Rock ’n’ Roll
- Jonty Harrison
- Year of composition: 2004
- Duration: 11:43
- Instrumentation: 8-channel fixed medium
- Publisher(s): Ymx média
- ISWC: T9002759457
To my wife Ali
When we moved house, we inherited a heavy garden roller with a concrete wheel and a rusting steel tyre. Rolling this around the garden pathways proved sonically interesting, as did its tendency to demolish various bits of wall and other stonework. I’m not much of a gardener!
In the studio, my attention became more focused on the ‘rock’ sounds than on the roller sounds which had originally caught my ear. In particular, I became preoccupied with getting as close as possible to the rocks (possibly even ‘inside’ them), in contrast to the more open, spacious and ‘environmental’ use of the roller and the garden ambience. The multichannel format allowed a further exaggeration of this contrast, using stereo speakers for the close material and a surround array for the ambience.
Rock ’n’ Roll is dedicated to my wife, Ali, who did the energetic bit of the recordings while I just held the microphones and yelled instructions! The title of the piece just had to be…
Rock ’n’ Roll was realized in 2004 at the composer’s studio and in the Electroacoustic Music Studios of the University of Birmingham (UK) premiered on June 12, 2004 at the Sonic Arts Network (SAN) Conference in Leicester (UK). Thanks to Pete Batchelor for special adaptations of his Max patches. •• Rock ’n’ Roll is the work #1 of 4 that make up ReCycle which premiered in its complete form on May 25, 2007 during the Klangfest festival produced by BEAST at the CBSO Centre in Birmingham (UK).
Premiere
- June 12, 2004, Sonic Arts Network Conference, Leicester (England, UK)
Composition
- 2004, Personal studio, Birmingham (England, UK)
- 2004, Electroacoustic Music Studios — University of Birmingham, Birmingham (England, UK)
Cycle
- ReCycle (1999-2006), 47:398-channel fixed medium