Caught in an Octogon of Unaccustomed Light

One of 4,756 items in the series: MISAME available on this site.
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Description

This composition continues the development of a musical language based on the color of unusual acoustic sounds. In this case the predominant use of inharmonic timbres (metal, multiphonics and a non-octave tuning system), creates the language that our musical traditions has for the most part ignored. A series of sections or "windows" based on specific sound sources has the listener "caught" by their interactions. Overall structural integrity is maintained by the reuse of similar gestures, colors and tuning system. The composition was created entirely through digital recording and mixing of acoustic sounds and no electronic effects or processing was used. … continued below

Physical Description

1 sound recording (16 min., 1 sec.)

Creation Information

Dolden, Paul, 1956- [1987,1988].

Context

This audio recording is part of the collection entitled: Mnemothèque Internationale des Arts Electroacoustiques and was provided by the UNT Music Library to the UNT Digital Library, a digital repository hosted by the UNT Libraries. More information about this recording can be viewed below.

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UNT Music Library

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Titles

  • Main Title: Caught in an Octogon of Unaccustomed Light
  • Series Title: MISAME

Description

This composition continues the development of a musical language based on the color of unusual acoustic sounds. In this case the predominant use of inharmonic timbres (metal, multiphonics and a non-octave tuning system), creates the language that our musical traditions has for the most part ignored. A series of sections or "windows" based on specific sound sources has the listener "caught" by their interactions. Overall structural integrity is maintained by the reuse of similar gestures, colors and tuning system. The composition was created entirely through digital recording and mixing of acoustic sounds and no electronic effects or processing was used. This working method combined with the compositional decisions produces a pure, untranslatable, and sensuous immediacy to the music. This immediacy is partly created by the recording techniques which accents the presence of the performer behind each instrument. Therefore the piece continues the composers' polemic against the increasing depersonalization of music made by electronic synthesis. By capturing the irrationality and irregularities of human performance this composition suggests an alternative way of allowing the human presence to be perceived through the vastness of the technology used to create such a composition. In this sense the deadening skin of sound habituation is peeled away to reveal a vivid, unaccustomed sound world of timbres, rhythms and melodies. This world could never be performed by a live ensemble because of the physical problems of instrument placement and amplitude differences and general performability problems because of rhythm and tuning. The composition was commissioned by CKLN radio in Toronto, with assistance from the Ontario Arts Council.

Physical Description

1 sound recording (16 min., 1 sec.)

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Mnemothèque Internationale des Arts Electroacoustiques

Sound recordings of electroacoustic music from the archive of the International de musique électroacoustique de Bourges (IMEB). The works were created in the IMEB studios or submitted by participants of the Festival Synthèse or the Bourges Electroacoustic Music Competition. Access is restricted to the UNT community.

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Creation Date

  • [1987,1988]

Added to The UNT Digital Library

  • June 12, 2019, 9:59 p.m.

Description Last Updated

  • July 10, 2020, 2:57 p.m.

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Dolden, Paul, 1956-. Caught in an Octogon of Unaccustomed Light, audio recording, [1987,1988]; Bourges, France. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1506064/: accessed June 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Music Library.

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