Coeur brisé at Arts First 2010

This week-end is time for the great celebration of the arts at Harvard, Arts First.

On Saturday afternoon, I am performing a new composition for dancing clarinetist, electronic music, and electric guitar (guitarist Jonathan Buonocore is playing). Title & details:

Coeur brisé - In memoriam M. J.
Lowell Hall
(Cambridge, corner of Oxford & Kirkland Street)
Saturday, May 1st - 4:30 pm
Free admission (as for the whole Dance festival taking place there from 1 to 5pm)

Many thanks to the wonderful persons who have helped me making this project become reality. Thank you.

Harvard Dissertation Colloquium

You are invited! On Friday, April 30th, I'll be presenting a "Dissertation colloquium" at the Music Building from 3 to 4pm.

I'm going to give an overview of my recent works, linked to four topics I've been interested in:

• Chamber Music
• Text & Music
• Dance & Music
• Third Stream

Then I'll give insights into Electroclarinet 2, the composition for contrabass clarinet and live electronics that I created in December of 2009.

You'll hear numerous musical excerpts linked to the examples, of course!

Want a preview? Here are screenshots of the handout I prepared for the occasion.

A Jazz Night in Paris

I am delighted to invite you to my last concert leading both Dudley House Jazz Bands before moving back to France. I'm very happy with the repertoire that covers American and European Jazz, standards and creations... You shall discover a number of autobiographic traits in this program!

Jazz Combo

The jazz combo has been a huge group this year. We are beginning to know each other well, and the ensemble is sounding better & better. The group is Richa Gawande & Michael Heller (alto sax), Alan Lenarcic, Will Ramsey & Jabulani Barber (tenor sax), Jean-François Charles (Bb & Eb clarinet), Rakeen Mabud (violin), Iacob Koch-Weser (guitar), Brigham Hall (piano & melodica), Marc Gidal (bass), Max Behrens (drums), and Imani Roach (voice).

The program:

• Bonjour Paris (Sidney Bechet)
• Parker’s Mood (Alan Matheson, based on a solo by Charlie Parker)
• Charméditerranéen (Paolo Damiani)
• Aldwell Schachter (Michael Heller)
• Green Tea (Brigham Hall)
• Those Blue Eyes (Alan Lenarcic)
• Lamas Say Yes (Alain Gibert)

Big Band

Our full big band stars Jon Andrews, Jillian DeMair & Kimberly August (alto sax), Michael Heller (tenor sax), Marlene Cohen (tenor sax, flute & clarinet), Aaron Silberstein (baritone sax), Alan Lenarcic (soprano sax on Oblivion), Ed Moore, Gary Smiley, Chris Zuidema & Stephen Furqueron (trumpets), Ethan Fenn, Rob Cautillo, Cara Takakjian & Tim Fung (trombones), Jonathan Buonocore (guitar), Adnan Zunic (piano), Marc Gidal (bass), and Sven Seuken (drums).

The program:

• April in Paris (Vernon Duke, arrangement Count Basie)
• I’m Just a Lucky So and So (Duke Ellington)
• Kalimba (François Jeanneau, 1985, for the Orchestre National de Jazz)
• Bernard Jeufroy (Michael Heller)
• Kolkoz (Alexandre Desenfant, 2009)
• Oblivion (Astor Piazzolla, arrangement Bob Curnow)
• La Mer (Beyond The Sea) (Charles Trenet)
• I Love Paris (Cole Porter, arr. Lennie Niehaus. 1958, for Stan Kenton’s Orchestra)
• Libertango (Astor Piazzolla, arrangement Fred Sturm)

I hope to see you there!

Dudley House
Harvard Yard, Cambridge
Saturday, April 17th - 8pm

Electroclarinet 2 - Live sound processing part 1

Electroclarinet 2 is a composition for contrabass clarinet and live electronic processing. All of the electronic sounds you hear are produced in real time; they result from transformations of the clarinet sounds played live. In this post, I am describing the first and third processes.

Live electronic musical processes are implemented as what many musicians call patches. Patch is a term used in electronic music to describe the organization of small sound processing modules. The term patch is used when working with Hardware (patching a Buchla 200), Software (Max patches), and combination of software & dedicated hardware (Nord Modular G2 patches or patches for a Roland V-Synth GT).

Serenade

The first patch I use in Electroclarinet 2 is called Serenade:

Patch #1: Serenade

It features a long reverb module, the main culprit for the atmospheric sound. Then, a module that slices and transposes the sound is followed by a 4-voice frequency shifter. The frequency shifter is making the clarinet sound more or less inharmonic, depending on the preset. I use this patch with 9 different parameter presets between the beginning of the piece and around 3:20 (timing of the Electroclarinet 2 video on youtube).

Manifold

Whereas the Serenade doesn't feature any feedback line, the third patch, called Manifold, is the king of feedback. Feedback lines appear in the graphic as bold lines. The loop is simultaneously recorded and played back; hear it in the piece from around 4:39.

Process #3: Manifold