'UNDER THE PLAYGROUND'
A PORTFOLIO OF ACOUSMATIC WORKS

by Ian Chuprun

The following document deals exclusively with the pieces listed below. Each of these works was produced at the University of Birmingham under the supervision of Dr. Jonty Harrison, as part of a Master in Music degree in electroacoustics undertaken in 1997-98. The pieces are:

To many moments passed
Whither shall ye wander...?
Under the Playground
Adam's song (PA 23)
I was very safe in my dream (PA 17)
Reading Allowed (PA 11)
Under The Playground (WebMix PA 3)

Introduction

The electroacoustic works covered in this paper all use sound material which was first real or concrete, recorded to digital audio tape via microphone, and then modified or transformed using digital media. The sound recordings and subsequent transformations were later organized with a strong emphasis placed on spectral and referential relationships. The stylistic and formal compositional concerns lean towards that of the ‘acousmatic’ or French ‘school’, first championed by the Groupe de Recherches Musicales in Paris.

The electroacoustic works studied here have all played on certain key areas:
- the relationships created by the use of anecdotal (or everyday) sounds
- the development and abstraction of ‘sampled’ sound sources
- the creating of ‘families’ of sounds and the roles they play.

There are two dominant spectra throughout: the human voice (predominantly of children) and noise. Other sounds found are particular to specific pieces, but may be that of a train, traffic, a car, the Montréal Métro, a cymbal, a drum or a bell.

A sensitivity to the use and function of spacial effects was integral in the compositional process. The pieces were composed, with the exception of those going directly to the world wide web, for a large multi-channel sound diffusion system, like the Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre (BEAST).

To many moments passed 7:10 (January 1998)

A young boy sings a train departs fleeting fleeting rushing past.

The composition of this piece started from three elements ­ youth, passage and time ­ which, as symbols, developed in different ways. Youth and passage are symbolized by the two sound recordings, and the subsequent sonic families, which were developed from them. Time was symbolized by a structural decision to avoid repeating or re-playing soundfiles.

The two families of sounds were developed from either a recording of a young boy singing or from the sounds of a train leaving its station.

The sound sample of a boy singing was pushed towards abstraction through digital processing so that its descendants retained their 'vocal-ness' but lost their particularity and reference to a specific person/place/time. Listening to the piece, a listener will be able to identify a vocal quality to many of the sounds present (a keen ear will go further and identify the timbre as youthful) but will not be able to recognize more definite elements from the voice, like words.

The train sound underwent similar processing to the vocal sounds, yet as the source already had a high enharmonic element, abstraction was only a small step away, and the descendants became varying degrees of articulated noise. Most of these new 'train' sounds lost their 'train-ness' completely, but developed into a greater abstracted family of sounds.

The vocal material gives the listener a familiar reference point to tackle the more chaotic elements in the train-noise. The noise components shapes the vocal elements to create diversity and aids to defining sections in the piece.

As the title suggests, there is a double entendre at play. Depending on how one perceives the 'to' (or too) and the 'passed' (or past) the title is either a toast or a lament. Within the piece, there are sparkling moments which appear and disappear with little warning, creating, on a small scale, sensations of passage or loss, yet within the larger context these moments are in fact slow evolutions of similar elements. In this spirit, the piece attempts to create a notion of fleetingness, mostly from the lack of actually repeating sonic objects, while simultaneously creating stasis.

This piece appears on the CEC compilation of electroacoustic works PRESENCE II.

Whither shall ye wander...? 12:00 (July 1998)

A father dozes... his children play close to his thoughts... internal dialogues meet external forces. Where are they going he wonders and how?

This metaphorical piece links sound recordings of young children at play (singing, rattling and creaking their toys, shouting or making sound effects for their games) with sounds of human locomotion (a train roaring past, a car starting up, a bus depot filled with noisy students, someone walking in leaves or rocking a squeaky chair) to create a sense of reverie, dislocation, alarm, and shock. The imaginary vehicles of the children are superimposed upon the adults' world. Play is transport.

Unlike in To many moments passed, a dichotomy is not established between the families of sound, but rather meta-families are created on sonic and referential levels, by associating diverse sonic groups through different digital techniques:
- the traffic sound (0: 45) which would usually have broad band noise, has been convolved with a vocal sample to give the traffic a vocal quality.
- the car honking sound at 1:18 has been combined with a tricycle's squeak, so that when the squeak appears in a later form (11:00, 11:12, 11:24) it carries the honk's sonic association.
- breathing sounds (1:36-1:40, 10:20) are panned, digitally stretched, and filtered so that they sound similar to cars driving past (6:49-7:00).
- resonant filtering appears in many places throughout the piece, starting at almost the beginning sound, with associative links made along the way to keys, bells, and a car starting. At 4:07 the filtering shifts in degree, becoming more subtle through the 'baby' section and the 'plane' section to re-emerge as a bell at 6:25, appearing again many times, finally with a voice near the end of the piece (11:36) saying 'row, row, row your boat'.

The title's question, which is taken from the nursery rhyme Goosey Goosey Gander, asks a dreamy question about where one might wander. The children's songs and poems quoted refer to human transport (Row, Row, Row Your Boat, Michael Rowed His Boat Ashore, Goosey Goosey Gander), as do the onomatopoeic sounds of their play. The train, as well the other sounds of vehicular transport, act usually as powerful metaphors for human movement and motion, but in the context of this piece, their movement is neutralized so that only the idea of moving is preserved. Transport has become play.

This piece appeared within the CEC's Young And Emerging Sound Artist project.

Under the Playground 13:21 (September 1998)

A child sits in a sandbox contemplating the hidden world underneath. Digging down through the strata, what fantastical creatures and vistas may be discovered?

The piece, its title and the 'scenic text' above combine so that 'under', 'play' and 'ground' become important points of departure for an associative game about shifting perspective.

The 'play' from the title, at first glance, looks to refer to regular associations of children and play, and 'ground' and 'under' to a physical place. This is supported by the text above of the child in a sandbox, but a psychological dimension is then added, causing a shift in perspective to one which is more theatrical.

This dramatic association is supported by the 'characterization' of certain sound groups within the piece. The 'voices underneath' (0:00, 3:20, 5:02, 5:47, 12:55), 'big bugs' (0:35, 7:41, 11:50), 'rocks falling' (0:42, 4:24, 11:20) and 'meteorites flying' (12:20), amongst others, offer imagistic moments which add to an impression of an impossible play.

Stepping back from this association and looking towards a more instrumental use of the word 'play', one sees another facet to this shifting game. Besides voice, many of the sound sources were instrumental, and each instrument went through different degrees of abstraction. Instruments such as trumpet (9:22-10:50) and horn (10:55) were used in a very abstracted form and are totally unrecognizable, but there are many instances where the instrument sounds have only a slightly abstracted quality and retain their spectral identities: bass drum - 0:00, 2:26; cymbal - 2:26, 8:08, 12:27, 12:45; bell - 2:36, 6:55. In one case a long 'played' gesture is incorporated (bell 5:47-6:50).

Performance is therefore brought into the dialogue, raising issues between playing an instrument and playing a recording. The associative game is then expanded by positioning this piece within a larger context so that western art music provides the frame of reference, or 'ground', and the electroacoustic preoccupation with 'that which is below the note' completes the phrase 'Under the Playground'.

In this way, by the shifting perspective, by moving from play to play, under to under and ground to ground we complete the associative game.

Petits amusements

The electroacoustic piece of short duration, or electro-clip, was first explored as a means for composers to make artistic statements without going into lengthy development and exploration. Inspired at first as a sly reply to a pop-song, the electro-clip is becoming an integral part of the electroacoustic establishment, with many calls for short works appearing alongside the usual competitions and festivals.

While at Birmingham, I started a series electro-clips called Petits amusements (PA). They are short, usually humorous, statements, and unlike studies, they are complete works in their own right.

Adam's song (PA 23) 3:00 (November 1997)
This 3 minute 'song' is an electroacoustic reply to the pop tune. It is made entirely from a sample of a boy soprano singing the French hymn Reine du Ciel, as with To many moments passed, but contains no recognizable text. The repetition of the theme, or 'hook', follows a simple pattern and frames the textures and more subtle elements. There is a degree of irony in the relationship between the source, title, and bawdy overtones.

I was very safe in my dream (PA 17) 3:00 (July 1998)
This short piece was composed both as a distinct electro-clip and as a section of a much larger collaborative radiophonic work entitled Ways of Hearing (Chuprun, McKinnon, Prior, Saario; University of Birmingham, 1998). The larger work focused on the relationship between recording and death, with many interviews and recording 'artifacts' throughout. This short work plays on self-referential contradictions - in the recording milieu and in human relationships such as between the parent and child and between the audience and entertainer - and with remembering and forgetting.

This piece appears on the CEC compilation of electroacoustic works PRESENCE III.

Reading Allowed (PA 11) 1:50 (August 1998)
This short work was composed specifically for the Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre (BEAST) website and ironically plays on the relationships of the text-heavy web to sound, the 'youthfulness' of the web and the parallels between web art and early computer music developments. Since the web is very reading intensive, and since sound software for the web works very well with spoken word, this piece employs three spoken self-reflexive phrases:
- "How do you want this read?"
- "Am I supposed to read this like a child?"
- "Let's try this out here."

This piece appears on the CEC compilation of electroacoustic works PRESENCE II.

Under The Playground (WebMix PA 3) 2:21 (August 1998)
This piece is a reworking of the first and last sections of Under The Playground, for web distribution.

Software and Hardware

Each piece employed similar sound development software: ProTools with GRM and TC Electronic plug-ins, Sound Designer, SoundMaker with SoundMagic plug-ins, Sound Hack, AudioSculpt, GRM Tools (stand alone version) and Csound with Cecilia.

The pieces were composed in Studio 4 of the Electronic Music Studios of the University of Birmingham, using a PowerMac, DACS stereo amplifier, DACS Clarity mixer and ATC speakers. The sound sources were developed and processed in Studios 4, 5 and 6 of the Electronic Music Studios of the University of Birmingham, using a PowerMac and an SGI 02.

Biographical note