, but also, for great percussion . . .)

Then there's playing on a whole range of trinkets: tiles, clay pot, bottles:

And finally, a small gong played in a tub of water:

Also great to see a number of student friends here: thanks to James Tonkin who has been working with us in terms of tracking the work as an ethnographic exercise. See if we can't understand a little more about the studio creative process and evolution. Also thanks to (recent PhD completion!) David Carter, who's ears and ideas are just outstanding.

Reading Music in the Digital Realm

As an adjunct to the recent QCRC Twilight Lecture, I wrote a short piece called Reading Music in the Digital Realm for The Australian newspaper, published in the Higher Education feature on 28 November.

This also profiled the upcoming CreateWorld 2007 'Music 2.0' keynote as well as taking about the work we're doing at the Queensland Conseravtoirum in online publishing at Radio IMERSD. The full article can be read here on The Australian Higher Education website.

New Album of World Music

In April-May of 2007, I'm back in the IMERSD studios with Huib Schippers, recording and producing a new album of world music, featuring extraordinary performances of the sitar, tabalas and tambura. We aim to have the album completed by mid year, with around four CDs worth of music to be whittled down to one (!) for a release on Tall Poppies records.

One exciting aspect of the project is that it will be the first to utilise the recent refit of the studios, funded by a recent research grant win and industry partnership. The album is being recorded at 176.4kHz sample rate, utilising SSL, Amek and Manley pre-amps,

Wagner, Neumann and Coles ribbon microphones, and will be mastered through Dolby SR and Revox tape (Huib has been disappointed with CD releases for the sitar, citing the work of earlier vinyl productions as being the best available. So, looking forward to seeing if this production can't meet his exacting standards). The album is is also the first to utilise IMERSD's new Digitising ICON, 32 fader console.

Collusion Record Release

Hybrid arts ensemble Collusion has signed their debut album In Depth to Australia's Move Records. In late 2005, I produced and recorded these stunning musicians in the IMERSD studios. The project features first-release works by renowned international composers Paul Stanhope, David Schiff, Gerard Brophy and others. Look out for In Depth (MD3310) in the record stores and forthcoming national tours by Collusion.

Collusion also performed recently at the Creative Commons Australia live showcase, ccSalon as part of the Creative Commons Industry Forum held on 29 November 2006 at QUT's Creative Industries precinct in Kelvin Grove, Brisbane:

Collusion performing with a backdrop of audio/visuals by Andrew Garton

from Toysatellite live as part of the ccSalon. Photo by Ray Allen

llumination

Myself and colleague Matt Hitchcock were commissioned to record Illumination, by Queensland composer Sean O'Boyle. An 11 minute orchestral work, it features choir, the didgeridoo of William Barton and celebrates the history of Queensland and the opening of Queensland’s world-class new State Library. The music will be available for streaming on the Queensland State Library website and will feature in Education Queensland's school music curriculum as a unique piece for school orchestras.

The new Queensland State Library was officially opened by Queensland Premier Peter Beattie on the 29 November 2006. The new Library is now spread over five-levels and has an expanded John Oxley Library with more than 3.5 million items to explore, one of the largest publicly available collections of artists’ books in Australia, and digitised collections of heritage material, photographs and music. It also has increased reference resources, an information zone with wireless internet access, multiple galleries and display spaces, an Indigenous Knowledge Centre and wide decks with stunning views of the river and Brisbane’s CBD.

Music Qld Project

I produced the recordings of previously unheard Queensland historical compositions. The genesis for this recording project was the Music Queensland initiative of the State Library of Queensland, which is in turn linked to the ‘Music Australia’ project hosted by the National Library of Australia in Canberra. From the approximately seventy works that are available in digital format at www.musicqld.slq.qld.gov.au, a representative selection of twenty pieces is presented on this recording. More recently, we have completed a one hour radio program featuring ABC music expert Vincent Plush and QCGU Director, Prof Peter Roennfeldt, along with a Music CD, both intended for commercial release in the near future.

L. to R.

Emily Cox: Director, Brisbane Chorale (QCGU alumnus and staff member)

Jason Barry-Smith: baritone soloist (QCGU alumnus and staff member)

Sarah Sullivan: soprano soloist (QCGU postgraduate student)

Lynne Jordan - piano accompanist (QCGU alumnus)

Jayson Gillham: piano soloist (QCGU undergraduate student)

Griffith Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian O'Connor

Adele Nisbet: project artistic advisor (QCGU Head of Voice)

Professor Peter Roennfeldt - project curator (QCGU Director)

Phil Smith: ABC Radio National journalist and guest speaker

Leah Giles-Peters: State Librarian

Professor Paul Draper: project sound producer (QCGU Head of Music Technology)

The project was initially funded by the State Library of Queensland, and produced in the IMERSD studios of Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, under the curatorship of Professor Peter Roennfeldt and staff from the Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre. Additional funding was provided by Arts Queensland through its Small Projects scheme for production of the CD. All of the soloists are current or former students and staff of the Conservatorium, where the Brisbane Chorale is also based.

Webcasts and Creative Commons Projects

We've built up quite a nice range of learning, research and internet-based practises and outcomes during 2006.

Radio IMERSD is an e-publication vehicle for creative works, licenced under Creative Commons Australia agreements. A range of visiting Australian higher education experts can now be heard via the Twilight Lecture series podcasts. In addition, the site provides a dissemination platform for students and staff who develop their original creative work through concerts, studio recordings and/or other eLearning projects.

Matt Hithcock has developed the Radio IMERSD project and live Jazz Cafe broadcasts. In the case on non-original works, under the University APRA license, broadcast is limited to the Griffith University intranet.

Our thanks go to Matthew Hall of Swaab Attorneys who has played an invaluable role in learning, teaching and advice on digital IP. He has delivered a range of engaging masterclasses at the Con, including the Concert Stream IMERSD project and he continues to provide assistance via his membership of the QCGU Advisory Council.