a multimedia saxophone performance event
a sudden change in the consistency of snow (2006) by Peter V. Swendsen
alto saxophone, stereophonic tape and video
Live video stills from a sudden change in the consistency of snow.
Program Notes
a sudden change in the consistency of snow is an interpretation of that kind of early-winter snow that is almost sleet or hail, changing all the time, sometimes softening enough to bestow the lovely winter quiet that exists when everything is covered and dampened with snow, but other times quite hard and sharp and percussive as it bounces on frozen surfaces. As air and surface temperatures fluctuate, the falling water sometimes vacillates between textures in short spurts and sometimes slowly modulates in extended gestures. It can pound on your hood and resonate inside your head and then subdue its intensity to reveal a unique sonic spaciousness. Each element of the piece - saxophone, electronics, and video - traverses these continua of temperament, texture, precision, and expansiveness. As is the case with snow itself, stillness is rare and momentary up close, but very much present on the whole.
About the Composer
Peter V. Swendsen explores the capacity of electroacoustic sound and digital media to challenge and extend our engagement with performance. His music has been called "highly skillful" by the San Francisco Bay Guardian and "the sonic equivalent of ether" and "marvelous" by the San Francisco Chronicle. He is currently spending the 2006-07 academic year on a Fulbright Fellowship at the NoTAM computer music studios in Oslo, Norway, where he is at work on a large project based in soundscape composition and ecoacoustics. Swendsen is a Ph.D. candidate (ABD) in Composition and Computer Technologies at the University of Virginia, where he was in residence as a Jefferson Scholars Fellow and Instructor in the McIntire Department of Music from 2002-2006. His dissertation project is a large-scale composition for electroacoustic music, interactive dance, and extended/prepared piano. He received his MFA from the Mills College Center for Contemporary Music and his BM from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. His music has been heard throughout the United States and recently in Canada, Italy, Slovakia, Spain, Portugal, France, India, Korea, Chile, and Argentina. His work most recently appeared on events in Norway and Germany and at ICMC 2006 in New Orleans, and is part of an upcoming CD release called Resonance: Steel Pan in the 21st Century. Swendsen has studied composition with Gary Nelson, Richard Povall, and Kristine Burns, and more recently with Gail Wight, Maggi Payne, Fred Frith, and Pauline Oliveros. He is currently studying with Matthew Burtner and Judith Shatin, creating and performing with electroacoustic music, extended instrumental techniques, interactive environments, dance, installation, and video. He also serves as Assistant Editor, Publications for Journal SEAMUS. Swendsen is the co-artistic director of Prospect Dance Group and works extensively in collaboration with choreographers.