Aphasia

Mark Applebaum

Music Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

• Year: 2012
• Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A.

Abstract:

Program notes: Aphasia (2010), for solo performer and two-channel tape, was commissioned by the GRM, Paris and composed for virtuoso singer Nicholas Isherwood. The tape, an idiosyncratic explosion of warped and mangled sounds, is made up exclusively of vocal samples---all provided by Isherwood and subsequently transformed digitally. Against the backdrop of this audio narrative, an elaborate set of hand gestures are performed---an assiduously choreographed sign language of sorts. Each gesture is fastidiously synchronized to the tape in tight rhythmic coordination. In the context of NIME, the piece is noteworthy for its deliberate---if unintentionally political---contemporary technology abstinence. Ancillary questions arise, such as ``What are the present limits of gesture control?''; ``Do these limitations present unwelcome pressures on the boundaries of artistic imagination and creative capacity?''; and ``How do we learn to recognize when it is artistically prudent to eschew emerging tools?'' Composer(s) Credits: Mark Applebaum Instrumentalist(s) Credits: Mark Applebaum Artist(s) Biography: Mark Applebaum is Associate Professor of Composition at Stanford University where he received the 2003 Walter J. Gores Award for excellence in teaching. He received his Ph.D. in composition from the University of California at San Diego where he studied principally with Brian Ferneyhough. His solo, chamber, choral, orchestral, operatic, and electroacoustic work has been performed throughout the United States, Europe, Africa, South America, and Asia. Many of his recent works are characterized by challenges to the conventional boundaries of musical ontology. Concert Venue and Time: Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre, Monday May 21, 9:00pm

Citation:

BibTeX Entry:

  @incollection{nime2012-music-Applebaum2012,
 abstract = {Program notes:

\emph{Aphasia} (2010), for solo performer and two-channel tape, was commissioned by the GRM, Paris and composed for virtuoso singer Nicholas Isherwood. The tape, an idiosyncratic explosion of warped and mangled sounds, is made up exclusively of vocal samples---all provided by Isherwood and subsequently transformed digitally.  Against the backdrop of this audio narrative, an elaborate set of hand gestures are performed---an assiduously choreographed sign language of sorts.  Each gesture is fastidiously synchronized to the tape in tight rhythmic coordination.

In the context of NIME, the piece is noteworthy for its deliberate---if unintentionally political---contemporary technology abstinence.  Ancillary questions arise, such as ``What are the present limits of gesture control?''; ``Do these limitations present unwelcome pressures on the boundaries of artistic imagination and creative capacity?''; and ``How do we learn to recognize when it is artistically prudent to eschew emerging tools?''

Composer(s) Credits:

Mark Applebaum

Instrumentalist(s) Credits:

Mark Applebaum

Artist(s) Biography:

Mark Applebaum is Associate Professor of Composition at Stanford University where he received the 2003 Walter J. Gores Award for excellence in teaching.  He received his Ph.D. in composition from the University of California at San Diego where he studied principally with Brian Ferneyhough.  His solo, chamber, choral, orchestral, operatic, and electroacoustic work has been performed throughout the United States, Europe, Africa, South America, and Asia.  Many of his recent works are characterized by challenges to the conventional boundaries of musical ontology.

Concert Venue and Time: Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre, Monday May 21, 9:00pm},
 address = {Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A.},
 author = {Mark Applebaum},
 booktitle = {Music Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 day = {21-23},
 editor = {Georg Essl and Brent Gillespie and Michael Gurevich and Sile O'Modhrain},
 month = {May},
 publisher = {Electrical Engineering \& Computer Science and Performing Arts Technology, University of Michigan},
 title = {Aphasia},
 year = {2012}
}