Concert of Computer Music Set for April 17

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Following a well-received inaugural concert last September with guest composer Philip Glass and an unusual concerti program last October, the University at Buffalo's Center for 21st Century Music will continue its impressive offerings this month with a concert featuring the Slee Sinfonietta, UB's professional chamber orchestra, presenting an intriguing program of computer music.

The concert will take place at 8 p.m. April 17 in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall, North Campus.

Marc McAneny, lecturer in the Department of Music, and guests will be on stage to discuss the pieces at 7:30 p.m.

The program will include "Dialogue de l'ombre double" (1985) for solo clarinet and electronics by Pierre Boulez, featuring UB faculty member Jean Kopperud as clarinet soloist. The piece is unusual and intriguing in that it is scored for one live clarinet and one prerecorded clarinet. The two do not play simultaneously, except for brief overlaps, until the end when the live performer's sustained high pitch drives toward a cadential unison with the recorded material that finally resolves the dissonance and closes the piece. In general, though, a dialogue exists throughout the piece between the live and taped musicians, with each replying to the other's musical ideas.

"Music for Sextet and Computer" (1993), by UB faculty member Corte Lippe, was commissioned by the International Computer Music Association as part of its commissioning of new works to be premiered each year during the International Computer Music Conference.

"The relationship between the electronics and the instrumental part ranges on a continuum between 'transcendental' (fused) and 'formal' (separate), Lippe writes in describing the piece. "On this continuum, the electronics give musical support to the instruments and function independently. Meanwhile, working with computers keeps me questioning the fine line that separates music and 'special effects,'" he writes.

The program also includes:

• "Leave No Trace" (2006) for string quartet, live electronics and real-time score generation by composer Michael Alcorn, which explores new ideas related to real-time score generation and display. "The quartet plays musical materials that are created and displayed on computer screens," Alcorn says. "The work is a mosaic of fragments and gestures that can be assembled in any order or called at any time. The process of generating the materials is controlled by a central computer and graphics tablet, and the ideas proliferate and fade on each player's screen before fading out, leaving no trace of their existence."

• "minus 30" for voice and computer by composer Olivier Pasquet. The piece, Pasquet says, uses comparative literature as a symbolic approach "to describe that the fourth generation of arts seems likely to be widely dispersed and largely undefined, with the distinction between art and peace becoming blurred to the vanishing point."

• "Outside Music" (2005) by composer Edmund Campion. The piece concerns "sound and experience": the sound of a unique instrumental configuration and the combined experiences of performing, listening and composing in a new environment enabled by an innovative interaction between acoustic and digital media. Composed for the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the piece uses the ensemble of distinct players, coupled with electro-acoustic materials, as a single "instrument" in which the computer plays the special role of mirroring and binding the acoustic collective.

Tickets for the concert are $12 for general admission; $9 for UB faculty, staff and alumni, WNED members with card and senior citizens and $5 for students. Tickets can be obtained at the Slee Hall box office from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, at the UB Center for the Arts box office from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and at all Ticketmaster outlets, including Ticketmaster.com.