Wingbeat for amplified harp and 2-channel fixed audio was chosen to be a part of the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival 2022. The premiere will be given by harpist Sonia Bize on Sunday, June 26, 2022, at 8:00 pm at the Loreto Theater in the Sheen Center, 18 Bleecker St., New York, NY.
This work was initially inspired by a pair of Mute Swans who live on a pond behind my house on Long Island. One day I was kayaking on the pond and I noticed a swan fly overhead. Thereafter, each time I heard a swan fly overhead it sounded the same, in other words, neither the pitch nor the pulse of its wingbeats was different. I made a recording and listened to it for more details. Included in the fixed audio are recorded (and processed) sounds of the swan’s wingbeats. I include other swan sounds too, for example, the sound of a swan running on the surface of the water to take flight. However, on the recording, I designed the water-slapping running sounds.
Though I am showing various artworks in this post the art in themselves had nothing to do with this piece. But the myths and texts the paintings are based on did inspire my work including constellations, stories, and myths. Not just legends about swans but legends combining swans and lyres.
Though there may be moments of joy in other works of mine, “joy” has never been an emotion I intended to express. That doesn’t mean my music is joyless. But there can be a grandeur associated with joy or sadly an artificiality that misses the point. However, I chose to include a feeling of joyousness in this piece that comes from a place of experiencing a bevy of swans.
Another aspect of swan in Wingbeat has to do with the basic material both the harp part and the fixed audio share. I extensively use the Carnatic Indian raga Hamsadhwani, C, D, E, G, B, and C throughout the work. Hamsadhwani means “song of the swan.”
As a technical note, in addition to swan wingbeat samples and other designed sounds, the use of granular synthesis and processed digital oscillators contributed greatly to the sonic experience.
