Günther Rabl - Ain't there TV after Death

€6.00 - €12.00

Günther Rabl - Ain't there TV after Death

€6.00 - €12.00

ccr 302

AIN’T THERE TV AFTER DEATH

We owe this piece of music to the actor and writer Thomas Kamper, who gave me the opportunity to compose an overture for his play ‘Jokebox’.
According to the play, which introduces Beethoven’s “Grand Fugue” through a jukebox on stage while various quiet TV programs are runningon screens, I selected a few basic elements for my work: parts of the spokentext; five seconds of a space sound derived from Beethoven’s string quartet; recorded TV sound.
In the first part the text, spoken by Thomas and Barbara Horvath, becomesde-spaced and reconstructed within the harmony of the quartet. Layers of choirs result, which then finally lead to a drone terminated by a shot (actually the compressed sound of a saluting gun).
The second part consists of TV sound only, condensed into a homogenous noise and resolved to series of short attacks as well.
In the last part I used my brand-new model of a resonating bar, which is ‘hit’ by tiny particles of the spoken text. It fades into a tunnel-like space, evoking the condensed TV sound once again.
G.R.

composed and produced at the composer’s studio, Neustift 2005
tools: VASP, AMP
original source: HD stereo, 32bit 44.1khz

MITE E-LITE
homage to a power generator
a commission of the IEM, Graz

In Siebenwirthen there is no electric power connection. If in some cases electronic devices are to be used, one has to put an old McCulloch Mite E-Lite generator into operation. The motor also has to be started up to pump water out of the well into a higher lying reservoir (one notices that the reservoir is full when the spill water ripples over the roof). Sure, there would be newer, environmentally-friendly, muffled models of generators.
However, the sound of Mite-E-Lite is more beautiful. It has character. It tells a story. The recording of such a process (the starting-up, the kicking-in, the first backfiring and, lastly, the autonomous stalling of the engine) builds the basis of the whole composition. The sound itself and its rhythmic and harmonic structures find utilization within the piece. The first spectral analyses showed an enormous abundance of partial tones above the bottom frequency of the two-stroke rhythm. Amazingly, the seventeenth and thirty-first partial tones are particularly dominant. It was therefore self-evident to approach the matter with prime number harmonics. Viewed rhythmically, the process consists of a plethora of short explosions, each one different from the other, although they altogether form the typical “mechanical” rhythm of a motor, which proves to be extremely lively.

Excommunication – The original sound of the motor starting up is heard in the center.
Gradually it is broken down into its spectral components on the basis of the first 11 prime numbers (2-31). They become independent and wander outwards until they ultimately form an organ-like dome of sound.
Blue Note Seventeen – Three of these spectral components (3,7,5) dissolve into a trio in which, corresponding to the characteristics of prime number harmonics, a number of ‘blue notes’ are secured around the 17th partial tone. The rhythms are an interpretation of a phase of the motor in which it runs in a cycle; the melodies are derived from the differences of the single strokes. A stylistic mimicry reminiscent of Dixieland is created.
Unfortunately Viennese – Three other spectral components (11, 13, 2) form anew into a trio, whose rhythm, however, is now constructed out of the odd pulses. The whole piece takes on a stumbling and weepy style known from some Viennese folk songs.
Panopticum – Spectral distortions transform all the components into droves of bell-like sounds that are ringing something in. But no one knows exactly what this something is.
Swan Song – All prime numbers newly form into a slowly developing sequence of two chords that sound as if they could have never been any different.
Fade Away – They flow once again into the original sound of the motor, which finally dissolves completely and ebbs away.
G.R. (translated by Brian Dorsey)

composed and produced at the composer’s studio, Neustift 2001/02
tools: VASP, NMS4
original source: HD 24-channel, 16bit 44.1khz