Compositions

2013

2 channel recording

Composed, recorded and mixed by Scott Barton

Opus Palladianum: voice and drums explores relations and contrasts, from those that are clear, such as the juxtaposition of opposites (soft, loud), to those that are ambiguous, such as the juxtaposition of synthetic and intimate.  Contrast is created by presenting the voice and percussion elements in a variety of rhythmic, harmonic, stylistic and technological settings.  These organizations illuminate timbral identities, associations that are connected to production processes, and the relationship between an object and its development.  Such juxtapositions and superimpositions invite listeners to consider how context, and not just timbre, influences the aesthetics of recorded, sampled, and synthesized sound.  The piece creates unity and connections among these disparate elements through its formal construction.  As a result, there is connection despite heterogeneity; there is fluidity despite disruption; there is peace despite agitation; there is continuity despite discontinuity.

2009

for guitar and EMMI’s robots PAM, MADI and CADI

Performers: Scott Barton – guitar; EMMI’s robotic instruments – PAM (poly-tangent string instrument), MADI (16-arm snare drum), CADI (modular percussion instrument playing darbuka, ice bucket, tambourine and djembe)

Recorded by Scott Barton, mixed by Scott Barton and Marc Urselli at East Side Sound, NYC

Rise of a City features a human performer interacting with the robotic instruments created by EMMI (expressivemachines.com) and WPI’s Music, Perception and Robotics Lab.  The piece explores areas of musical expression that are uniquely human, uniquely mechanical, and the spaces in between.  In regard to these common spaces, shared material produces nuanced contrasts in timing, intonation and timbre, which give us a sense of the expressive characteristics of human versus robotic instrumentalists.  We can also understand the work’s interactions and relations as a narrative that describes how an idea develops.  Sometimes multiple groups of people simultaneously cultivate ideas towards similar goals even though they don’t live in the same place.  Sometimes the paths of this race are parallel.  Sometimes they diverge.  When they diverge, the separation can result in either an alternate route to the original goal or a new path(s) that clears the way to previously unimagined possibilities.  This has become a familiar phenomenon to us via technological innovation, scientific discovery, stylistic innovation and the construction of physical communities (dwellings → cities).  The construction of physical communities has particular metaphoric weight in the case of this piece.  From small beginnings a city exudes reiterative processes in multiple directions.  New neighborhoods spring up that incorporate and / or react to adjacent areas.  The restatements are accumulative, so that the entirety of the city becomes perpetually more massive and complex.  At the same time, the most recent individual additions, buildings in the case of a city, mirror the qualities of the whole in terms of grandeur and intricacy.  This path is not purely linear of course, and the ability to start simply, small-ly, or differently is always preserved.

2017

for human performer and Cyther (robotic zither)

In the work, a human performer, Cyther (a human-playable robotic zither) and modular percussion robots interact with each other, enabled by both the physical design of Cyther and software written by the composer. The perceptual aspects of the system distinguish auditory events, create groupings and find patterns. In response to perceived information, the system can mimic, transform and generate material. It stores information about past events, and thus has memory, which shapes the expressive choices that it makes. It is used in improvisatory contexts to illuminate unique gestures that are only possible through electromechanical actuation, which inspire a human performer to explore new expressive territory. The improvisations provide structure and freedom in order to both present the possibilities of this ensemble and allow for spontaneity. In particular, the work explores rhythms and timbres that are enabled by these machines.

2016

2 channel recording

In “Pleasure Beats: Rhythm and the Aesthetics of Current Electronic Music”, Ben Neill describes how popular and art music are distinguished along rhythmic lines. He predicts a future music where such distinctions are less clear; where the rhythmic vernacular of pop music is spoken in artistic territory. Much of my recent creative compositional efforts, including this piece, exemplify movement in this direction, both in terms of rhythm as well as other musical elements. Here, a foundation is set with materials from the pop world: verse-chorus form, 4/4 time signatures, fuzzy synth basses, rock grooves and EDM breaks. These materials are then manipulated in electroacoustic-art-music ways: timbres are transformed, grains are made and re-ordered, meters are changed, and earlier materials are restated in discontinuous sequences. The result is less a fusion and more a congeries where non-ironic choruses and dizzying jump-cuts cohabitate. These combinations are not motivated by a desire to influence the language of art music for its own sake, rather, they are expressions of cultural heterogeneity that is not compartmentalized.

2019

for the robotic instruments PAM, modular percussion and percussive aerophone (built by WPI’s MPR Lab and EMMI)

A groove changes identity depending on the tempo it inhabits. Typically, there are small ranges within which a rhythm feels at home. Once there, a rhythm reveals the energy, detail and character of its true self. Some rhythms are travelers, able to assimilate into contrasting locales. Some rhythms are chameleons, changing their colors depending on their temporal context. tempo macho explores some of the ways that tempo change can affect our sense of musical material. Here, tempos can change gradually and also can shift abruptly according to a variety of mathematical ratios. These movements occur over a range of time scales to illuminate the rhythmic limits of short-term memory and what is required to entrain to a cyclic pattern that reveals a groove. A theme persists throughout the piece to make these rhythmic aspects, which also include unusual meters and polyrhythms, clear. The temporal complexity of these ideas finds a natural voice through mechatronic instruments.

2009

2 channel recording

Breeding in pieces combines compositional and production practices from rock, electroacoustic and contemporary art music. In the sense of synthesis, one musical world is filtered through the other from a variety of angles and proportions. At the same time, recognizing that commingling sometimes has the unfortunate by-product of dulled edges, gestures are also presented as if in their natural habitats. The extent to which the music preserves these habitats speaks to the gestures themselves, their local contexts and the associations they evoke. The middle section of the work explores perceptual ambiguity by presenting sounds that can be organized either via conventional timbral associations or temporal simultaneity. Some of the relationships take a bit of work to find, but that is part of the fun. Almost all of the music is generated from the same progression / theme.

2014

for narrator, voice and electronics

narration: Art Cohen

vocals: Scott Barton

piano: Aurie Hsu

Eroding Mountains is about a slow epiphany.  It is about one’s realization of the value of nonhuman animal life in a culture that typically defines ethical standards along speciesist lines.  It is about the realization and remembrance that such lines are and have been drawn within the boundaries of the human species.  It represents confusion and conflict that results when what was normal and comfortable is recognized as ethically untenable.  It is about remaining connected with those you love in spite of differences.  It is about frustration with apathy.  It is about the hope of things getting better.

Musically, transformations and re-orderings of recognizable materials represent emotional conflict, confusion, and the feeling of a voice that doesn’t reach its listener.  Larger trajectories, such as de-tuned -> tuned and distributed -> isochronous represent the journey of coming to clarity.  The three sections represent how individuals can come to this realization in isolation and how, unless they connect with others, will continue to inhabit that state.  Each section features expression that refuses to compromise its humanity in spite of the confusing factors around it.  The piece concludes with a musical statement of hope.

2017

2 channel recording

guitar – Scott Barton

Through the Rain started with a chord progression written on guitar many years ago. The progression, played on electric guitar, is reflected in a number of virtual instruments and effects, blurring the line between acoustic and electronic, played and sequenced. The first section of the work illustrates movement from dislocation -> synchronization (an idea also interpreted in Eroding Mountains). In the second section of the piece, the parts have coalesced and begin to move as a unified whole. This journey takes a variety of paths, retakes steps, and encounters ephemeral electronic weather systems. The storms and disorientation relent as it arrives, leaving a new idea, connected to the previous, that announces idyllic perpetuation.

2017

for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and electronics

In the process of creating carried by currents, I imagined something ambient to balance the rather frenetic and fragmented character of other recent works. I felt motions that were smooth and rolling; that rippled through a surface in a variety of directions. I sought a hybrid character that radiated warmth in a tactilely organic and fuzzily electric way. I conceived a texture that was complex and heterogeneous but also whole. I envisioned something that metaphorically extended to both water and electricity, to human and technology, to illustrate the complexity and peace of the flows around us.  

Fall 2008 – Winter 2009, rev. 2011

for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, tom-toms, marimba, piano, viola, double bass and electronics

In for steps that grow when climbed a live acoustic performance is interpreted through the production studio. The piece was scored, performed and recorded in a traditional way, but those recordings were processed and augmented at various times using various methods over a ten-year period. As a result, (dis)continuities emerge that span genre, time, place, and means of production. The piece explores how these (dis)continuities create movement and demarcate musical form.