composer
Tazelaar is by far the most important practitioner of autonomous electronic music of his generation. In his work, he reconciles modern techniques with the thinking and principles of some 50 ...
related works
Depths of Field no. 3 : 1997 / Kees Tazelaar
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Electronic music
Scoring:
soundtrack
Selected Blend 84 : (1984) / Peter Plompen
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Electronic music
Scoring:
soundtrack
Tellurisch : electronic music, 1991 / Jan Boerman
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Electronic music
Scoring:
tape
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Electronic music
Scoring:
soundtrack
composition
Phalanxes : electronische muziek, 2005 / Kees Tazelaar
Description:
Program note (English): (Premiere: Ultraschall Festival, Berlin, 2005). As in "Lasciar Vibrare", the sound material of Phalanxes is completely synthetically produced and derived from a source material that is typical for the piece. In this case, this source material consists of recorded quadraphonic results from a patch in the voltage controlled studio of the Institute of Sonology. Subsequently this source material for the composition is systematically exposed to a number of sound transformations. A tree structure then visualises the transformations that all sound materials have been exposed to, and at the same time forms the basis for the way these materials enfold in a time structure.
Where in "Lasciar Vibrare" the source material was actually a group of sound textures with contrasting timbral qualities, in Phalanxes it is a group of structures with identical timbres but with different behaviours. Regular rhythmical patterns of noise impulses are increasing and decreasing in loudness, changing speed and colour with every new envelope. By superimposing such patterns in the first part of the piece, a kind of landscape is created with very high densities of sound events. Gradually the regularity of the patterns is destroyed, and new gestures of a much more organic nature emerge.
While the first half of the piece is in general 'noisy', in the second half the sounds are given a pitched character by using resonance filters. Gradually the gestures are decomposed into single small sound events, and towards the end of the piece the regularity of the beginning is re-introduced by looping small parts of larger previous forms.
"Phalanxes" is composed for 7 loudspeakers. Up to nine groups of polyphonic material are presented simultaneously. Every group of voices has a specific spatial behaviour, and moves either along a quadrant formed by the four speakers in the corners, or along a triangle formed by the speakers in the front and the two sides of the hall. - KEES TAZELAAR