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| Cacaphonic 1981 by Dan Senn |
Cadenza for Scrapercussion and Audience Members duration about 10 minutes Click photo banner above to see the full image. |
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| Cacaphonic Cadenza was written in
Canberra, Australia, in 1981, for a composition recital for the work of Dan Senn held at the High Court of Australia. Senn was the the Head of the Electronic and Computer Music Studios at the Canberra
School of Music at the time. Cacaphonic Cadenza is an indeterminate and conceptual work based on rules described in a handout presented to the right. The audience was given this text and volunteers asked for. Photos of this presentation included those of the first performance of Skidmarks for trombone and backing sounds, performed by Simone de Haan, were taken by Tim Brook. |
Cacaphonic Cadenza by Dan Senn For Scrapercussion and audience members. Performance Instructions Four performers will be selected for this piece. I am the conductor-coordinator. Each player will receive a contact microphone and a mallet used to play the sound sculpture. The instrument is divided into four sections as defined by the four limbs of the sculpture. This scrapercussion, named “Elayne” after my good mother, consists of four limbs each supporting a collection of scrap that is suspended around an area of the frame. A car spring, or fan, protrudes justbelow each area. Players are restricted to performing only one of these areas. Choose an instrument and take in hand the proper contact mic (I’ll give it to you) and mallet. Do not start playing yet... just get prepared. When I touch you on the shoulder wit my baton, begin playing softly and low on the instrument using sporadic (irregular) and slow rhythms. As I move away from you towards other performers increase the speed and regularity of your performance as you move higher on the instrument. Use the contact mic gently as a mallet and as a device to create long electronic tones caused by feedback inherent to the sculpture. This will be an obvious effect. Each position will create a different tone. Once you have started to play, the effect of me walking around the instrument will be that , as I get closer to individual performers, he or she will play softer or louder, the rhythms regular or irregular with the vertical position (high or low) changing on the instrument. As I move away, the sounds will become louder and more regular and rhythmic. If I leave the room (am out of sight) you may do as you please. The piece will end by me coming close and touching a performers one at a time. When touched, drop your mallet on the floor and place the contact mike firmly against the instrument and stand still. After I’ve stopped all the performers, I will turn the volume down on the amplifiers and you may take your bows. DS, October 4, 1981 |
High
Court of Australia Performance
October 4, 1981  Click
image to enlarge.
Dan Senn (Prague-Watertown) is an intermedia artist working in music composition and production, kinetic sound sculpture, experimental and documentary film. He has been a professor of music and art in the United States and Australia and travels internationally as a lecturer, performer and installation artist. He lives in Prague where he directs the Echofluxx festivals, and Watertown, Wisconsin, the USA, with his partner-collaborator, Caroline Senn. Dan's work moves freely between expressive extremes and languages depending upon the aesthetic joust at hand. Dan is cofounder of Roulette Intermedium in New York City, Cascadia Composers of Portland Oregon, and the Echofluxx media festivals in Prague. (read more). |