Pyramid (2018)
Four-point spatial sound installation
Two simultaneous four-channel loops: Organ | 11′12″ and Collage | 26′09″
Dedicated to David Tudor
Pyramid proposes four points as the minimum arrangement needed to create a three-dimensional audible experience: front left, front right, top center and back center.
The two front speakers establish width. A speaker above the listener introduces height, while a single speaker behind establishes the space at the back. The arrangement confirmed my intuition that sound behind the listener does not need to be stereo for the surrounding field to feel complete.
Two four-channel compositions played simultaneously through this configuration. Organ lasted 11′12″ and Collage lasted 26′09″. Because the loops were of different lengths, their relationships continually changed. Sounds could remain at individual points or move among them, producing combinations that were not tied to a single listening position, although the arrangement was designed around listeners occupying the space near its center.
The sound materials originated in my library and were first developed for a six-channel performance at Wesleyan University during a symposium devoted to David Tudor in March 2016. The symposium also included On Composition, a recording I made and edited of Tudor discussing his thoughts about composition. The evening program, Lively Music, featured my acousmatic performance using urban, natural and invented sound materials.
Returning to those materials at Audiotheque 2.0 allowed me to make a different kind of tribute: a spatial experiment dedicated to Tudor and centered on the sound system itself. From the heterogeneous 30-channel Audiotheque system, I selected only the four speakers necessary to construct the pyramid.
PRESENTATION HISTORY
November 17–18, 2018
Pyramid — Experiment One
Audiotheque 2.0
Miami Beach, Florida
EARLIER CONTEXT
March 26, 2016
David Tudor Symposium
On Composition and Lively Music
Wesleyan University
Middletown, Connecticut