Description

Based on a text from Adam Smith's 'The Wealth of Nations', describing the division of labour in a Scottish pin factory, the piece uses as its source a recording of this text spoken in a Glaswegian accent. The division of labour is then applied to the voice in a series of variations in the digital domain (e.g. resynthesis of the melodic-contour of the speech, canon-hocketing the time-shrunk syllables, texturing fragments cut from the tails of the syllables, generating "choral" textures from 'iteration' of groups of material, etc.). The human voice is the principal source material, and extensive use is made of special software tools developed by the composer both for personal use and also for the Composers Desktop Project (CDP). The piece now forms the first movement of the 3 movement work Fabulous Paris: a virtual oratorio.

Also available on the CD accompanying the book 'Musik Als Ars Scientia' by Bjorn Gottstein.

Details

Categories
Duration
18 minutes
Premiere
Birmingham Rumours Festival, 1997
Scoring
1 Stereo

Performances

10 August 2007 Sound Travels Festival, Toronto Sound Travels Festival, Toronto