'Still Life in Wood and Metal' is written for percussion trio and tape. The tape utilizes sampled vocal sounds and 'percussion/vowel' sounds synthesized at IRCAM in Paris (using Xavier Rodet's Chant program) and edited on the Synclavier Digital Music System at the Bregman Studio at Dartmouth College. The 'percussion/vowel' sounds were made by modifying computer models of percussion sounds with models of vowel sounds to produce sounds that seems to emanate from percussion instruments but to behave (in their changing resonances) as if produced by a vocal tract.

The synthesized 'percussion/vowels' are designed to 'mediate', in a sense, between the recorded speech (whispers and vocal cries) and the live percussion. These 'percussion/vowels' were synthesized in such a way so as to make audible as pitches the center frequencies of the first two vowel formants. Vowel changes thus entail concomitant pitch changes and suggest the harmonic world of the piece. From among the range of possible center frequencies for the first two formants of each of nine vowels, I selected pitches to form a vowel 'scale'/pitch system. (David E. Jones)

Technical Background

HW / SW: Synclavier

David Evan Jones (USA) is a composer of instrumental, vocal, and electronic music and a theorist writing about relationships between phonetics and music. He has served as Composer-in-Residence at the University of York, England, and taught at Dartmouth College and the University of California, Santa Cruz. David Evan Jones’ works have been widely performed in Europe and in the United States. They have been recognized by several grants and awards.