Voie Lactée
Needham Series
1984; 10:52 min.
Voie Lactee is a work in four movements meant to depict the fast-changing galactic multitudes of the Milky Way in tandem with reflections on the drama of the human condition. The work owes its title to a recurring stanza in G. Apollinaire's Chanson du Mal Aime (1904):
Voie lactee, o soeur lumineuse
Des blancs ruisseaux du Chanaan
Et des corps blancs des amoureuses
Nageurs morts suivrons-nous d'ahan
Ton cours ver d'autres nebuleuses.
Technically, the piece combines a computer-generated score with digital instruments. The score is generated by using Koenig's Project One program — rarely used in electro-acoustic music, except for myself, — while the sounds are synthesized in D. Walraff's MUSIC1000 orchestra language, a predecessor of CSound. I want to thank D. Walraff for his generosity of opening his studio to me, and composers Pamela Marshall and Curtis Roads for their technical support.
Performances include the Hartford Public Library 1984, Intern. Computer Music Conference Vancouver (1985), Connecticut College, New London, CT (1986), Connecticut College, New London, CT (1986), University of Maryland, College Park (1987), and Boston University School of the Arts (1988). In the latter performance, Henry Lieberman, Cambridge, MA., provided computer graphics.