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Hear an excerpt of this piece.
Instrumentation: two channel tape
Year Composed: 1993
Duration: 5 minutes, 30 seconds
How to get it: Contact me directly
Birds is the most recent in a series of works for tape which utilize a single, real-world sound source for all their musical material. In these pieces, nearly all of sound manipulation was done on a MacIntosh computer program called Sound Designer. For Birds, I also employed an E-III sampler, the Performer sequencing program, and a digital processor for reverberation. Like the other compositions in this series, Birds was realized at the Indiana University Center for Electronic and Computer Music. It was completed in the Spring of 1993.
All of the sounds in the piece are from my pet birds. The majority of the material came from a parakeet: various chirps and whistles as well as cage rattlings and bird toys. The one loud cry comes from a cockatiel. The piece is in rondo form: ABACADA. The original A is in an aba form of its own. B follows a transition and is similar in character to A. In the second appearance of A (A') the primary change is the extensive use of a compressor. The C section is longer and contains softer and slower contrasting music. In A'' the sound builds back up to the original volume and speed using only the Aa music and leads into D, which is a short, furious section. The last appearance of A (A''') again uses only the Aa material and acts as a brief coda. The entire piece is 5'30" long. Special thanks to Bugs and Freddie