Vanitas - Steve Everett

Vanitas Steve Everett
organ and interactive electronics (2005)
organist: Randall Harlow, Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, Emory University, Atlanta, USA
organ: Daniel Jaeckel, opus 45
16 minutes (excerpt-final 7 minutes)

Vanitas refers to a type of still life painting consisting of a collection of objects that symbolize the brevity of human life and the transience of earthly pleasures and achievements (e.g., a human skull, books, musical instruments, decaying fruit and flowers, a mirror, and broken pottery) -- a reminder that worldly riches cannot stop man's inevitable decay. Such paintings were particularly popular in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, especially in the Netherlands.

This work was written for organ with live electronic processing using the Kyma Sound Processing System. Four to eight microphones are placed as close as possible to the organ case in a vertical array on both sides of the performer. The organ is then processed through eleven computer Sound Objects in Kyma created by the composer. Each Sound Object consists of three or more spectral filter, delay, and diffusion effects. The goal of the live electronic processing is to subtly enhance timbral shifts, spatial location, and tuning of the organ sounds to capture the decaying and ephemeral qualities of a Vanitas painting.

Steve Everett is professor of music at Emory University in Atlanta, USA (http://www.steveeverett.org/)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• organ
• interactive
• electronics
• Kyma
• vanitas

[somnusductoris]

ñañaña