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Impossible AnimalsProgram
notes by David Jaffe
Impossible Animals (2003 version)
is scored for trombone and computer-synthesized voices.
Written for Abbie Conant,
it is based on an earlier work commissioned by the Hamilton College Chorus in
1986. There are also versions of the piece for four voices (1989), violin (1989),
oboe (1990) and five winds and tape (1994). The
piece is a fanciful exploration of the boundary between human and animal
expression and behavior, and between the realms of nature and human
imagination. An antiphonal interplay is set
up between the live performer and the synthesized voices, with the trombone
assuming the role of narrator of an abstract story, while the computer voices
serve as actors, taking on improbable voices of unthinkable animals, emoting
in an unknown language. As the piece progresses, the trombone takes on more
and more animal characteristics. The "story" is concerned with
animals seen while looking at clouds, and concludes with a description of a
more familiar (though no less absurd) beast with its own special vocalization. The
synthesized voices were created using a mainframe computer at the Stanford
University Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA).
It consists of a variety of grunts, exclamations and comments, including a
half-human/half-bird vocalise, which
represents a true hybrid between human and bird singing, as if a bird's brain
had been transplanted inside a wildly-gifted human singer. It was produced by
beginning with a recording of a Winter Wren and analyzing it using frequency
domain tracking techniques developed by researcher Julius Smith. Using
software written by the composer, frequency and amplitude trajectories were
then extracted, segmented into individual "chirps" and tuned to the
underlying harmonic background. In addition, the range was modified over time
and the frequency axis was mapped onto an evolving set of vowels. Finally, the
data was resynthesized, using human vocal
synthesis, using a technique developed by researcher Xavier
Rodet at 1RCAM. The result is a new and greatly-transformed rendition
of the original wren'ss ong.
Click here for David Jaffe's biography.
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