electronics pre-recorded

Composer's note:
The Line Between was written with an enormous amount of flexibility and rhythmic freedom in mind; not a lot of concern for strict synchronicity between voice and tape within phrases. The music allows the singer to be free within the bounds of sounds which are, by necessity, fixed. The lack of strict rhythmic correlation creates a sense of “communal prayer” which is heard very clearly at several points (perhaps most notably in the final minute).

There are many moments (the very first phrase, for example) where the singer has a great deal of freedom in tempo; often the tape part emerges without a clear beginning from the singer’s pitch. In such cases—and, really, throughout the piece—the singer is encouraged to treat a phrase’s internal rhythms with some freedom. Again, the composer is drawing on the aural image of prayer chants; both the variation one might hear as different chanters lead a prayer, and the heterophony that emerges as a group chants ‘together.’

composer's comment: "a backdrop of electronic timbres and textures that virtually surround the soprano and bathe her in an alien soundscape of flamboyant, yet compelling, musical colors."

SYNTHECISMS No. 2 (for Piano and Pre-recorded Tape) was premiered by British pianist Philip Mead at the 1991 International Computer Music Conference, Glasgow, Scotland.

Composer's note:

Excerpt, Brian Bevelander, piano; rec. 1999