etiquette

[Stanley Pain]

well, i didn't think this forum would offer me much beyond G2 patches but it has completed a trilogy of 3 forums that i find useful, entertaining and... educational.

i bought my G2 this last summer and it sat on my desk for about a week before i plucked up the courage to turn it on. having messed around with Generator, a programme i loved despite it's many faults, i loved the idea of a polished modular system that worked fluently. that excited more than anything else. plus the hands on approach to making it a performance tool.

my older sister is 5 years older than me. she started having lessons when she was 5. as soon as i was old enough to reach the keys, i was able to figure out a piece of music i heard her practising. i plan to write a tune using that motif one day. it is probably my earliest memory.

my mother told me i was desperate to learn to read music, but she told me i had to learn to read english before i learnt to read music. i "learnt" in a day, so i started having lessons at about 3 or 4 years old from my father.

at 5 i started "proper" music lessons in piano and 'cello and passed with grade 8 distinction at 13. one of my 'cello pieces for grade 8 was by Henze. it was serialism. it opened my mind to the possibility of... well... fucking around with ideas in sound.

my teacher capitalised on my taste for the avant-garde and taught me a piece called "Solipse" written by one of the members of the Stockhausen Ensemble, a guy called Rolf Gehlhaar.

the piece involved a 2 second tape delay. at 14 years old, back in 1992, i couldn't afford a digital delay unit, so i went round car boot sales and picked up two old 2 track reel to reels. i made a tape delay unit (2 second delay meant a gap of about 50cm i seem to remember) and learnt Solipse.

my theory teacher was a biggie in the academic world and arranged for Gehlhaar to hear me perform the piece. he was really excited about overtones and what you could harvest from sound, and i figured (having been experimenting with midi and synths for a coupla years) that synths had something on a 'cello.

the rest is history. i still play 'cello and piano, i teach music/music technology, and i love messing with synths.

i am, as of yet, to post any of my modular comps, because none are finished/edited. but here is a little something i did last night.

http://s4.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1APPZWPTZEAPO1IU4QOZ518PGC

[seraph]

a great introduction or maybe an outroduction (after more than 40 posts)

[mosc]

Interesting story of your life, Stanley. Glad you took the time to write that. I like your little song called it's a sign, but it is not what I would expect from someone with your background. I expected something avant garde or contrapuntal or something.

[Stanley Pain]

[Stanley Pain]

although, perhaps on some subconscious level, this piece is very much related to Gehlhaar's Solipse. a large section of the composition is written with two staves. one is conventional bass clef, the other is a 5 line stave with a continuous line drawn across it to indicate where between the bridge and the fingerboard to position the bow.

an idea i have tossed in my head for a while is to record as many harmonics as possible from the cello, and not just conventional "natural" harmonics, but the harmonics that are released with excessive use of ponticello and tremolando. i don't think i really understood the implications of the sounds i was creating when i was that age.

[elektro80]