to
foster and encourage
(Anna
Study #4)
2005
Commissioned
by the American Music Center
Siday Music
on Hold Project
Voice of
Anna Diamond Polansky
to
foster and encourage (Anna Study #4) is a 1.5 minute work in four sections, each using a
different heterophonic technique. The text is taken from the American Music
Center's website, including their mission statement, which begins with the
words "to foster and encourage." The piece is "about"
plurality, multiple directions, various paths. And why that sounds good.
The second
section uses a signal-processing technique I designed and helped implement
(with Tom Erbe) in the program Soundhack, which normalizes time-variant time-expansion/contractions.
I call it the "crowd effect." The third section, in a kind of homage
to Henry Cowell, is another kind of heterophony, this time harmonic. Many
versions of Anna's voice are gradually glissed into a large, harmonic-series
chord. The first and last sections are informally composed, and no processing
is used on Anna's voice.
to
foster and encourage
was realized at Dartmouth College. Thanks to Travis Garrison for helping with
the original recordings.