Bird Cage (review)

Sever Tipei: raw cuts. Compact disc, 1998; available from Computer Music Project, University of Illinois Experimental Music Studios, 1114 West Nevada, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA; electronic mail s-tipei@uiuc.edu; World Wide Web cmp-rs.music.uiuc.edu/people/tipei/index.html

Sever Tipei immigrated to the United States from Romania in 1972. He studied composition and piano at the Bucharest Conservatory and at the University of Michigan. He has taught at the University of Illinois since 1978 and currently manages the Computer Music Project of the University of Illinois Experimental Music Studios.

An enthusiastic proponent of computer-assisted composition, Mr. Tipei has been actively involved in the creation of programs to such ends since 1975. In MP1, the first of such programs, sonic events are treated as vectors in a multidimensional space. It operates through the use of stochastic distributions, sieves, and Markov chains. The process involved is modeled after that of a scientific experiment, where initial conditions are set, a process set in motion (and left to run its course), and results received which are used unaltered as the final composition.

DIASS (Digital Instrument for Additive Sound Synthesis) is a virtual instrument developed from the Music4C sound synthesis program. DIASS can be used to create complex sounds with numerous partials, each able to be controlled independently of the others. One additional feature of DIASS is that it scales the amplitudes of sounds based upon the relative complexity of their harmonic content in order to have dynamics work in a perceived manner rather than as absolutes. MANIFOLD is a program for computer-assisted composition employing sieves with static and dynamic random distributions.

The compositions contained on raw cuts are manifestations of Mr. Tipei's view of composition "as an experimental and a speculative endeavor that delivers a particular world view." The pieces "want to provoke and intrigue more than to please." Most of the works included on this album reflect the composer's interest in computer-assisted composition and his view of the computer "as a collaborator whose skills and abilities complement those of the human artist."

The title Many Worlds (1989) was derived from the "Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics." This allusion is played out in the composition by having each of the five percussion parts start in unison then become increasingly independent of one another. This is aided in a concert situation by placing room dividers between the performers. Each stream of the composition, which was written with the aid of MP1, progresses through four areas, each dominated by a single timbre: metal, glass, skin, and wood. In this sense, the piece is similar to Iannis Xenakis's Pléïades for six percussionists (1978), a work that also treats the percussionists in terms of timbral families.

Curses is a setting of a poem by Romanian poet Tudor Arghezi (1880-1967). The text, written in 1927, presents a series of increasingly intense curses, which function as "a perverted prayer capable of triggering dreadful events." The composition is written for a male reciter accompanied by four female backup singers and an underlying computer-generated tape part. Comprised of both prerecorded and synthesized sounds, the tape part clearly reflects the energy level of the poem, as does the volume and emphasis of the recitation. Throughout the the tape part, a bass drum-like sound is reiterated in a relentless manner. The four female vocalists sing in a style that is influenced by American popular music. They also vocalize on animal sounds as well as nonsense sounds. The work is a collection of unique sounds from a variety of sources that are assembled to create a clear design leading toward the climatic ending of the poem. Unlike many other "theater" pieces, Curses retains much of its power as an audio recording.

Kings Nap, for solo piano, was written in 1994, and is performed here by Mr. Tipei himself. Much of the pitch material (which centers on F) and the rhythmic material were generated by sieves (a kind of logical filter...