MusicBYTES: Memory

April 9, 2010

musicBYTES is a bi-annual electroacoustic concert sponsored by the Department of Music at Lewis University. This April, 2010 concert featured new electroacoustic compositions inspired by "memories" -- compositions that take listeners on a journey through diverse tableaux.

Mixed Messages

by Michael Pounds

Mixed Messages is a remixed version of a much longer composition entitled Messages. The original composition was inspired by a collection of reel-to-reel tapes recorded by my late father when I was a small child. As the piece took shape, it became an exploration of the sounds of technology and the ways in which technology affects our various forms of communication. On another level, the piece is about my father, whose love of music and technology was certainly influential in my own choice of careers. Some of the source recordings are from the World Soundscape Project Tape Library at Simon Fraser University (Canada).

Noises Everywhere

by Jason Bolte

Noises Everywhere (2009) was inspired by a snippet of text from the classic children’s book “Goodnight Moon” by Margaret Wise Brown, a book my daughter and I love to read at bedtime. The work uses sound materials derived from my daughter’s (Lila’s) toys. Noises Everywhere was commissioned by the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers and the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States as part of the ASCAP/SEAMUS Student Commission Competition 2008.

9.17.2003

by Mike McFerron

9.17.2003 (2003) grew out of the idea that one of the primary characteristics of art is that it compresses a large-scale topic into a manageable space, whether that space is physical or time-based. That is, artists begin with a large subject and reduce it to a manageable form. In music, composers address a number of subjects from memorials to rituals to the absolute. The one thing that unites music is that it almost inevitably at its roots comments on something larger than itself.

Whether it’s music, painting, sculpture, or drama, artists use the tool of conservation of means to make a grand comment. For this composition, I invited the Lewis University community to contribute to my orchestra of sounds. I placed a microphone in a busy hallway at Lewis University and recorded sounds for 24 continuous hours. Using the electronic music labs at Lewis University, I created a composition using only the sounds recorded during that 24 hour period. For me, this reflects the attitudes, emotions, and interactions of this day—a summary, or a composition that documents September 17, 2003 at Lewis University.

An Interrupted Memory

by Mike McFerron

An Interrupted Memory was written in 2009-2010 for Lewis University “Art of Memory” Series. All of the sound sources for this work were taken from five recordings, each two-minutes in length. These audio clips were recorded simultaneously at five different locations on the campus of Lewis University in the fall of 2009. An Interrupted Memory attempts to capture and sustain two minutes of the soundscape of Lewis University on that day at that time.

Welcome to Medicare

by Mark Wingate

Welcome to Medicare (2007), described by the New York Times' Steve Smith as, “ a gleefully sadistic collage,” is a stereo studio piece that depicts one part of the hellish netherworld that is the American health care system, experienced here in low fidelity communication by means of an onerous invention known as the "automated speech system."

After a relatively short career as a mechanical engineer, Michael Pounds turned his energies toward composition, studying at Bowling Green State University, Ball State University, the University of Birmingham in England, and the University of Illinois, where he completed his doctorate. His awards include the ASCAP/SEAMUS Student Commission Award, a Residence Prize at the Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition, a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship for studies in England, and a MacDowell Colony Fellowship. His music has been performed throughout the United States and in Canada, Mexico, England, Ireland, France, Spain, Austria, Korea, Australia and New Zealand. He was a co-host of the 2005 national conference of the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the U.S. (SEAMUS). Michael is currently the Assistant Director of the Music Technology program at Ball State University, where he teaches courses in composition, acoustics, music perception, recording and computer music.

Jason Bolte (b.1976) is currently serving as an Adjunct Instructor of Music Technology and Composition at the University of Central Missouri while completing his D.M.A. in Music Composition at the University of Missouri – Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance. Jason is a member of the organizational board of the Electronic Music Midwest Festival, and a founding board member of the Kansas City Electronic Music Alliance. Jason holds a B.M. with an emphasis in Music Engineering Technology and a M.M. in Music Composition from Ball State University. His music has been performed throughout the United States, Europe, South America and Asia. In the summer of 2007, Jason was an Associate Artist in Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts with Master Artist Denis Smalley. Jason’s music has received awards and recognition from the International Competition for Composers "Città di Udine" (Finalist: 2010), VII Concurso Internacional de Miniaturas Electroacusticas (Finalist: 2009), 2nd. International Electroacoustic Music Contest – CEMVA (Third Prize: 2008), 9th Electroacoustic Composition Competition Música Viva (Prize Winner: 2008), Bourges International Competition of Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Art (Selection: 2006, 2008), ASCAP/SEAMUS Student Commission Competition (Second Prize: 2008), ETH Zurich Digital Arts Week Soundscape Competition (Recognition: 2007), Music Teachers National Association and Missouri Music Teachers Association (Missouri Composer of the Year/Commission: 2007), and International Society of Bassists Composition Competition (First Prize, Media: 2005). Jason’s music is available on the Vox Novus and Miso Records labels.

Mike McFerron is professor of music and composer-in-residence at Lewis University and he is founder and co-director of Electronic Music Midwest (http://www.emmfestival.org). A past fellow the MacDowell Colony, June in Buffalo, and the Chamber Music Conference of the East/Composers’ Forum, honors include, among others, first prize in the Louisville Orchestra Composition Competition (2002), first prize in the CANTUS commissioning/residency program (2002), recipient of the 2005 CCF Abelson Vocal Music Commission, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s “First Hearing” Program (2001). McFerron’s music can be heard on numerous commercial CDs as well as on his website at http://www.bigcomposer.com.

Mark Wingate is a composer on the faculty of Florida State University. He holds a doctorate in composition from the University of Texas where he studied with Russell Pinkston, Dan Welcher, Stephen Montague, and others. Honors include the Stockholm Electronic Arts Award, the Rome Prize, the "Prix de la Musique Electroacoustique Caractère," Bourges, France, and composer fellowships from the Fulbright Program, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. His electroacoustic works have received international acclaim at new music festivals such as ISCM (International Society for Contemporary Music) World Music Days, Copenhagen and London, the “"Warsaw Autumn" International Festival of Contemporary Music, and many others. In 2008 he collaborated with celebrated composer, Christopher Theofanidis, on a joint commission for Field of Infinite Forms, a five-movement work for orchestra and surround sound playback.

Additional Resources:

Download Concert Program

Lewis University Department of Music

Michael Pound's Website

Jason Bolte's Website

Mike McFerron's Website

Mark Wingate's Website