electrocd

Track listing detail

Resonants

Elizabeth Hoffman

  • Year of composition: 2010-11
  • Duration: 13:40
  • Instrumentation: 7.1-channel fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Yul média
  • ISWC: T9063699092

Stereo

ISRC CAD501210011

  • 44,1 kHz, 24 bits

Resonants articulates an imaginary and unnatural enclosure which lacks normal acoustic decay. A bit like a hothouse trapping heat, it traps reverberant sound for absurdly long periods of time. A second aural puzzle is that the sounds in this piece seem to be both activated and self-activating. The metals and skins that are fragmented and suspended into a spatialized mosaic pull the listener’s focus in oscillating fashion between “reduced listening” and source sound listening.

[xi-11]


Resonants was realized in 2010-11 at the composer’s studio in New York City (NY, USA) and premiered on April 15, 2011 during the Inner Soundscapes Festival at Pitman Recital Hall of the University of Oklahoma (Norman, OK, USA). Thanks to TimeTable Percussion for recording much of the source material which was used for processing.


Premiere

  • April 15, 2011, Inner Soundscapes Festival, Pitman Recital Hall — Catlett Music Center — University of Oklahoma, Norman (Oklahoma, USA)

Composition

Mastering

Water Spirits

Elizabeth Hoffman

  • Year of composition: 2007-11
  • Duration: 10:41
  • Instrumentation: fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Yul média
  • ISWC: T9247801510

Stereo

ISRC CAD501210012

  • 44,1 kHz, 24 bits

Close-mic’ed recordings of water are transformed in this piece through algorithms crafted by the composer to modify the microrhythmic and timbral detail of the sound surfaces. The algorithms rearrange or eliminate data, creating either statistically accurate but temporally jumbled waveforms or sequentially accurate but incomplete waveforms. The result is a slightly askew tactility of otherwise familiar sounds. “Water spirits” are mythological beings, but the reference here is to the materiality of the water itself. If it could speak, what might it say…

[xi-11]


Water Spirits was realized from 2007 through 2011 at the composer’s studio in New York City (NY, USA). An early version of this work premiered under the title The Twelfth Chapter on March 30, 2006 during the SEAMUS 2006 National Conference at the University of Oregon (Eugene, OR, USA).


Composition

Mastering

Songstressed

Elizabeth Hoffman

  • Year of composition: 2010
  • Duration: 11:07
  • Instrumentation: fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Yul média
  • ISWC: T9057661424

Stereo

ISRC CAD501210013

  • 44,1 kHz, 24 bits

This piece considers the nature of vocality, through its almost pure derivation from several brief birdcall recordings. In parsing the birdsong harmonically, Songstressed perhaps exemplifies aspects of a spectral approach to composing. And in this case, much of the piece emerges formally by simply revealing the content.

[xii-11]


Songstressed was realized in 2010 at the composer’s studio in New York City (NY, USA) and premiered on January 16, 2011 during the New Ideas Music Series at Pianos (on Ludlow Street) in New York City (NY, USA). Thanks to Rachel Mundy for providing the original source recordings, to Margaret Lancaster for an additional flute source sound, and to Michael Waller for programming the premiere. Songstressed was selected for performance on March 29, 2011 at the 40th Annual John Donald Robb Trust Composers’ Symposium at the University of New Mexico (Albuquerque, NM, USA).


Premiere

  • January 16, 2011, New Ideas Music Series, Pianos, New York City (New York, USA)

Composition

Mastering

d-ness

Elizabeth Hoffman

  • Year of composition: 2011
  • Duration: 10:17
  • Instrumentation: fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Yul média
  • ISWC: T9113968051

Stereo

ISRC CAD501210014

  • 44,1 kHz, 24 bits

Acoustical research has shown that the best violin tone and sound radiation are found in instruments where the violin’s dimensions and the size of its f-holes create an air resonance frequency that coincides roughly with that of the D string. d-ness is also a nod to the classical Western canon’s associations between the key of D and a range of exuberant or at least sunny affects.

[xi-11]


d-ness was realized in the fall 2011 at the composer’s studio in New York City (NY, USA) with source material from a sound recording of Red is the Rows, a piece for two violins premiered by Conrad Harris and Pauline Kim Harris on October 23, 2011 at the new music community center Exapno in Brooklyn (NY, USA).


Composition

Mastering

Allamuchy

Elizabeth Hoffman

  • Year of composition: 2001-02, 11
  • Duration: 9:37
  • Instrumentation: fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Yul média
  • ISWC: T0718305180

Stereo

ISRC CAD501210015

  • 44,1 kHz, 24 bits

Using a few natural sounds, comb filters, and other digital signal processing techniques, Allamuchy explores moving through and being surrounded by various densities of substance. Broad motions and energies coexist with a counterpoint of purely musical elements. The latter suggests internal perspectives which are part of a non-temporal but narrative-like set of impressions. These ultimately dissipate, allowing a return to ordinary time. The natural sounds were recorded in a state park in the days immediately following September 11, 2001; with no planes in the air, the minute sounds of insects were especially poignant and clear to the ear.

[xi-11]


Allamuchy was realized in 2001-02 at the composer’s studio in New York City (NY, USA) and premiered on November 1, 2003 at the Third Practice Electroacoustic Music Festival (3P03) at the University of Richmond (VA, USA). Allamuchy has been previously released in 2006 on the compact disc Electroacoustic Music VII (Neuma Records, NMA 450105). The current version was revised in the summer of 2011.


Premiere

  • November 1, 2003, 3P03 Third Practice Electroacoustic Music Festival, University of Richmond, Richmond (Virginia, USA)

Composition

Revision

Mastering

Soundendipities

Elizabeth Hoffman

  • Year of composition: 2008-11
  • Duration: 9:28
  • Instrumentation: fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Yul média
  • ISWC: T9057661413

Stereo

ISRC CAD501210016

  • 44,1 kHz, 24 bits

Vibrational motions pervade the texture here and suggest an external world seen too close up for one to recognize any substances themselves. This piece attempts to convey a hyper-frenetic immobility. Physical modeling techniques were used to sculpt small sections of this piece, objects which emerge out of nowhere. As embedded gestural fragments they are intriguing residue from unknown sources entangled momentarily in the sonic mesh.

[xi-11]


Soundendipities was realized during 2008 and ’11 at the composer’s studio in New York City (NY, USA). An early version of this work premiered under the title Venus on April 10, 2008 at the Black Box Theater of the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts of the University of Florida as part of the Florida Electroacoustic Music Festival in Gainesville (FL, USA).


Premiere

  • April 10, 2008, Under the title Venus: Florida Electroacoustic Music Festival 2008: Concert 3, Black Box Theatre — Curtis M Phillips Center for the Performing Arts — University of Florida, Gainesville (Florida, USA)

Composition

Mastering