An array of clarinets and saxophones combine with electronic and sampled sounds in this accessible yet contemporary collection.

7 MP3 Songs
CLASSICAL: Contemporary, AVANT GARDE: Modern Composition

Show all album songs: Wood And Wires Songs


Details:
Wood and wires is a collection of pieces that combines and juxtaposes instruments from the single reed family, with sounds created electronically. The seven pieces in the collection use different combinations of woodwind timbre, and each modifies or adds to the woodwind palette with synthesized sounds, samples, or electronic effects and processes. Sometimes the aim is to arrive at a homogeneous blend of sound; sometimes an element of incongruity is retained.

The pieces do not have individual titles, but only numbers. This does not imply that they should be understood as movements of a single, longer work; it is more an allusion to the additive processes that feature in some of the pieces. Some of these are structural (e.g. ground bass), some are textural, (canons, polyrhythms), and some are rhythmic (expanding bar lengths and phrase lengths). There was no deliberate intention to produce a âcrossoverâ album; nevertheless, in importing sound sources from popular musical genres, occasionally I found other elements of the idiom had arrived in the same package.

One. For soprano and tenor saxes, with synthesizers and sampled percussion.

Two. For clarinet, with sampled marimba.

Three. For alto sax, with synthesizers and drum machine.

Four. For solo clarinet, with electronic effects.

Five. For solo clarinet, with delay unit.

Six. For E flat contrabass clarinet, tenor sax, soprano sax and E flat clarinet, with sampled cowbell and talking drum.

Seven. For E flat contrabass clarinet and multi-tracked B flat clarinets.

Peter Foster studied music at the Queen's College, Oxford, then as a postgraduate at Reading University. He currently teaches music at a large comprehensive school in Oxfordshire, where his pupils make sure that his musical horizons continue to expand. He is also an active church musician, and has composed many choral and vocal pieces. More of his music can be found at his website, www.ptfoster.com.