KPFA-FM Music Dept. ➔ Electro-acoustic Works on Unusual Instruments by Hugh Davies
Analog Audio
Event Type
MusicOrigin
KPFAIdentifier
P.DAV.HUG.01Program Length
41 minDates
1968/1972 | createdDescription
Three electro-acoustic works by British composer Hugh Davies, performed by the composer and his pioneering ensemble, Gentle Fire, and featuring unconventional homemade instruments created by Davies. The first work “Shozyg I & II” is a performance featuring two players playing different unique instruments of Davies’ own devising. According to the composer: “Shozyg I and Shozyg II are stereophonic instruments for live electronic performance...They are built inside book covers which also contain performance instructions. The original Shozyg I was built inside the final volume of an encyclopedia, SHO-ZYG, hence the title, “shozyg” has subsequently been used to denote any instrument built in an unusual but everyday container, such as a radio, TV sets, bread bin, card table, etc...” For this performance the instruments apparently featured a spring and other noise making devices, contact mics, and an output to ring modulators and/or loudspeakers, and could be played with one’s fingers or accessories such as needles, screwdrivers, matchsticks, keys, etc...The second work “Quintet” is for five performers, microphones, and electronics, and is performed by Gentle Fire, an avant-garde ensemble similar to Cornelius Cardew’s Scratch Orchestra, or Alvin Lucier’s MEV. Davies described the piece thusly: “Four musicians stand, each at one of the four corners of the room, in front of a loudspeaker, holding a microphone which is connected directly to it. The fifth performer has an oscillator in addition to a microphone, as well as potentiometers to control the level of each of the five microphones. All the sounds are produced by acoustic feedback, with the exception of a solo section in the middle of the work, where the oscillator is used to modulate the microphone feedback.”
The last work “Improvisation 4:2 for KPFA” features Davies playing a duet with himself, utilizing two of his invented instruments. The first, a Springboard, featured a strip of wood with two springs stretched along it and amplified with guitar pickups. The other includes a variety of different length springs, guitar strings, and an egg slicer, amplified by an old gramophone cartridge and magnetic pickups, and played with a violin bow.
Genres
Electro-Acoustic / ElectronicUnconventional instruments
Musical Selections
Shozyg I & II (1968) (10:20) -- Quintet (1967-68) (12:07) -- Improvisation 4:2 for KPFA (Nov. 1972) (17:13)Performers
Richard Orton, shozyg I (Shozyg)Hugh Davis, shozyg II, etc. (all)
Gentle Fire: (Quintet)
Richard Bernas (Quintet)
Graham Hearn (Quintet)
Stuart Jones (Quintet)
Michael Robinson (Quintet)
Subjects
Electro-acousticElectronic music
Unconventional instruments