a r t i s t : Morris Knight
t i t l e : After Guernica
d a t e : 2006
l a b e l : Creel Pone
g e n r e : Avantgarde
r l s. d a t e : Jul/2006
t r a c k s : 04
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 77,10 MB
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Creel Pone #27 creelp knight cd
released 01/20/2006
...a rather remarkable set of subtle, lo-fi electronic
compositions composed throughout the 60s & originally released
in the early 70s on the private-press "golden crest records,
inc." label.
of the past creel pones, this one has the most in common with
the george engler "inside of the outside" title; long, dynamic
stretches of dissant ensemble/tape-sound, mired in cavernous
murk and questionable engineering practices suddenly erupt in
rising waves of feedback, field-recorded clanks and whirrs,
and piles of distortion. the second piece, "the origin of the
prophesy", has a continuous voice-over; heavy stereo & echo
over a bit of backwards bell-chains and metal clangs that
comes across as a rural american intersystems "cover band"
the bottom line; if you're into lo-fi mid-60s
bedroom-tape-music-studio antics i canÆt imagine how youÆll be
let down by this; it's crawling with the sort of signifiers
that all creel pones possess...
original liner notes:
in 1952, while an undergraduate at the university of georgia,
morris knight was actively continuing his career as a
professional instrumentalist and arranger in both symphonic
and jazz organizations in the atlanta area. that year he met
h. ray warren, a guitarist and physicist, who was exploring
the then new field of tape recording. mr. warren, who has
numerous patented inventions and refinements in the electronic
field to his credit, introduced the composer to the
possibilities and potential of these new developments in tape
recording as a resource for serious composition. knight
credits this initial exposure and friendship with ray warren
as one of the prime influences in his development as a
composer of tape music.
since advanced recording facilities were available only at
commercial radio stations, the composer joined the staff of
wrfc in athens, georgia, after his graduation in 1956, so that
he could continue his work with this new resource for
composition. although he continued to write for traditional
ensembles and instruments, these early years were primarily
devoted to exploring this new medium and resulted in his first
experimental tape works. if we recognize the fact that
electronic music was largely unknown until the early 60s even
in the most sophisticated musical circles, it is not difficult
to believe the composer's statement that he was completely
unaware of european and american developments when he
completed his first extended tape composition in 1960.
recognition of this fact adds considerable significance to his
first efforts in this medium. what is important for our
purposes is the fact that the composer completed refractions
and the origin of the prophesy while under the impression that
he was doing pioneering work in this medium. today, the
history of the last twenty years of electronic music in europe
and america is well enough known that it need not be recounted
here.
knight continued to work in radio until 1964 when he joined
the theory and composition department at ball state
university. together with dr. robert sherman: chairman of this
department, the composer began work on a project designed to
facilitate the development of ear-training through the medium
of recorded musical examples. this project was aided by a
large grant from the federal government which enabled the two
composers to design and have installed a tape laboratory
equipped with the finest professional recording facilities.
luminescences and after guernica were realized on this
equipment. the four works on this recording help in completing
the picture of morris knight as a composer.
refractions for clarinet and tape was completed in 1962 and is
dedicated to the soloist, david sweetkind. the three movement
work, ,which exhibits rhythmic characteristics which recur in
later works, is ostensibly in free or open form, with some of
the tape sounds apparently related to clarinet sonorities. in
fact, all the tape material is taken from the solo part, but
is often transformed beyond the point of recognition. in
addition, each of the movements uses one of the traditional
classical formal procedures, and the entire work might well be
entitled sonata for clarinet and tape!
the opening movement follows the structural principles of
sonata form closely. after the opening tape 'theme" (admitting
that this traditional term has connotations which are clearly
not applicable to most of the music on this recording), the
subsidiary theme is given to the soloist. the influence of
jazz is clearly present in the brief ascending diatonic scale
motif. the development is primarily devoted to intervalic and
rhythmic transformations of this motif. a descending chromatic
passage built on the interval of the major third leads to the
recapitulation, which is abridged by simultaneous soundings of
both the primary' and subsidiary themes. the second movement,
in modified song form (aba') opens with the soloist and tape
exchanging brief motifs. the b section is dominated by the
clarinet, which becomes progressively more rhapsodic and
intense, leading to an impassioned outburst in the
instrument's highest register. after a brief transition, the
'opening material returns but in highly modified form. the
concluding movement is in rondo form, with the refrain
emphasizing tape sounds. there are three couplets, dominated
by the clarinet, which alternate with returns of the refrain.
at the end of the final couplet the clarinet clearly states
the first theme of the opening movement. the traditional
additive rondo form (abacada) is most apparent if the listener
focuses on change and contrast of textures. in refractions,
the pervasive atmosphere is one of jaunty good spirits, with
irony tempered by good humor.
the origin of the prophesy was completed in 1964 while knight
was on the staff of ksfr-fm in san francisco and is based on
the first section of an extended poem by chan sieg, a close
friend of the composer. in almost all respects this work
differs from refractions which clearly belongs to the class of
"absolute" or non-programatic music. origin, for speaker and
tape, is closer to the tradition of program music, since the
composer considers the text of primary importance. since the
realization of the earlier work, a new device known as a
"paning" control had been invented. this allows the composer
to create the illusion of an infinite number of sound sources
between the two speakers, resulting in a much more
sophisticated use of stereophony than was previously possible.
in addition to this very obvious improvement, the listener may
notice a considerable broadening of the frequency spectrum,
which reflects the fact that the radio station had recently
been equipped with the most advanced circuitry then available.
while in san francisco, knight had access to an incred. ible
variety of oriental and near-eastern musical instruments. for
the sound material in this work, more than fifteen different
types of cymbals, a variety of bamboo flutes and numerous
stringed instruments, predominantly those intended to be
plucked, were used. the recorded sou nd of these instruments
was subjected to varying degrees of electronic transformation.
the acute listener may recognize a brief segment of piano
sound, which the composer incorporated from an earlier score.
this is the only western instrument used. in addition, the
composer, who was the speaker in this realization, has
manipulated and mutated the sound of his voice, which in some
sections has been multiplied to suggest a large male chorus.
this technique, in addition to sprechstimme (a cross between
singing and reading with pitches notated but not intended to
be sung in the traditional manner, invented by schoenberg in
1912) was used in two earlier versions of the work, which have
been performed. since he values the poetry to such a high
degree, and the earlier versions occasionally distorted the
text to the point of unintelligibility, knight has withdrawn
these versions from his catalog.
origin is essentially through-composed, although the work is
divided into two sections to correspond to the mood of the
poem which begins in a philosophical and somewhat mystical
vein but concludes in a rather more objective and ironic tone.
the work displays both greater inventiveness and a more
economical use of tape material than refrac. tions. these
qualities demonstrate that while the composer had superior
equipment with which to work, he had achieved greater control
and sensitivity to the medium in a remarkably short period of
time. by the time he had joined the faculty at ball state, his
growing reputation as a composer resulted in numerous
invitations to participate in symposia and concerts of new
music. he freely admits to the effect that these experiences
have had on his work but emphasizes the fact that most of the
electronic music he heard interested him predominantly in
terms of the materials chosen and the techniques utilized
rather than the formal procedures followed.
luminescences, completed in 1967, was written for the ball
state ballet which is directed by the composer's wife, who
choreographed the premier performance. unlike the two
preceding works, this composition utilizes predominantly
electronically generated sound and consists of five sharply
differentiated movements each of which explores the potentials
of a particular body of sound. the opening movement uses
isolated high frequence pitches which are subjected to rapid
reverberation. although there is no apparent symetrical
repetition scheme, the rate of change is rapid, generating the
feeling of a fast tempo. the dynamic level throughout this
movement is relatively constant, and the aural effect is
remarkably 'analagous to the sight of aerial fireworks
exploding. this is followed by a strongly contrasting movement
in which very low frequency pitches and an extrem'ely slow
rate of change are coupled with an extended gradual crescendo.
the result is a pulsating continum of sound which is rather
dirge-like in effect.
following the opening pair of movements, both of which use
recognizable pitches, the third movement employs an electronic
sound called "white noise". this sonority is an aggregate of
slightly differentiated pitches, with each successive tone
recorded over the preceding conglomerate. the effect is not
dissimilar to "tone clusters", which were used in early
experimental piano music. in this movement, each successive
section has a strong feeling of internal symetry, although
again no consistant repetition scheme is apparent. the fourth
movement uses highly percussive non-pitch sound. here the
formal organization is much more apparent, resembling the
second movement of refractions (aba'). the contrast is
achieved by using a higher frequency level for the middle
section.
the final movement is more extensive than the preceding four
and uses the concept of continuous variation, with the entire
movement based on transformations of the opening material.
with the continual addition of new variants, a polyphonic
texture is achieved which undergoes a rapid crescendo, in the
process becoming compressed into a series of tone clusters
with five-fold reverberation and rapid intensity decay. these
clusters gradually become symetrically arranged with the level
of activity continuing long enough to project a feeling of
completion of the variation process. accompanied by a
reduction in reverberation and volume, the clusters are
progressively "atomized", and the movement ends in silence.
the composition projects a strong feeling of organic unity,
not unlike the natural process of germination, growth,
florescence, decay and death.
in this writer's opinion, after guernica (1969) is knight's
most successful electronic composition. historically, it
belongs to the tradition of program music, with works by
liszt, tschaikowsky and richard strauss as its most obvious
pre. cursors. unlike this earlier genere, the guernica music
was inspired by picasso's painting rather than by literature.
this canvas, now in the museum of modern art in new york, is
considered by many to be the artist's most powerful and
evocative work. we know how strongly picasso reacted to the
news and photographs of the destruction of the spanish town
and its inhabitants. the result was a mural on canvas, in
black, white and grey, which is an overwhelming evocation of
the agony of war. like countless others who have studied the
painting only in reproductions, the impact of the 26 foot long
canvas on the composer when he first saw it in 1968 was both
profound and disturbing. it is the continuing memory of these
sensations which prompted this composition. like picasso,
knight limited his choice of materials, using only isolated
pitch tones and pitchless clusters, however the resulting
composition is not an "aural" equivalent of the canvas since
the painting literally explodes into reality when viewed. the
composer has chosen a technique which achieves a similar end
but through different means. to use a pictorial analogy, the
composition resembles a newsreel of the event frozen in the
last frame, long after the height of the bombing. gradually,
the film is run in reverse, slowly at first, but accelerating
continuously until the peak of the disaster is reached.
the composition begins at a very low dynamic level, with
isolated sounds widely separated by silence. almost
imperceptibly, the volume and level of activity increases, and
with it the frequency of recurrence of the sound material. the
percussive sounds begin to resemble the explosions of bombs
and machinegun fire, and the pitch sounds resemble a threnody
of human anguish, while the dynamic level approaches the
threshold of pain. having generated aural and emotional
tension of almost unbearable intensity from which there must
be some release, the sound abruptly ceases. the composition
concludes with wisps of sound a muffled moan, the echo of a
distant explosion reduced to a murmur and finally, silence.
for those fortunate enough to have seen the canvas, the
expressive intensity reached in the com. position is
remarkably similar to that of the painting. the music is a
compelling and evocative experience even for those who are
unaware of either the painting or the events which prompted
picasso to paint it.
on a more abstract level, the composer has incorporated in his
recent tape compositions a growing awareness of the expressive
quality of silence (which can be thought of as "negative"
sound) in the musical experience. all too often, composers who
work with tapeseem to feel that they must have continuous
waves of sound engulfing the listener. in their zeal to leave
no stone unturned in their investigation and development of
the materials, they leave the listener buried under an
avalanche of sound. silence not only provides a point of
relaxation for the listener but can also function as a
powerful source of suspense and anticipation for the music to
follow.
with more than 20 years experience in writing for all media,
morris knight has obviously learned this important lesson, and
it is a pleasure to imagine what powerful yet sensitive music
the composer will create in the future.
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01-After Guernica (1969) [09:42]
02-The Origin Of The Prophesy (1964) [17:02]
03-Luminescences (1967) [10:58]
04-Refractions For Clarinet and Tape (1962) [15:04]
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52:46 min