Works » By Title » W » Wave Edge (9:15 / 1983)

Wave Edge is a synthesized soundscape in the manner of my earlier “spatial environments,” Sonic Landscape No. 3 (1975) and Androgyny (1978). Like its mate, Solar Ellipse (1984-85), it is based on a particular type of spatial trajectory and related image. In Wave Edge the pattern is that of a wave breaking on the shore. The title refers to the crest of the wave which appears to move along the shore (in this piece, from right to left), yet the sound of the water remains fixed in direction. It is with this environmental image that we begin, and with each repetition we are drawn closer into and perhaps under this crest. A new sonic world unfolds and towards the end we “surface” to rediscover the waves, now surrounded by darting sound objects in a large reverberant space. In the distance a foghorn. Wave Edge is inspired by the I Ching hexagram number 4, Youthful Folly, comprised of the trigrams for water and mountain, which portrays a spring bubbling up at the foot of a mountain.