qu’il m’en souvienne… (1987), 11m00s

4-track tape

qu’il m’en souvienne… is a purely synthetic work composed on the VAX 11/780 mainframe computer that was installed at the Electronic Studio of the Berlin Technical University during the 1980’s. This makes it somewhat of an historical work. The composition is written using the Cmusic-V programming language, the predecessor of the now widely used Csound environment. The composition employs two of the main possibilities of the Cmusic language, namely sound synthesis and the spatialization of sound. In this work, sound synthesis is based on the “Karplus-Strong” plucked string algorithm and sound positioning and trajectories are composed using the Cmusic “soundpath” module. The smooth arc of tension in the music and the work’s two main culminations are underscored considerably through the composition’s wide dynamic range. The title of the composition is taken from the poem Le Pont Mirabeau by Guillaume Apollinaire.

[iii-08]

qu’il m’en souvienne… was commissioned for the 1987 Warsaw Autumn Festival and was realized at the Electronic Studio of the Berlin Technical University.

Performances

Pulsar *3
Monday, April 14, 2008
Robin Minard: Le livre des espaces