Work
In Memoriam: Rainbow Warrior
for tape
About
This tape piece contains three clearly differentiated sound regions generated by FM synthesis. A short prelude of biting metallic sounds is interrupted by the core of the work, a sea of drumming rhythms. These were created by multilayering simple repetitive rhythms at slightly different speeds and spatial positions to produce phasing effects and rhythmic ambiguity caused by the constantly changing pulse. This mesmeric world in turn dissolves to a submerged multi-layered canonic version of the Dies Irae; here too there is rhythmic ambiguity since each of the layers moves at a slightly different speed.
Created in the University of Auckland electronic music studios. Sounds generated by Yamaha DX7 with E! microtuning board; sounds were programmed and sequenced by the composer using early midi technology running on an Atari ST computer, and recorded on analogue tape.
–JE
Performance history
Electroacoustic work by John Elmsly