School of Music
U N C G
Thomas Royal
composition
assisted by:
Conor Angell, bass-baritone
Dalyn Cook, piano
Mark Engebretson, baritone saxophone
Susan Fancher, alto saxophone
Kevin Lowery, cello
Andrew Hays, tenor saxophone
Mary Hannah Johnston, mezzo-soprano
Brad McMillan, soprano saxophone
Braxton Sherouse, percussion
Graduate Recital
Sunday, April 20, 2008
7:30 pm
Organ Hall, School of Music
Program
Dithyramb (2007) Thomas Royal
(b. 1979)
The Royal Saxophone Quartet
Brad McMillan, soprano saxophone
Susan Fancher, alto saxophone
Andrew Hays, tenor saxophone
Mark Engebretson, baritone saxophone
Répétitions Lunaire (2007-2008)
Thomas Royal, augmented piano
Forsaking the Imagined Echo (2008)
digital media
Three Poems of Pierre Reverdy (2006)
I. Son de Cloche
II. Sur le Talus
III. Souffle
Conor Angell, bass-baritone; Kevin Lowery, cello;
Dalyn Cook, piano
Intermission
Two Fragments on Water and Light (2007-2008)
I. Levis Exsurgit Zephirus
II. Nubibus Atris
Marry Hannah Johnston, mezzo-soprano;
Braxton Sherouse, Toriton Plus and Bls.;
Thomas Royal, Lichtflöte
Soft Stings of a Cold Dead Image (2007)
Thomas Royal, orator
Thomas Royal is a student of Dr. Mark Engebretson and Dr. Alejandro Rutty
________
In partial fulfillment of the degree requirements for the
Master of Music in Composition
Program Notes:
Dithyramb
Dithyrambs were originally a type of ancient Greek hymn to Dionysus, the god of wine, plenty,
and ecstasy. Although the original Greek hymns are not believed to sonically reflect ideas of
Dionysian frenzy, versions of the dithyramb since about 1800 begin to embody the frantic and
strong rhythmic drive that one would associate with drunken revelry.
My Dithyramb for saxophone quartet embodies this in a way that reflects both revelry and
intoxication. Celebratory rhythms are heard in the beginning of the piece to establish a type of
comfortable, perpetual-motion sound world. As the music progresses, the sense of rhythmic
cohesion begins to fall apart. As the composition comes to a close the homophonic color heard
throughout transforms itself into something more strident. The piece concludes in utterly mindless
ecstasy.
Répétitions Lunaire
There is a precedent in the 20th century of physically extending the piano to create new sound
worlds for solo piano works. John Cage, by inserting various screws, rubber and bolts between
the strings of the piano essentially created a new instrument. George Crumb extended the sound
world of the solo piano work through the use of amplification, which made some of the piano’s
most subtle colors audible.
Répétitions Lunaire extends the piano by placing a contact microphone that is on the raised lid of
the piano keyboard. The sound from the contact microphone is processed by the computer to
sound like a bell. This does two things. First, knocking on the lid of the piano produces a bell
sound. Further, when the piano is played normally, the contact microphone picks up small
vibrations that are processed by the computer. The computer resonates with the piano, creating a
surreal atmosphere throughout the piece.
The piano is further augmented through the use of the Toriton Plus. In this piece, this controller
controls chime sounds in addition to fragmenting piano sounds that were performed moments
before they are heard in fragmented form.
The Toriton Plus consists of sensors which detect the disturbances on the surface of a plate of
water and sends the information to the computer for processing. The initial version of this
instrument was created by Sebastian Tomczak at the Electronic Music Unit, Elder
Conservatorium of Music, University of Adelaide in Australia. I made modifications that allow
greater access to the surface of the water and reduce the cost of constructing the controller.
Forsaking the Imagined Echo
Forsaking the Imagined Echo, a piece possible only in recorded form, raises questions about
duplication and signification. The sound of a triangle is recorded, abstracted, duplicated and then
the duplication, an “imagined echo,” is subjected to various methods of transformation, layering,
and destruction. As the piece progresses, less of an emphasis is placed on transformations of the
triangle sound and more emphasis is placed on altering the entire sound world at a higher level.
Synthetic-sounding loops and intentional glitches highlight the recorded nature of the work and
disrupt the discursive progression of the transformations of the triangle sound. The music points
to itself as a reflection of itself and not a reflection or echo of something else. This piece thus
poses questions about music’s ability to refer to something other than itself.
Three Poems of Pierre Reverdy
The musical approach seen in these settings of the poet Pierre Reverdy (1889-1960) is
analogous to the aesthetic approach seen in his poetry. Reverdy achieves remarkable directness
and strength through careful choice of and extremely judicial placement of very few words. In the
setting of the poems, every attempt is made to portray a stark and desolate simplicity through an
approach which subsumes all musical elements to melodic considerations. The piece is not
necessarily tuneful, as melodic material often appears in a fragmentary manner. Melodic material
is presented as simply as possible so that nuances of line are brought into severe focus. This
creates a very austere sound world that mirrors the desolation seen in the poems. There is a kind
of romanticism in these settings, although it is certainly not a trifling, comfortable romanticism.
Two Fragments on Water and Light
The most obvious facet of this piece is the use of custom controllers built, and in two cases,
designed by the composer. The Toriton Plus has been discussed above. The Bls. are wooden
bowls with sensors attached that are fed into the computer to be processed into what sounds like
bells. The Lichtflöte is a tube with lights at either end. When the mouth moves around one end of
the tube, or when the hand moves around the other end, information is sent to the computer to
control various synthesis and processing algorithms.
While the use of these custom controllers adds a layer of novelty to the piece, the most attractive
thing about using the controllers is the way in which they can be related to a text. The texts
discuss various aspects of light, darkness, water, and ice. The use of controllers that have the
same materials as those depicted in the text is quite attractive to me.
What is further appealing about using computer controllers is that they allow a situation in which
more than one person can control a single sound. This creates a situation in which the individual
identities of each of the instruments dissolve into a single ensemble. This kind of paradigm is not
generally possible in an acoustic ensemble setting. This aesthetic situation mirrors the themes of
darkness and dissolution seen in the text. Further, this piece stands as a metaphor of the loss of
identity created through the use of modern collaborative technologies.
Levis exsurgit zephirus
Anonymous
Levis exsurgit zephirus
et sol procedit tepidus,
Iam terra sinus aperit,
Dulcore suo difluit.
From Cambridge Songs, no. 40
Nubibus Atris
Boethius (480-525)
Nubibus atris
condita nullum
fundere possunt
sidera lumen.
Si mare volvens
turbidus auster…
Lightly rises the west wind
Lightly rises the west wind
And the sun proceeds tepidly,
Now the earth bares its breast,
Sweetness in its flowing apart.
Soft Stings of a Cold Dead Image
Soft Stings of a Cold Dead Image, for live electronics and speaker, explores the boundaries
between self and other, life and death, and autonomy and control. The speaker performs the text
of the title in a very slow, fragmented manner based on instructions given on the computer
display. The pacing of this reading is more or less precisely directed by the computer. The
direction of control creates an inversion of the instrument performer relationship: rather than the
performer being the player of the instrument, the instrument, in a sense, is the player of the
performer. While the piece is performed live, its fixed set of durations makes it temporally dead in
the sense that film, for example, is temporally dead or fixed.
The point of maximum irony occurs towards the end of the piece when the speaker utters the
word “dead” without any computer processing, at a point precisely given by the computer. This
climax of sorts is the point in which what the performer communicates is most understood. But
since the point at which it occurs is controlled precisely by the computer, the origin of the
message is obscured. The vocal improvisation on the French word image is when the “self” of the
performer gradually begins to disappear. The sound of the breathing of the performer, presented
rather statically in the beginning, is processed by the computer in such a way as to sound as if it
is the computer who is breathing; the original, human breath sound is destroyed.
About the Composer:
The music of Thomas Royal (1979) is concerned with the dissolution and combination of musical
identities through counterpoint and variation. His electronic works explore humankind’s
relationship to technology through creative inclusions of the human voice. In addition to this, he
has been investigating alternative performance paradigms made possible through the use of
custom controllers and novel performance interfaces.
His music was performed at the 2007 conference of the South Eastern Composers League and
he has won first prize in the Austin Peay State University 2007 Young Composer’s Competition.
His piece Soft Stings of a Cold Dead Image was recently performed at the 2008 SEAMUS
(Society for Electroacoustic Music in the United States) National Conference. He earned his B.S.
in Music Composition from Austin Peay State University under Jeffrey Wood. Currently he
pursues a Masters in Music composition at UNC Greensboro, where he studies with Alejandro
Rutty and Mark Engebretson.
