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CCA Composer of the Month – OCTOBER 2014
Photographs from top to bottom: [1] Nick Peters at work; [2] NP recording some sour sounds for an Acid House composition; [3] Transgression Quartet: “Jarry’s House” performance at Taylor John’s House, Coventry Canal Basin, June 2010. (Left to right: Nicholas Peters, Jim Rothnie, Phil Rowland and Mark Summers); [4] Transgression Quartet again in February 2011 performing at the SCHH/Transgression Double Quartet performance at Coventry University (Left to right: Nicholas Peters [Ableton Live], Phil Rowland [trumpet], Jim Rothnie [trombone] and Mark Summers [bass clarinet]; [5] Alter Flux (Daren Pickles and Nicholas Peters) performing IOA23 at Coventry University, March 2012.
If, after reading this Composer of the Month feature, you´d like to contact Nick Peters to make some comments then click HERE.
YOUR FEATURED COMPOSITION OF THE MONTH:
Journey Deep, Deep River
[Recording available by clicking HERE]
INSTRUMENTAL AND/OR VOCAL RESOURCES USED:
Sampled choir, PaulStretch software and Ableton Live software
FIRST PERFORMANCE DETAILS – IF RELEVANT:
A 12-minute excerpt of Journey Deep, Deep River was due to be projected at the INTIME Symposium, Ellen Terry Building, Coventry University on Saturday 18th October, 2014.
PERFORMERS ON YOUR RECORDING – IF RELEVANT:
Coventry University Performing Arts (CUPA) Choir, conducted by John Yaffé. Electronic processing, treatment and re-arrangement by Nicholas Peters.
OF THE WORK(S) YOU HAVE SELECTED FOR THE COMPOSER OF THE MONTH FEATURE, WHAT WAS THE SOURCE/INSPIRATION/COMMISSION WHICH SET THIS PIECE OR THESE PIECES IN MOTION?
When I recorded the CUPA Choir in April this year at ‘THE BIG GIG 2014’, I knew that I wanted to do something special with their rendition of the traditional spiritual ‘Deep River’. Around the same time, I had just started experimenting with PaulStretch software. PaulStretch enables the user to process extreme digital time stretches from even the shortest audio file; i.e. a sound lasting just a couple of seconds can be stretched and exported into an audio file lasting several hours, or even several days without affecting or altering the pitch. Time stretching is a controversial form of studio production because it is one of the most unnatural processes available to a composer. Alongside reversed sound*, extreme time stretching cannot be done without the intervention of electronic technology. As such, particular sounds (strings, woodwind, brass and choral) lend themselves to extreme time stretching more than others. As I became more proficient in using PaulStretch, I found myself returning to my recording of the CUPA Choir’s rendition of ‘Deep River’, experimenting with different time stretch parameters, octave filters and binaural beats. I began experimenting with layering different words from the spiritual (with their respective harmonies) on top of each other, as well as using different time stretch parameters and a variety of production effects from Ableton Live 9 software, to alter the harmonic material. At this point I realised that I had enough excuses to create a new piece from my source material… and so I did!
*Reversed sound is where the recording is played backwards so that every aspect of the attack, sustain and decay properties of the sound are reversed; i.e. attack -> sustain -> decay becomes decay -> sustain -> attack. Reversed sound is, quite possibly, the most unnatural electronic process available to a composer. Whilst some instrumentalists can mimic reversed sound (players of woodwinds, brass and/or cymbals are able to crescendo gradually and stop abruptly) they cannot produce the same effect of true sound reversal achieved through electronic processing. From my experience, reversed sounds needs to be integrated very carefully into a piece, otherwise they stand out like a gimmick!
WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD PROGRAMME NOTE FOR THIS WORK (OR THESE WORKS) WHICH EXPLAINS THE STRUCTURE, USE OF MELODY AND HARMONY AND ANY TECHNICAL POINTS RELATED TO THE PERFORMERS?
Here, the recording of the CUPA Choir performing the traditional spiritual ‘Deep River’ (conducted by John Yaffé in April 2014; recorded by Nicholas Peters) has been reprocessed electronically using PaulStretch and Ableton Live software, employing a host of time stretch parameters, saturators, compressors, EQs, reverbs and delays. The original recording of the CUPA Choir has been re-sequenced and multilayered such that the vocal phonemes and vowels from different words form new sounds, generating harmonic overtones, binaural beats and exciting crescendi/diminuendi as the vocal intensities rise and fall through a 25-minute ambient soundscape. This work is unusual for its creator, as it exists in the form of a fixed media composition rather than as a live piece.
[To hear the CUPA Choir´s original recording, please click HERE].
WHEN DID YOU FIRST START COMPOSING AND WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST PIECE?
I began creating my own music almost as soon as I started having piano lessons (at the age of 10). I can’t remember specifically what my first piece was, but I always found it more fun making up my own tunes rather than working though a book of uninspiring pieces prescribed to me by my first piano teacher [she didn’t last long!]. I also started developing my skills in arranging fairly early on too; I would hear tunes and then figure out how to play them by ear with my own accompaniment.
My musical heart has always been in creating new music but, as I slowly progressed my piano playing skills under the guidance of my fantastic piano teacher, David Botly, I eventually discovered the joy of learning more serious performance pieces. (Thanks David!)
WHO WAS IT THAT FIRST ENCOURAGED YOU TO DEVELOP YOUR INTEREST IN COMPOSING?
My music teacher, Jo Sandy. (Thanks Jo!)
WHO DO YOU CONSIDER YOUR GREATEST INSPIRATIONS IN TERMS OF THE MAJOR COMPOSERS AND WHICH OF THEIR WORKS HAS INFLUENCED YOU THE MOST AND WHY?
From the perspective of an overly indulgent pianist, music by Rachmaninoff, Gershwin, Chopin, Beethoven, Debussy and Ravel would definitely be at the very top of my list here. They each wrote wonderful music that is always a joy and a challenge to learn. However, the main reason why I have shied away from composing piano music is that I know I would simply end up creating pastiche works of these great composition masters.
However, the greatest inspirations upon my creative output have come from rather different areas of the compositional world to those listed above:
Jean-Michel Jarre’s album Les Chants Magnétiques (1981) was highly instrumental in getting me interested in electronic music in the first instance; it was in fact the very first album I listened to from beginning to end. Something captured me about the richness and variety of the electronic sounds that I was hearing, particularly in the first track, ‘Magnetic Fields Part 1’ which has three distinctive sections - see the video clip below. I believe this album has taught me a lot about mixing and sound placement in the stereo field, particularly crossfading techniques. Indeed, to this day, I still listen in awe to Les Chants Magnétiques for inspiration. [Jean-Michel Jarre’s website is available by clicking HERE.]
Louis & Bebe Barron’s soundtrack to Forbidden Planet (1956):
has been influential upon on my methods of sound creation and use of delay systems. Forbidden Planet was the first feature length film to use a completely electronic underscoring and Louis & Bebe Barron were not credited in the film’s opening titles as composers, but as creators of ‘Electronic Tonalities’. The ‘Electronic Tonalities’ that this husband and wife duo created for the film acted as both music and sound effects at the same time. The sound sources were created using homemade cybernetic circuits that were recorded onto magnetic tape. The range of sounds and atmospheres that Louis and Bebe Barron were able to create with their homemade electronic circuits and miles of magnetic tape is simply inspirational and a work that demands repeated listening. Their soundtrack remains to this day, completely unique, not just in the world of film, but also in electronic music production.
The music of La Monte Young has been particularly inspirational upon generating my interest in drone music and extensive compositional durations. Young’s music is characterised through his heavy use of long, loud drones often produced on sine wave generators tuned to just intonation. The emphasis of Young’s drone music is on sonic stasis and gradual change over very long periods of time. [My favourite recordings of Young’s music are those with Marian Zazeela and the Theatre of Eternal Music:
The early music works of Pauline Oliveros and Terry Riley have been hugely inspirational in generating my interest in solo performance using electronic delay systems. A couple of pieces that immediately spring to my mind are Oliveros’s Bye Bye Butterfly (1965):
and Terry Riley’s Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band (1968):
Through these (and amongst other) pieces, Oliveros and Riley proved that interesting electronic music could be performed live in real-time. It is also largely thanks to these two analogue tape pioneers that delay systems have evolved into the digital age.
The wonderful vocal overtone music of Jim Cole & Spectral Voices, performed and recorded in a water tower, has been enormously influential upon my live soundscapes. Cole and Spectral Voices juxtapose various types of vocal overtones with another; some are earthy, deep and guttural while others are pure and smooth, oozing with primal melismata. The natural reverberation from the empty water tower creates a supercharger effect for the hypnotic vocal overtones that gives the music a certain sense of timelessness. The wordless vocal phonemes (oohs, aahs, hmms, urrghs etc.) that emerge throughout the listening experience maintain a strong atmosphere of ubiquitous primal human unity that encourages inward reflection.
There are many, many other composers who have created such wonderful music that I have found similarly inspirational, but to name them all and describe each one individually on this questionnaire would be the equivalent of singlehandedly cooking a large banquet for an army, so I’ll leave my list here as the hors d’oeuvre!
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR STYLE TO SOMEONE WHO HAS NEVER HEARD YOUR MUSIC BEFORE?
I was recently asked this question and I jokingly came up with the “Principle of the Three L’s: Laminar, Live & Long!”
A significant proportion of my music output has been based around slowly evolving/shifting electro-acoustic soundscapes. Here dense sound textures crossfade smoothly into one another in a laminar fashion, providing a sense of gradual movement and evolution.
Most of my improvised music works are performed as installations over several hours. I often combine live instrumental sounds with my own prepared samples and/or electronic sounds to disguise one’s perception of acoustic and electronic sound material.
WHAT DO YOU FEEL IS ORIGINAL IN YOUR MUSIC?
This is a very tricky question for me to answer without either sounding completely egotistical or completely clueless[!], so I’ll do what I was taught and “borrow from the best”! As Robert Ramskill mentioned in his December 2012 Composer of the Month feature, “I think it is more fruitful to develop one’s individuality as a composer rather than striving after originality per se”.
I will therefore say that my developing originality is expressed somewhere through my developing individuality.
HOW DO YOU WORK? WHAT METHODS OF CREATIVITY AND WORK ETHIC DO YOU HAVE? DO YOU SOLELY USE MUSICAL TECHNOLOGY OR DO PAPER AND PENCIL STILL FORM A PART OF YOUR PROCESS?
Since 2009, the main approach to my music creativity has been more with the mindset of an improviser than that of a classical composer. With these improvised compositions (or “comprovisations” as I call them!), I often use Ableton Live software for instant sound processing and sampling, along with vocals and a host of acoustic instruments (such as melodica, tin whistle, didgeridoo, rain stick and handheld percussion). Most of these works are performed over several hours and they are usually presented as a performance installation, often incorporating other art forms, such as dance or visual art. I would describe them as “experientially extensive” as they require a tremendous level of concentration with regards to focused listening and immersion within the moment. I am forced to accept and surrender to any ‘mistakes’ that occur in the performance by turning the ‘mistake(s)’ into something musical or artistic. This act of accepting everything and surrendering to the moment of performance requires a very specific type of creative disposition that does not allow one to become precious over the end result. As such, I have to view my “comprovised” works as ephemeral entities and, once the piece has been performed, that’s it, onto the next! To me, any recording made of one of my “comprovised” pieces serves simply as an artefact from the past, like a memory that fades gradually over time.
I occasionally create fixed media electro-acoustic pieces in stereo, although these are secondary to my objective of keeping music live. However, my fixed media works do contain the “laminar” and the “long” aspects of my “Principle of the Three L’s”!
I have been creating original music for various theatre productions since 2007. For the first couple of years, my theatre soundtracks existed in fixed media format on CD, although the soundtracks I have created since 2009 have been greatly aided by the use of Ableton Live software. This software has allowed me to perform my soundtracks live, mixing sounds and creating complex soundscapes that interact with the theatre performance much more precisely than relying on multiple CD players and a steady finger over the Play/Pause buttons!
My work is rarely notated, although I have used Sibelius software (as well as paper and pencil) extensively in the past.
WHAT PROJECTS ARE YOU CURRENTLY WORKING ON?
My main project at the moment is my research exploring improvised performance works. Key areas of my research for this project include:
- Working with experientially extensive time durations
- Creating improvisational/compositional methodologies that employ techniques adapted and developed from shamanic journeying (and other spiritual practices relating to sound, such as mantra)
- Exploring laminar and poly-laminar soundworlds
- Creating live performance works that are not constructed or defined by western notation systems.
I rehearse every week with the Transgression Quartet, which explores a variety of acoustic, electronic and electro-acoustic forms of improvisation and free jazz. Transgression are:
Jim Rothnie (trombone/prepared piano/electronics/objects)
Phil Rowland (trumpet/electronics/objects)
Nicholas Peters (electronics/melodica/vocals/objects)
Mark Summers (bass clarinet/saxophones/shehnai [North Indian oboe]/electronics/objects).
I also perform in an ensemble called Alter Flux, which explores live multimedia performance created through cybernetic processes. Alter Flux are:
Daren Pickles (live sound sampling and manipulation)
Nicholas Peters (live sound sampling and manipulation)
Nik Clifford (live visual manipulation).
To finish, who or what is your favourite:
Genre of Music?
I listen to so much music that it is impossible for me to name any one genre of music as being my “favourite”. However, here are a few that I listen to more than others (A-Z):
Ambient music (including Drone/Space/Soundscape)
Choral & vocal music
Classical music (including 20th Century/Contemporary/Opera/Romantic)
Country music
Electronic & Electro-Acoustic music
Film music (including music for advertising and television)
Mantra
Instrumentalist?
Dr. Samuel Hoffman – Thereminist
Dr. Hoffman was, quite literally, the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of music; by day He was a respected podiatrist; by night, under the alias Hal Hope:
he was the Thereminist and leader of an easy listening jazz band. However, his big claim to musical fame was as the Thereminist on a whole host of science fiction and thriller film soundtracks, including Miklós Rósza’s scores to Spellbound (1945) and The Lost Weekend (1945), Bernard Herrmann’s score to The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and Herman Stein’s score to It Came From Outer Space (1953). Dr. Hoffman’s eerie Theremin playing heard on some 29 soundtracks culturally established the identity of the Theremin as the instrument most representative of both the sounds of outer space and of the sounds of the inner torments and desires of the human psyche. Alongside his numerous soundtrack recordings, Hoffman also recorded three wonderful lounge jazz Theremin albums: Music Out of the Moon (1947):
Perfume Set to Music (1948) and Music for Peace of Mind (1949).
Singer?
There are so many wonderful singers with such unique and mellifluous voices out there and on record that naming an overall favourite singer is a nigh on impossible task for me to do! For me it largely depends on what type of music I am listening to as to which singer I would prefer to hear radiating from my speakers (*):
My overall favourite female singer: Dr. Nina Simone.
Dr. Simone sang almost every form of song you could think of: blues, jazz, popular songs, soul, gospel, American songbook, folk and show tunes. She wrote original material as well as recording hundreds of fantastic covers of songs by names including: George Harrison, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Randy Newman, Judy Collins, Gershwin & Gershwin, Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn, Cole Porter, Irving Mills, Rodgers & Hart, Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Kern, Hoagy Carmichael, Billie Holiday, Jacques Brel, Georges Brassens, Bob Marley and Prince… the list goes on! A gifted classical pianist with an ear for song, Dr. Simone’s voice was unique: at times quiet, soft and mellow, at other times deep, resonant and raw, but always with an indescribable magical “Nina” quality. Each and every time I listen to recordings of the late great Dr. Simone I am always captivated by her natural ability to perform her vastly eclectic repertoire with such emotional authenticity, accompanied by her outstanding piano playing, that I often find myself saying, “That’s better than the original!”. My favourite Nina Simone album is Baltimore recorded on the CTI label and released in 1978:
My overall favourite male singer: Elvis Presley.
Several years ago I would have laughed at the idea of naming Elvis Presley as my overall favourite male singer. I had assumed his recording output consisted entirely of songs such as ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ and ‘Hound Dog’. How very wrong I was! My Elvis revelation came when I discovered his rendition of ‘Let It Be Me (Je T’Appartiens)’:
recorded in concert in February 1970 and released on his album On Stage. For me, he delivers the definitive version, complete with superb contributions from the backing singers and lovely orchestration. I explored his other live concert recordings and then his studio albums… it quickly became apparent to me that Presley could really sing! His voice possessed so many qualities that suited such a diverse range of song styles, from his large vocal range (high falsetto to high baritone), to his naturally powerful vibrato (on a par to classically trained opera singers), to his incredible abilities at phrasing and shaping the words… he simply knew how sing!
Favourite American songbook singer: Ella Fitzgerald
Favourite classical/opera singer: Franco Corelli
Favourite contemporary singer/songwriter: Leonard Cohen
Favourite country singer: Johnny Cash
Favourite gospel singer: Mahalia Jackson
Favourite mantra singer: GuruGanesha Singh
Favourite overtone singer: Jim Cole
(*) You will have noticed that many of my favourite singers have sadly passed away but, thanks to the marvels of recording technology, I am still able to listen to them at the push of a button!
Chamber Ensemble?
Of all the questions on here, this one has, by far, been the easiest for me to answer! Without a doubt, my favourite chamber ensemble is The Mike Sammes Singers. Although The Mike Sammes Singers recorded an incredible amount of music, there is very little actual video footage of them in performance. However, here is one small gem that captures their choreography as they sing ‘Pick Yourself Up’:
You have to admit, it’s difficult not to smile at it!
This group was, at its peak, arguably the most requested group of backing singers in the UK (possibly even in the world!), providing distinctive charming vocal harmonies for an enormous range of composers, bands and musicians. They took centre stage in singing Barry Gray’s title music to Supercar, Stingray and The Secret Service; they accompanied Vera Lynn’s renditions of ‘Amazing Grace’, ‘Sleigh Ride’ and ‘Do you Hear What I hear?’ plus others; and they even provided backing for The Beatles’ ‘I Am the Walrus’. Sammes himself was a fantastic composer of jingles and the Mike Sammes Singers recorded hundreds of original “ditties”, advertising products as diverse as Timex watches, TUC crackers, Dulux paint, Heineken beer, Ariel biological washing powder, Fairy washing up liquid and even combine harvesters! However, my favourite recording by The Mike Sammes Singers has to be their rendition of Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II’s ‘All The Things You Are’, featured on their album It Had To Be You (1999).
Orchestra?
This is a very difficult question for me to answer, as there are so many fantastic orchestras out there to choose from! However, of all the orchestral recordings I return to time and time again, any orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski gets my vote.
Concert Venue?
I can only answer this question by saying: “My favourite concert venue is a venue that is suited to the music that is being performed”.
Piece of Music
At the moment my favourite piece of music is ‘Astral (subsections: Perseverance, Rapt Bliss, & Wandering through Star Fields)’. This is a 25-minute track from Jim Cole’s sublime vocal overtone album Godspace (2002). For more information about Jim Cole & Spectral Voices’ music, please click HERE.