Joo Won Park
No-Input Mixer as an Expressive Instrument and Signal Processor
No-input mixer has become one of the most notable instruments in the worldwide experimental electronic music scene. The instrument’s feedback-based sound palette created from within an analog mixer is rich and unique. The non-linear nature of the instrument makes it a challenging yet fun object to record and perform. In this session, I will show methods to further extend the sonic possibility of the no-input mixer by processing its sound with customized software instrument. I will also demonstrate the no-input mixer’s potential to become an intricate feedback-based audio processor. The session will be beneficial to electronic musicians who are looking for an affordable yet intricate instrument, as well as to the sonic researchers interested in digital and analog signal processing.
Robin Cox
Bone Conduction Click Track Monitoring as Compositional Tool
This presentation will demonstrate bone conduction as a medium of transmission, and design of an associated click track, for audio monitoring in context of an acoustic musician’s contemporary technologies stage system.
One reason acoustic instrument or vocal performers resist use of click tracks on stage is the sonic compromises caused when earphones cover or plug up one or both ears, especially for those with instruments close to the head. It is disorienting, particularly for tuning, to diminish the natural and direct capacities to hear one’s instrument. As remedy to this problem, bone conduction headphone devices allow a high quality audio signal to be received aurally, without covering the ear itself, therefore no diminishment of surrounding ambient sound occurs.
When a well-considered click track of appropriately nuanced volume levels, relative pitch levels, and metrical information is married to bone conduction transmission there exists the potential for execution of musical concepts and precisions that might otherwise go unrealized by more traditional means of stage production. Beyond the obvious use in synchronization to playback tracks, video, or other realms involving electronic mediums, this more advantageous means of receiving click sound (or other audio signals) allows musicians to more fully concentrate on higher order aspects of music-making. Bone conduction transmission also lessens the potential of a click bleeding into nearby microphones, making this method of monitoring especially helpful in low decibel situations.
Tammy Evans Yonce
Fun with the Glissando Headjoint!
This event consists of two works written for Glissando Headjoint by Jay Batzner (b. 1974) and Andrew Rodriguez (b. 1989) as well as a demonstration of the headjoint.
Fire Walk by Jay Batzner was composed in 2014 and was given its world premiere at South Dakota State University in the fall of 2014. It is a collection of miniatures for unaccompanied glissando flute based on various impressions from the television series Twin Peaks. It takes inspirations from bird sounds, moods and quotes from the series, and the general environment captured and maintained by co-creators David Lynch and Mark Frost. It was also performed at the Canadian Flute Festival in June 2015.
Highways by Andrew Rodriguez was composed in 2015 and was given its world premiere at South Dakota State University in spring 2017. It was also performed at East Tennessee State University, Emory & Henry College, Brevard College, and New Music Gathering 2017. This work uses the Glissando Headjoint to create smearing effects, approximating the sensation of being a drowsy passenger in a vehicle as it passes lights and sounds on the highway at night. Both works utilize the Glissando Headjoint invented by Robert Dick, which allows the flutist to create interesting effects and true glissandi. They explore different timbres and registers of the flute with this headjoint.
Biographies
Robin Cox is a composer, violinist, and collaborator known for performance of his own works and that of other contemporary artists. With the Robin Cox Ensemble, he led over 170 performances, produced three critically acclaimed CD recordings, and premiered works by over eighty composers. He also led a mixed-media performance series as Executive Director of Iridian Arts, Inc. His latest large scale ventures are the community participation event HOURGLASS and the immersive performance environment BIG TENT. Cox has received numerous awards, including multiple Lester Horton Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Music for Dance and an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for the founding of Iridian Radio. He holds degrees from the Univ. of Texas at Austin, Univ. of Michigan, and the Univ. of Miami, and after many years on faculty at California St. Univ. Long Beach Bob Cole Conservatory and California Institute of the Arts, Dr. Cox joined the Music and Arts Technology faculty at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) in fall of 2013.
Joo Won Park (joowonpark.net) wants to make everyday sound beautiful and strange so that everyday becomes beautiful and strange. He performs live with toys, consumer electronics, kitchenware, vegetables, and other non-musical objects by digitally processing their sounds. He also makes pieces with field recordings, sine waves, and any other sources that he can record or synthesize. Joo Won draws inspirations from Florida swamps, Philadelphia skyscrapers, his two sons, and other soundscapes surrounding him. He has studied at Berklee College of Music and the University of Florida, and currently teaches Music Technology at the Wayne State University. Joo Won’s music and writings are available on ICMC DVD, Spectrum Press, MIT Press, PARMA, Visceral Media, MCSD, SEAMUS, and No Remixes labels.
Tammy Evans Yonce, an Atlanta native, is a flutist, collaborative musician, writer, and professor. She is a dedicated new music performer who is particularly interested in the commissioning and teaching of new music. Dr. Yonce has commissioned over a dozen works involving flute, many with a specific focus on creating new music for the Glissando Headjoint. Based in South Dakota and active internationally, Dr. Yonce has recently presented and performed at the National Flute Association, British Flute Society, Canadian Flute Association, and New Music Gathering conventions. She has given performances at Flute Festival Mid-South, College Music Society, Atlanta Flute Club, Flute Society of Kentucky, Austin Flute Society, Society of Composers, NACWPI, Electronic Music Midwest, and South Carolina Flute Festival conventions. She has given recitals and masterclasses extensively throughout the Midwest and Southeast and was guest artist at the 2015 New Voices Festival at Wichita State University and the 2017 Montana Flute Festival. As a writer, Dr. Yonce has had articles published in Flute Talk; Pan, the Journal of the British Flute Society; The Flute View; and South Dakota Musician. She frequently contributes CD reviews to The Flute View. Dr. Yonce is Assistant Professor of Music at South Dakota State University. A first-prize winner of the Atlanta Flute Club Young Artist Competition, she holds degrees in flute performance from Kennesaw State University (BM), Indiana University (MM), and the University of Georgia (DMA). Dr. Yonce has served as a judge for competitions of the National Flute Association as well as of competitions of the British Flute Society and Flute Society of Kentucky. She serves on the New Music Advisory Committee of the National Flute Association and formerly served on the board of the Atlanta Flute Club. She recently gave a TEDx talk about collaboration, new music, and the Glissando Headjoint.