Medea - For four computer-procesed voices and computer generated sounds

Medea was realized using the System Concepts Digital Synthesizer and the Lexicon digital reveberator at the Centre for Computer Research in Music and Accoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford University. The concept of the piece evolved while I was working on the music for the production of "Medea-Plays" conceived and directed by Ed Isser at the Stanford Drama department. As a result I decided to use four narrators, each reciting a section of a different version of the Medea story in a different language (Greek, Latin, French or German). The excerpts were taken from the plays written by-. Euripides, Seneca, Jean Anouilh and Heiner Müller.
In January 1987 recordings of Sabine von Dirke, Beatrice Philibert, Martha Taylor and Livia Tenzer narrating the texts in the four different languages were made. They were then loaded onto the Foonly-F4 computer and processed both with the Lexicon digital reverberator and the Foonly-F4 computer. The result of these manipulations were mixed with synthesized sounds created, using the System Concepts Digital Synthesizer designed by Pete Samson. These sounds were designed by the composer to create a new dimension of tension between the artificial sounds and the concrete sounds. In a way I was trying to juxtapose the Greek myth and an opposite idea: The Judeo-Chri-stian symbolism of child sacrifice as the ultimate religious commitment, as in the stories of Isaac in the old testament and Jesus in the new one.
Medea was written between September 1986 and March 1987. It is dedicated to the memory of sacrified children.

Born 1955 in Jerusalem/ Israel. Studied composition at Tel Aviv University with Prof. A. Ehrlich, graduation 1983. Meanwhile working as musical advisor and production assistant for ABC and as music director for 20th century music at the Neve Zedek Theatre. He wrote the music for the movie "Hide and Seek", shown at various international film festivals (Berlin, L. A.). From 1982 - 83 at the Sound Research Institute in Utrecht/ NL and 1985 at the Centre for Compositional Studies in Aspen/Colorado, between 1983 and 1986 worked at the Center tor Computer Research in Music and A coustics (CCRMA) at Stanford Since 1981 lecturer at Stanford Department of Music.
Amnon Wolman has been awarded numerous international prizes; his works have been performed at the Biennale of Venice, the Aspen Music Festival, the Gouingen computer musical festival in Sweden and elsewhere. Amnon Wolman has composed more than 40 pieces, symphonie works as weil as chamber music and computer music.

For the Prix Ars Electronica '87 Amnon Wolman entered the 20-minute piece "Medea", created at the CCRMA in Stamford in 1986/81