Arnold Dreyblatt
Music : Solo Performance

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Calculations
2005
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Die Luftmenschen
1987
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Nodal Excitation
1979
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Calculations
2005
Solo Performance: Computer Laptop and CD.

"The first of the two pieces he played at the Point Ephemere used a such tuning in the setting of a relatively recent electronic work, presented as a laptop performance. Well, maybe in the case of an electronic work one should rather speak of the ‘range of frequencies used’ rather than ‘tuning’. The piece consisted in felds of sound that were gradually built up and developed around an E-core, and within which ever changing rhythmic patterns of beatings continue to evolve." - Soundblog in-strumm-end-s january 19, 2005.

Live at Octopus Festival, Paris, 2005
Calculations 14:55


Die Luftmenschen
1987
In 1986-87 I began working on a "digital dynamic processing system" for a commission at Ars Electronica in Linz in 1987 and further developed this in a residency at STEIM in Amsterdam in 1989. This system was triggered with recorded machine tracks and interacts with acoustic instruments. Its basis are recordings of the rhythms produced by a number of malfunctioning escalators on the Blvd. Ansbach in Brussels which I made in 1987. A projection composition based on re-animated family home movies accompanies the music. The performance system was later further developed as End Correction, as a duet with Pierre Berthet and in the composition, Escalator, performed by The Orchestra of Excited Strings and by the Bang On A Can All-Stars.

"The composition of Arnold Dreyblatt, commissioned for Ars Electronica in Linz and executed on self-made instruments set a noteworthiest accent to the festival... ...minimalist structure, stoic repetition, half-tone modulations and hard sweeping rhythms whose otherwise bizarre beauty was almost a punk concert: sounds like sparks flying under a striking hammer. -Süddeutsche Zeitung

Die Luftmenschen, Het Apollohuis, Eindhoven, 1987
1. Die Luftmenschen 1 19:17
2. Die Luftmenschen 2 15:11


Nodal Excitation
1979
In the spring of 1979 I was approached to perform at a downtown performance festival in New York. I had been developing a repertoire of isolated percussive and bowed attacks, and these evolved into a continuous rhythmic technique in which I could excite chords of overtones above the fundamental. This technique is a combination of bowing and striking, in which a short portion of the bow is brought into contact with the string in a forward and backward motion. If the striking aspect is emphasized, the inharmonic nature of the attack overwhelms the sound and little resonance is excited. If a long section of bow hair is brought into contact with the string, the resulting sound is lacking in resonance.

"The performance is a careful consideration of the location and influence of the acoustic Nodal Regions as identified on #12 and #11 unwound Music Wire stretched on a double bass (40.5" speaking length). The integrity of a fundamental vibration is maintained for both strings at all times; all movement of pitch occurs in the overtone structure. A shorter speaking length is never created through "stopping" or "fretting" techniques. Rather, harmonic, partial vibrations are calculated, coaxed, and are occasionally isolated at the nodes of the string." - from program notes, 1979.

"Nodal Excitation (Solo)" has also been performed by Bassist Robert Black in a number of U.S. tours.

Live at Octopus Festival, Paris, 2005
Nodal Excitation 24:47


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