Truly Yours (1987) is a relatively simple composition: a melody for xylophone moving through an electronically composed soundscape.
The fixed-media part began with a drum machine given to me by a friend who thought I might find a use for it. I approached the machine without a particular composition in mind, listening into it much as I had explored shortwave radio: following what appeared and allowing one discovery to lead to another. By changing the sounds, tempo, and other parameters of a stored sequence as I recorded it, I traced an unexpected soundscape through material originally intended for an entirely different purpose. I then improvised a melody in response and later transcribed it for acoustic xylophone.
Truly Yours was therefore found through listening: first by tracing a path through the drum machine, and then by following the melody that emerged in response. Once transcribed, those two acts of discovery became a repeatable composition.
Today I hear Truly Yours as a transitional work—a contrasting piece between my early attempts to explore what I had learned through composition training and the practice my work would later become.
SCORE:
The score was originally published by AM Percussion in Buffalo. Its catalog was later acquired by HoneyRock. A revised edition of the performance materials and a remastered fixed-media accompaniment are available from the composer.
SAMPLE PERFORMANCE:
The recording presented here was made in 1987, using a Yamaha DX7 with a xylophone sound to perform the instrumental part. It was digitized and remastered for INDIVISIBLES, released by Subtropics Editions in 2022.
David Dunn and I jointly curated INDIVISIBLES as a shared art album containing historical pieces and recordings that had not previously found a release context. The signed-and-numbered edition was limited to fifty copies. It was the first release I consciously assembled around my own work.
The featured image, also titled Truly Yours, was created by Ralph Provisero for the INDIVISIBLES art-album release by Subtropics Editions.
Selected Performances
December 2, 1990
Iñaki Martín, xilofono
Centro de Arte Santa Sofía
Madrid, Spain
September 22, 1989
Heiko Schafer, xylophone
Electronic Music Plus 17 Festival
Oberlin Conservatory of Music
Oberlin, Ohio
August 19, 1989
Acousmatic version | radio
Música Electrónica y Por Computadora
Radio Municipal
Buenos Aires, Argentina
1989
Jan Williams, xylophone
Caracas, Venezuela
November 30, 1988
Gordon Gottlieb, xylophone
Société Française de Musique Contemporaine
Paris, France
October 22, 1988
Jan Williams, xylophone
Slagverk og Interaktiv Computer
Slagverk Symposium 1988
Oslo, Norway
October 21, 1988
Jan Williams, xylophone
New York Musik Fra, DSF
Oslo, Norway
October 16, 1988
Jan Williams, xylophone
University of California, San Diego
San Diego, California
June 25, 1988
Acousmatic version | concert
Ensemble Música Nova
Asociación Cultural Humboldt
Caracas, Venezuela