discourse/current
for 2-channel computer-generated tape media 12:13

i.series /l/2/3/4/5/ 3:59
ii. series /6/	1:45 
iii. series /7/8/	2:15 
iv. series /9/1 O/	3:51   

Program Note

The piece is an interpretive reading of a text performed by poet Chris Mann. Verv brief 
fragments of spoken voice are sampled from a recorded performance of his poem in 
representing, and subjected to filtration, compression, and slight stretching. These 
processed excerpts are interleaved with other material elements-sine tones, filtered 
noise, and silence-through a program of logical operations (logical-or, -and, -xor). The 
resulting musical fragments are presented over the course of a series of ten segments. 
Each segment presents a minimally articulated musical structure, each delimited by the 
sounding of a single DTMF tone. At a higher temporal level, four longer partitions suggest 
a transition from predominantly voice-like sounds to sinusoidal sounds. As is the case on 
various structural levels within the piece, most sounds are characteristically flat in 
structure: flat envelopes, extremely low amplitude (some sounds bordering on the barely 
audible), sudden onsets and cut-offs, spectrally simple sounds with narrow bandwidth, 
and long silences. The intent is for an overall musical coherence that articulates simple 
surfaces rather than fully developed morphologies.

Chris Mann: Til two tills in bed are found displayed and organized, the proxy and the box. 
Anyway, she'd already been outed as a kno@-all by the Britannica: But blue bejust a riff 
with pictures - a pun is a fantasy, a libidinal think in it's pink complicits: Nice hyphen.

MICHAEL HAMMAN composes works for solo instruments, instrumental ensemble, tape, 
and computer. His writings appear in Interface, Computer Music Journal, Journal of New 
Music Research, The Music of Morton Feldman (Greenwood Press), Sonus, and in Otto 
Laske: Navigating New Musical Horizons (Greenwood Press). His work has been presented 
at ICMC (1991, 1994, 1997, 1998), Technology and the Composer Conferences in 
Luxembourg and Washington DC (1994), ICAD (1997), the Society of Composers 
Conference (1993), Computer and the Arts (1992), and the Contemporary Music Festival 
in Seoul (1991), among others. His music is recorded under Neuma labels 
ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC MUSIC V, ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC MUSIC VI, and Capstone Records 
(forthcoming). He received his doctorate in music composition from the University of 
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He currently lives and works in Urbana.