Day Trip (2000)

stereo and 5.1 mixes

Finalist in the Pierre Schaeffer International Computer Music Competition, IV Edition, sponsored by Accademia Musicale Pescarese in Pescara, Italy, 2003.

Available on John Gibson: Traces (innova 896).

A park in New York’s Chinatown — dozens playing Mah-Jongg — tiles slapping, people talking, cars honking. This boisterous soundscape, recorded on a lazy June afternoon, provides much of the source material for Day Trip. Processed layers of this sound, along with noisy synthetic reinterpretations, complement and distort the original recordings, which fade in and out.

We often think of the timbres of instruments in an acoustic ensemble as coloring the notes, which remain the chief carrier of musical action. Here it’s different: the pitches are meant to color the real-world sounds, which thereby take on a texture and musical meaning they didn’t have out in the wild.

All sound was processed and synthesized using RTcmix and PVC in Linux.

Performances:

• CECM Concert, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, 12/7/2008 (5.1 version)
• CECM Concert, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, 4/27/2003
• Sonic Arts Research Centre, Queen's University, Belfast, 2/12/2003
• Pulse Field, Georgia State University, Atlanta, 1/21/2003
• Birmingham-Southern College, Alabama, Electric BSCit Concert, 11/11/2002
• International Biennial for Electroacoustic Music of Sao Paulo, Brazil, 12/5/2002
• Keio University, Fujisawa, Japan, 6/25/2002
• SEAMUS National Conference, University of Iowa, 4/5/2002
• Eleventh Annual Florida Electroacoustic Music Festival, University of Florida, 3/23/2002
• Seoul International Computer Music Festival, Korean National University, 11/7/2001
• Third Practice Festival, University of Richmond, Virginia, 11/3/2001
• International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), Havana, 9/21/2001
• Electronic Music at Lewis — 2001 Festival, Lewis University, Chicago area, 5/5/2001