[Ian Stewart]

Have any of the players on this forum played any works for solo saxophone and electronics? I would be interested in whether the works used live electronic/digital transformations of the saxophone, or were they for saxophone and tape/cd.
The works I have found are almost entirely for pre-recorded tape and saxophone although I have also found one that used reverb as well. However as yet I have not managed to find out how the reverb is intended to be used.


Any information would really be appreciated. I would also be interested in how you feel about playing with pre-recorded sound. For instance do you find the fixed element limiting? And if live electronics are used do you feel comfortable with your sound, based on years of practise, being electronically altered?

Many thanks for any information.

 

[grevsax24]

I have played with both CD and Live Electronics, and I have had enjoyable experiences with both.
Regarding pre-recorded sound- it doesn't have to be limiting! I found that working a lot with the tape part gives you a good knowledge of where you can be free-er. I worked with one of the Composition faculty here (at Ohio State) on a piece for saxophone and tape, and he wasn't concerned with complete precision between me and the tape. He wanted some parts of the piece to really line up, but with other parts he just wanted it to be close.
With Live electronics, no I don't have a problem with my sound being altered. Sure, it changes one element of your approach, but if the piece is effective it's worth it.

 

[bezozzi]

A good majority of my performances anymore are almost entirely made up of pieces for saxophone and electronics. It's a medium I find incredibly intriguing and very diverse with all of the different electroacoustic aesthetics out there.

I've performed works that are fixed media and saxophone as well as interactive pieces. For me, good interactive pieces are harder to find (if it sounds like it could be done with fixed media, why is it "interactive" instead?) Benjamin Taylor wrote a piece for tenor, piano, and interactive electronics called To Raise Up. In this piece, the saxophone is minimally processed, but it's done tastefully. Since there are so many sections that are out of time, trying to accomplish it with fixed media would be incredibly difficult - you would run the risk of it having no life.

On the other hand, my good friend Michael Olson has written a couple of pieces for me. These works rely so heavily on the interaction between the fixed media (processed recordings of myself playing the music) and the performer that it is more like playing in a chamber setting. In his piece Driftwood, the saxophone part is so rigorous and the EA part is so fluid that it takes a different level of intimacy to pull it off. Sure, you could play it technically perfectly and everything, but you have to find ways to meld in and out of the EA sounds. That was one of the most challenging things I've had to learn to be able to do with electronic music.

Elanie Lilios wrote Veiled Resonance and it is completely interactive with a few triggered audio files and only a few metered sections within the 3 movt. work. Since the work is primarily improvisatory, there is so much room to make the piece your own. I had a difficult time, prior to working with Elanie on it, with making the triggered sounds in the second movement and my improvisational gestures seem organic. I'm hoping to get a few more performances of this piece in to really solidify these kinds of things.

Overall, electronic music really does present its own set of challenges. To me it's just SO much fun to try to overcome these challenges and to be able to present this great genre of music to audiences that don't necessarily get the exposure to it others might. I'm also very big on sound. Changes in timbre in music and using sounds in different ways than it is in acoustic music really gets me in a good way. Because of this interest, I personally don't care whether or not my sound is altered beyond the point of recognition or slightly altered. If the composer wants these sounds, why should we be against providing them?

I would be more than happy to provide a list of pieces I'm aware of and give a short synopsis of them when I get home from this conference this weekend.

 

[Sean P]

Also, John Sampen at Bowling Green is currently constructing a database of all works for saxophone and electronics. He or any of his DM students might be good contacts for this sort of thing.

I'm a proponent of sax and electronics (to those who know me, duh ). However, be very wary of technical concerns. Not only are most programs fidgety creatures themselves, every venue will have varying technical capabilities, sometimes making even fixed media (just tape) difficult to pull off.

Interactive electronics are, for me, much more interesting than fixed media (generally, of course). However, in addition to heightened technical concerns, you also have to get used to using a foot pedal.

 

[Ian Stewart]

Many thanks for all your replies, the detailed information you have all given is really useful to me. I also understand now that transformations of the saxophone sound are not a problem as long as they make compositional sense.

Grevsax24, I am pleased to read that you do not find pre-recorded sound limiting. Sometimes it is good to have precise control over the sounds and build up complex textures using many techniques and processors, it is often impossible to produce these sounds live.

Bezozzi, your comments are interesting about playing a work with processed recordings of your own playing, to me there is a special quality when an instrumentalist does this. Presumably the processing of the saxophone was done by the composer so it would be interesting if another player wanted to perform this work. I can think of two possibilities: one is that the composer gives instructions as to how the recorded saxophone is to be processed so each performer produces their own pre-recorded part; the other possibility is that the composer makes a definitive pre-recorded part with a player such as yourself, and sends it out as they would any other pre-recorded part.
You have also mentioned the important point that the performer really has to work hard in order to play organically with any electronic sounds, either pre-recorded or live.

Sean P, you have raised something that has always been of concern to me, namely that all venues differ, as do the programmes various sound diffusion people use, although I suppose in the classical music world Max/MSP is probably as close to a universal programme as there is likely to be.
Regarding the foot pedal, is that used to bring in the processing, to change programme or to fade in pre-recorded sound?

The main reason I asked for your views is that I have often used electronics in my pieces but wanted to get a clearer idea of players' views before I wrote another work. For a dance performance I used a hard disk recorder with different effects on different channels and could fade in the channels depending which effect I wanted. It also meant I could record the saxophone and play it back. I have also written works that use saxophone and DJ but I am now working on a piece for saxophone and video projection and wondered if it may be good to use electronics as well.

Thanks again for all you views, they really have helped.

 

[Sean P]

The foot pedal can be used to do just about anything. From the (rather limited) experience I have in performing this kind of stuff, I've seen anywhere between 20 and 150 foot pedal cues per piece. They trigger reverb on/off, pre-recorded sounds, a change in the live processing, etc... anything that is dependent on the performer. From what I understand, Max can also do this via audio triggers (e.g. a high C between x and y dynamic level will trigger this change in reverb) but it's a lot more safe to let the performer control it.

Venues do all differ, of course. Luckily, it usually comes down to a simple balance issue, but I have seen more detailed technical problems where the physical wiring of the place has caused confusion. As long as you leave plenty of tech time and plan a lot, it's usually an inconvenience rather than a disaster.

 

[Ian Stewart]

Thanks for that information Sean. I saw Jan Garbarek many years ago use a foot pedal to switch in a harmoniser so that he played chords on the last few notes of the phrases in one particular piece. However 150 foot pedal cues seem too much to me and unfair on the player. However I like the idea of using a foot pedal to bring in pre-recorded sounds. I wrote one piece with pre-recorded sound but the cues were on a DJ CD turntable. This meant the sound was lined up and the trigger pressed, just like playing electronic percussion.

It is interesting that before the replies in this thread, I had assumed that most of the time there would be someone just doing the processing or pre-recorded sound, while the saxophone player just played saxophone. Personally I would feel more secure with a specialist sound person. It is not such a problem for a singer because they would have their hands free to adjust any electronics. I still think that I will continue to write for two performers, one playing the saxophone and the other just doing the electronics.

Thanks again for your help.