KITTY BRAZELTONCatalog of Scores
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MUSIC FOR & WITH MACHINES

a segment from Dark Secret
—a piece I made for choreographer Beth Leonard in the spring of 98.

Beth asked that I draw only on household sounds from an earlier century:

  • the ticking and whirring of a mechanical clock as it prepares to strike the hour,
  • washing objects in water,
  • the sound of spoons as someone sets the table,
  • small wooden soprano and alto recorders which might have lain around the house for music lessons,
  • whispering...

(This excerpt is playable on any audio plug-in which accepts .aiff format.)

©1998-2003, Catherine Bowles Brazelton.

Although I've been making computer music for quite a while now--long enough to have experienced tens of generations of change in UNIX---I still know nothing and have to ask questions and stumble into everything I do. But the stumbling's very productive. The ancient rock musician in me finds it incredible and delightful to be able to "stay in the studio as long as I want" twisting and tinkering. The sculptor in me loves the exacting one-on-one intimacy with sound. Brad Garton at Columbia University Computer Music Center)---once my teacher (I took his intro course three times and never retained an algorithm)---has been generous in offering me the use of their facilities. In return, the sounds I've made there have been heard all over the world!
NAME OF WORK DESCRIPTION DATE COMPOSED LENGTH INSTR. PERFORMANCE(S)

Time Remaining

  1. opening
  2. eden's elegy
  3. driving force
  4. one
  5. two
  6. motet
  7. time ritual 1
  8. angharad runs
  9. match
  10. pillars
  11. wall
  12. floor duets
  13. eden emerges
  14. time ritual 2
  15. undertow
  16. ending
live music commissioned by Gina Gibney Dance for an evening-length work
2002 52 min. TTBB male vocal quartet, cello, percussion (concert bass drum, modified kit, bells, hammered dulcimer), computer-processed soundtracks and drones Premiered by Gina Gibney Dance (7 female dancers, 6 male musicians + Brazelton on laptop) October 2002, St. Mark's Danspace, and November 2002, Cleveland Public Theater. Reviews N.Y.Times, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Dance Insider.
5 dreams; marriage

5 dreams; marriage was commissioned in 1999-2000 as a sequel to ...Sermonette... by New York City's Harvestworks/Studio PASS with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency. 5 dreams... pushes the envelope in both composition and audio engineering as well as the group's considerable innovation in combining the two—ancient and new—technologies. Sound sculptor Paul Geluso is enlisted as permanent 4th member but he performs off-stage from the mixing board, breaking the traditional division between "band" and "sound person". You can see his participation begin as an improvisor with audio filters (score p. 20: PG) and then emerge as a singer (p. 21). Not shown in score is the work's finale "Glory Chorale" where all 4 performers sing polyphonically, supported by a quartet of sampled ghosts of themselves (you can hear the supporting track—each melodic line was created from one starting vocal source pitch and then transposed and modified in a digital audio editing program by Brazelton, creating a deliberately "unnatural" shadow for the live performed vocal quartet).

 2000 27 minutes WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE A BAT? goto http://whatbat.org to learn more. Premiered at Sound Symposium 200, St. John's Newfoundland. USPremiere at the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt Design Triennial, July 18 2000. Recorded for release by WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE A BAT? on Tzadik Oracles Series in 2003.

Hildegurls' Electric 'Ordo Virtutum'

Hildegurls' Act IV

MUCH more information, beautiful photographs by Lincoln photographer Stephanie Berger & sounds can be found at Hildegurls' website: please click here

21st-c. settings of 12th-c. Hildegard von Bingen's miracle play "Ordo Virtutum" by Brazelton in collaboration with composers Eve Beglarian, Lisa Bielawa and Elaine Kaplinsky; DAT soundtracks developed in part at Columbia University Computer Music Center. Revised version commissioned and premiered by Lincoln Center Festival '98. 1996; revised 1998 70 min. Hildegurls: 4 singers, soprano recorder, percussion, MIDI wand, sampler, electric bass and DAT soundtrack Context Hall, October 5, 1996; Lincoln Center Festival '98, July 22, 24, 25, 1998; Edgewood College, Madison WI, September 17, 1998 (Hildegard's 900th birthday).

Dark Secret

you can hear an excerpt from Dark Secret at http://www.arcananet.org/ newmusicradio choose Joe Pehrson's May '98 interview with Kitty Brazelton

CMIX-processed household sounds such as clock chime, whispering Shakespeare, water dripping and washing, going up creaky stairs, rainstorm outside (granular synthesis, comb-filters, Ceres, etc.) commissioned by choreographer Beth Leonard. See COMPUTER MUSIC.

1998 15 min. soundtrack for dance Music Under Construction Loft, April 18, 1998. Repeat performances Ersatz Marathon May '98, Battery Park Lunchtime Series Sept. '98.

La Vida Como Una Tromba Larga

you can hear La Vida Como Una Tromba Larga at http://www.arcananet.org/ newmusicradio
on the live concert recording of its May 15 '98 performance

CMIX-processed trombone sounds (use of granular synthesis, comb-filters, Ceres, algorithmic processes, etc.) at first canonically then rhythmically interactive with live trombone. Composed for and premiered by Chris Washburne. April-May 1998 14 min. for solo trombone and CD soundtrack Composers Concordance Concert, Leowe Theater, New York University, May 15 1998. Repeated by Chris McIntyre, Mannes School of Music, April 1999.
she said–she said, "can you sing 'Sermonette' with me?"

Life study created in collaboration with composer Dafna Naphtali; my portion developed at Columbia University Computer Music Center, March-June 1997 Reviewed in Chicago Tribune 10/14/97 and Reader 10/23/97.

This piece and many others use Mara Helmuth's gran (http://meowing.ccm.uc.edu/~mara/)

1997 22 min. for WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE A BAT?: two voices and microphones, two electric guitars, MAX interactive processing of Eventide delay unit, DAT soundtracks, MIDI-controlled sampler, drums Women's Avant Fest '97, Chicago, October 12 1997. Columbia University Computer Music Center's Interactive Arts Festival 99, The Kitchen, April 1999. Recorded for release by WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE A BAT? on Tzadik Oracles Series in 2003.
i touched
your cheek 		Developed at Columbia University Computer Music Center from conversations between composer and performers. Commissioned by twisted tutu through American Composer Forum's CCP Program (substantially funded by Jerome Foundation). Recorded for o.o.discs, Copland Recording Program; released fall 1999. 1995-1997 10 min. for twisted tutu: voice, microphone, synthesizers, CMIX-processed "found" or sampled material, MIDI sequencing and DAT soundtracks Pittsburgh, September 1997. CUCMC Interactive Arts Festival 99, The Kitchen, April 1999.
sanglikeabelllikeafrog
click to download .mp3 		UNIX CMIX (pvoc, mix, Doug Scott's ambience processing (http://reality.sgi.com/dscott/), "organ"izing and trans of vocal fragments and more) sonic fantasy using sounds derived from a minute-long sample of a rock scream and drums. 1990 5 min. soundtrack Columbia University Computer Music Composers, Merce Cunningham Studio, May, 1990; Bard College, June 1990; University of Illinois/Champagne-Urbana Computer Music Concert, July 1991; Computer Music Conference, Athens, Greece, Summer 1991. Bang on a Can Marathon, Alice Tully Hall, June 1996 with live rock scream and drums introduction.
goneclamming UNIX CMIX generated "pluck" set in Doug Scott's ambience programming and filtered ocean sounds with shakuhachi, percussion and voice. Revised for voice and tape in 1993. 1989; revised 1993 9 min. soundtrack with shakuhachi, percussion and voice or voice alone Columbia University Computer Music Composers, Merce Cunningham Studio, October, 1989; Akademie der KŸnste, East Berlin, as part of USArts: American Art in the 20th Century, June 1993.
asirememberedhymn Analog tape piece based on Bach chorale created at Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. 1987 3 min. soundtrack Roulette, 1994.

contact me: mail@kitbraz.com

© 1999-2003, Catherine Bowles Brazelton.