(2023) electroacoustic music with alto saxophone ad libitum [7’35”]
The starting material are the recordings of the alto saxophone played by Gianpaolo Antongirolami to whom I asked to exemplify the 12 Language Types codified by Anthony Braxton for his own music: 1. Long Sound 2. Accented Long Sound 3. Trills 4. Staccato Line Formings 5. Intervallic Formings 6. Multiphonics 7. Short Attacks 8. Angular Attacks 9. Legato Formings 10. Diatonic Formings 11. Gradient Formings 12. Sub-Identity Formings. The recording was made in a large space using 8 different microphones: ORTF and binaural stereo placed in different points but far from the sound source, a clip-on over the bell, a lavalier on the player’s cheek, a dynamic microphone placed at 50 cm from the instrument, a contact microphone on the bell.
The formal analysis of KSZMK PQ EGN (1979) by Anthony Braxton determined the algorithmic structure of the Csound instruments I used. For each of the 19 sections I arranged four layers:
- Layer 1: given a section duration and a number of repetitions the first Csound instrument reads some of the recordings of Antongirolami (language type 7, 8 and 11 in all of the 8 tracks but mostly the one recorded with contact microphone which enhances key noises)
- Layer 2: shuffling loops of small fragments of Layer 1
- Layer 3: modal filtering (seven partials). Layer 1 as excitation signal is fed into a parallel bank of resonators
- Layer 4: modal filtering (seven partials) on Layer 2.
JRYLJ OP DFM can be performed with a saxophone playing KSZMK PQ EGN as recorde by Anthony Braxton in “Alto Saxophone Improvisations 1979”, Arista – A2L 8602.
JRYLJ OP DFM is one of the compositions which make a larger project titled “Lo spirito del rischio”, with solo pieces by Anthony Braxton and Roberto Doati’s electronic pieces related to Braxton’s music.