Œuvres » Par titre » F » Fleeting Images (12:30 / 1985)

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Composed in December 1985, “Fleeting Images” uses the POD system for computer synthesis and composition developed by Barry Truax at Simon Fraser University. Environmental sound images based on real recorded experiences develop during the piece. The active, rhythmic textures are suggestive of the dynamism of nature -birds, insects and the bubbling energy of geothermal activity while the long sustained sounds conjure up images of waves crashing on rocky coastline mixed with the humming of telephone wires across vast, open plains. Such extra-musical aspects however, are merely stimuli to the composer's imagination and these ideas are articulated in a wide variety of textures. The contrast of noise-like with pure timbres is evident as is the “joie de vivre” aspect of the piece heard in the energetic, dance -like rhythmic sections, the pitches and durations of which were chosen by controlled random processes afforded by the versatile POD system. JR