Charles Amirkhanian Collection ➔ Composer-to-Composer Festival: Day 3 Discussions, Afternoon with Laurie Spiegel, Paul DeMarinis, and John Lifton (August 18, 1988), 3 of 3
Digital Audio
Event Type
Lectures and Panel DiscussionsOrigin
C AmirkhanianIdentifier
CTC.1988.08.18.CProgram Series
Composer-to-Composer FestivalProgram Length
235 minPart
3 of 3Dates
| broadcast| 1988-08-18 | created
Description
A recording of the afternoon composer sessions with Laurie Spiegel, Paul DeMarinis, and John Lifton on August 18, 1988, during the 1988 Composer to Composer festival in Telluride, Colorado.Begins with Laurie Spiegel talking about her background in music and how she began composing for computers. She then discusses a tuning exercise she created and demonstrates with an excerpt from her work “The Orient Express”.
After the excerpts she discusses her time at Bell Labs and how they came to end and plays “A History of Music in one Movement” for solo piano, and “Signals” for the Kathryn Posin Dance Company. (Signals is not heard in its entirety, only the first few seconds.)
After Laurie Spiegel, Paul DeMarinis sets up his computer system and the composers take a short break.
After the break DeMarinis plays his piece “Mind Power” which samples from self-help records of the same name, then demonstrates his “throatless voice” computer processor. He also plays “I Want You” which utilizes the voice of a Brooklyn radio evangelist, Reverend Samuel.
The next piece played off a tape is “Beneath the Numbered Sky”; a setting of an Indonesian folk song and DeMarinis explains the program and production of the work.
He then moves on to talk about his sound instillation works, including “I Will Always Love You” which plays 78 rpm records with lasers, including Rachmaninoff's “Piano Concerto no. 2 “ as well as a self-help tape about weight loss.
DeMarinis concludes and Charles Amirkhanian introduces John Lifton.
Lifton begins his presentation by explaining how he arrived at composing music through his background as an architect and his interest in interactive computers. He introduces and plays excerpts from his work “Green Music”, pieces that use plants to make electronic sounds. The group asks about the types of signals coming from the plants and what types of plants were used.
Next, Lifton talks about his opera about Harrry Houdini (Harry Houdini and the False and True Occult) and plays, and also performs excerpts from it.
The last two minutes of the recording includes announcements of schedules and other festival events.
Genres
Electro-Acoustic / ElectronicMusical Selections
The Orient Express [excerpt] (1974) (2:23) -- A History of Music in one Movement (1980) (7:40) / Laurie Spiegel -- Mind Power (1988) (3:40) -- I Want You (1988) (3:05) -- Beneath the Numbered Sky (1985) (4:10) -- I’ve Always Loved You (2:40) / Paul DeMarinis -- Green Music [excerpts] (1977) (0:53) -- [excerpt from Harry Houdini and the False and True Occult] (1985) (1:25) -- Love Song for Unaccompanied Parrot [from Harry Houdini and the False and True Occult] (1985) (2:55) / John LiftonPerformers
Joseph Kubera, piano (A History of Music...)John Lifton, voice (Love Song...)
Subjects
Electronic musicComputer music
Piano solos
Sampling (Sound)
Operas -- Excerpts
Acknowledgment
Digitized with support from the National Recording Preservation Foundation, The Copland Fund, and the Association for Recorded Sound Collections.Related Event
Composer-to-Composer Festival, 1988Related place
Telluride (Colo.) (was recorded at)Related Entities
Composer-to-Composer FestivalTelluride Institute
Spiegel, Laurie, 1945-
Amirkhanian, Charles
DeMarinis, Paul
Lifton, John