Works » By Title » P » Press (9:10 / 1986)

For Four channel computer synthesized tape.

This work was composed in CCRMA, Stanford University, using its Samsom Box digital synthesizer and the programs to control it written by Bill Schottstead. It uses the computer instruments: marimba (built by Xavier Serra), plucked strings (David Jaffe and Julius Smith), drum (by Jean Mattox) and several fm instruments, with nested oscilators, written by the author.

"Press" is a diverimento about rhythmic perception. A regular rhythm (with only one duration) is transformed into another with almost unperceptible irregularities. This ambiguous rhythm later becomes one with four clearly differenciated durations. The rhythm of the sun is also present in this work. A function which represents the sun spots activity for more than the last 40 years is used sometimes to control amplitude and spectrum in time.