Give the composer Bruce Adolphe credit for taking on the big issues. Inspired by the research and writings of the neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, who directs the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California, Mr. Adolphe asked Mr. Damasio to collaborate on a work that would combine text, music and imagery of brain activity to evoke the evolution of the human mind. Mr. Adolphe also recruited Yo-Yo Ma, an old friend from his Juilliard School days, for the collaboration.
The result was “Self Comes to Mind,” a 30-minute work for cello and two percussionists, with video imagery based on brain scans and with texts by Mr. Damasio. The piece had its premiere on Sunday night at the American Museum of Natural History. The 900-seat LeFrak Theater was packed for the event, which included an hourlong discussion with the collaborators.
Just how the human brain works remains one of the greatest mysteries in science. In his program note Mr. Adolphe suggests that music itself may be an expression of our physical minds, though, he adds, composing is never a matter of musical illustration, but of finding “technical and expressive parallels to extra-musical ideas.”
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The visual element used brain scans from the research of Mr. Damasio’s wife, Hanna Damasio, also a professor of neuroscience at U.S.C. The images were folded into sound-reactive video compositions directed by Diego Miralles, based on an existing video by Ioana Uricaru. Even though the imagery was responding to the music, it was hard not to hear Mr. Adolphe’s obliging music as illustrative of the imagery.
Zoe Keating, who combines mad classical cello skills with mad Apple Script skills in order to create hypnotic, layered, musical compositions that sound like a cross between Steve Reich and Kronos Quartet.
Using her MacBook Pro with popular music software Ableton Live and SuperLooper, Keating modifies this potent software combo with some “nasty” Apple Script that allows her to control the looping of live musical phrases with her feet, via MIDI signals from a foot pedal board. That she was an information architect during the dot-com boom should come as little surprise, considering the amount of tech savvy needed to pull off such an elaborate yet elegant setup.
Piano to body percussion; solos to quintets; vocal ensembles to electronic music – all that and much more could be seen and heard at the Intercollegiate Composition Forum on Thursday.
On April 30, eight student composers from Whitworth and three students from Gonzaga University gathered in the Music Recital Hall to share their original works of music with an audience of students, staff and community members. The event was part of CompFest 2009.
Associate professor of music Brent Edstrom was the main organizer of the Forum.
“As a composer, there is nothing more thrilling than hearing your piece come to life,” Edstrom said. “It’s exciting… and nerve-racking.”
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“This [composition forum] is a really neat opportunity for new composers to show their thoughts and ideas, and they can get constructive criticism and feedback that can help them continue in their compositional efforts,” Bratton said.
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Read the whole article at: http://www.whitworthian.com/composition-forum-displays-variety-of-student-musical-creations-1.1745012
Give the composer Bruce Adolphe credit for taking on the big issues. Inspired by the research and writings of the neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, who directs the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California, Mr. Adolphe asked Mr. Damasio to collaborate on a work that would combine text, music and imagery of brain activity to evoke the evolution of the human mind. Mr. Adolphe also recruited Yo-Yo Ma, an old friend from his Juilliard School days, for the collaboration.