Descent
Prior, David ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8750-445X
(2023)
Descent.
[Composition]
Item Type: | Composition |
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Creators: | Prior, David |
Abstract / Summary: | Spanning over 20 years of work from artist and musician David Prior, Descent is a new release on SN Variations. Descent is a selection of works spanning over 20 years. While it reflects my background in the acousmatic tradition that emerged in the UK from musique concrète, Descent departs from several of the core Schaefferian precepts that underpinned the musique concrète to which it owes so much. The idea of sound as a quasi-sculptural material is a central tenet of musique concrete, with the goal of plasticity brought ever closer through generations of sound processing technologies. As with the chiaroscuro of Renaissance painters, the apogee of acousmatic compositional achievement appears to have been the ability of composers to transform their source materials, bending them towards their musical agenda. But for me, sound is something encountered from a position of reverence and a recognition that the meanings of sounds derive from the sources that create them. In place of the ‘reduced listening’ Schaeffer espoused as a means by which to draw out latent characteristics of a sound by disassociating it from its source, the sounds in the pieces that form Descent delight in what they are and gain their meaning only in what they are and their relation to one another. Credits Other Spaces Previously a colleague at Dartington College of Arts in Devon, Laws had previously played my piece, Somewhere Submarine and we’d talked for some time about her commissioning me to make a new piece. Each iteration of it resulted in me erasing more of what I had written. For its exceptionally quiet acoustic and outstanding Fazioli grand piano, we decided to record Other Spaces in the Arthur Sykes Rymer auditorium at York University. Butade’s Daughter Narcissus Paraphrase The performance on the album was recorded by Chris Morgan at the recording studios of the Academy of Music and Theatre Arts, Falmouth University in March 202. The recording engineer was Antti Saario. Samples from Marij’s demos of the piece feature in this recording alongside Chris’s performance. Another Poisonous Sunset The players featured in the piece all played their parts separately, with the piece evolving as each new player responded to what had come before them. Violins: Pippa Murphy and Iain Armstrong |
Official URL: | davidprior.org/descent |
Date: | 18 April 2023 |
Funders: | n/a |
Identification Number: | SN 13CD |
Projects: | n/a |
Subjects: | Music > Classical Music Music > Digital Music Music > Instrumental Music > Sound Art |
Courses by Department: | Academy of Innovation and Research |
Depositing User: | David Prior |
Date Deposited: | 31 May 2023 12:06 |
Last Modified: | 07 Aug 2024 16:10 |
URI: | https://repository.falmouth.ac.uk/id/eprint/4938 |
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