Many Times …

Chris Mann reading
‘the distance from the syllable A to the table’
(Theories of Surplus Value, III)

Thanks to David Watson for these photos

Many Times Chris

Many Times … (the ellipsis is the name of the performer), for a Kyma DSP system and a performer playing an acoustic instrument, recitating a text, or singing, exists in different versions, each of which is intended for a particular type of sound as produced by, for example, a melody instrument, spoken voice, or percussion.

In a performance, the performer is seated at a microphone and the performer’s sounds are transformed into multiple images that are distributed to loudspeakers throughout the performance space, so that the sounds come from loudspeakers on the left, on the right, above, behind, everywhere. That the Kyma system extends the performers into multiple sound images of themselves exemplifies what for me was the core idea of this composition, that electronic technology extends us beyond what we can otherwise do and what we otherwise are.

There are other aspects of the electronic system that I view as important. For one thing, the performers of these compositions are, in effect, playing the Kyma system as an electronic instrument; and they are playing it, not by means of a performance device of any kind, but by the characteristics of the sounds they play, such as pitches, successions of pitches, the speed with which pitches change, loudness, varieties of timbre.

More, the electronic instrument is an interactive instrument. By ‘interactive’, in this context, I mean ‘mutually influential’. An interactive instrument, defined by software, can seem to think for itself, make its own decisions, and translate its input into an unpredictable output. The performer ‘influences’ the instrument, as always, but in this case the instrument also influences the performer, providing the performer with something to react to as a cue for what to play next.

Many Times … was first performed at Engine 27, New York City, on March 21, 2001, as part of EMF’s Expanded Instruments Festival. The performers were Frances Uitti, cello; Chris Mann, reading text; Benjamin Chadabe, bowing a suspended cymbal; and Jan Williams, hand drums.

Please note that all of the performers worked with the same software. What sent Chris Mann’s recitation to everywhere in the room also created the changing sounds from Benjamin’s cymbal.

Many Times Benjamin

Wired Words

Wired Words

Wired Words is derived from an interactive composition called Many Times Chris, first performed in March 2001 at Engine 27 in New York City. In the performance, Chris Mann recited his writing, and the sound of his voice was heard in multiple and diverse electronically transformed images from loudspeakers around the room. After the concert, and after hearing a direct-to-disk recording of only the electronic sounds from the performance, it struck me that the inflections and nuances of Chris’ recitation generated also a parallel composition containing only the electronically transformed images of his voice. That’s what this is. Wired Words is the electronically-transformed images of Chris’ voice that capture the contours, the rhythms, and the musicality of his recitation.

Wired Words is a derivative of Chris Mann’s voice performing Many Times Chris. It’s the transformations of the words that Chris recited, but not the words themselves, and the effect, a shadow of the original, points us in another musical direction. Instead of sensing the extension of the performer into the space of the performance hall, Wired Words puts us into the transformations of the sounds, allowing us to hear a timbral and rhythmic extension of what a human being can do.

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For other compositions, click on a title

Blues Mix 1966
Albany Music 3 1966
Jack in January 1967
Street Scene 1967

Drift 1970
Ideas of Movement at Bolton Landing 1971
Echoes 1972

From The 14th On 1973

Flowers 1975
Settings for Spirituals 1977

Solo 1978
Scenes from Stevens 1979
Follow Me Softly 1984

After Some Songs 1995
Spring Drum with Pierre’s Words 1997

Many Times … 2001
One World 1 2006
Micro Fictions 2009
Different Cities 2013