Barbara Held - Upper Air Observation mp3

Tracklist

Credits

• Art Direction – By Design
• Design – Francesca Llopis
• Engineer [Recording] – Rob Rapley
• Flute – Barbara Held
• Liner Notes – Alvin Lucier, Barbara Held, Nils Vigeland, Yasunao Tone
• Other [Stylist] – Pixi, Sebastian Alcala
• Photography By [Photos] – Jens Grundmann
• Producer – Thomas Buckner

Notes

"Vara" for flute and piano was composed in 1979. The title, discovered perusing the dictionary for another word for "variation," is a Portugese unit of measurement of no fixed length, a useful structural metaphor.

"Self-Portrait" is one of three works which explore the directivity of sound waves from musical instruments. In "Directions of Sounds from the Bridge" , flashlights are activated by waves flowing from a cello; in "Shapes of Sounds from the Board" , the physical movement of amplified piano tones are heard. In "Self-Portrait", a flutist stands several feet from a wind anemometer. A light is beamed through it, from the opposite side. As the flutist plays long tones toward the anemometer, streams of air from the lip of the flute cause its blades to spin at various speeds, hiding and revealing parts of her body.
"Self-Portrait" was conceived in 1979. It was completed in 1990 expressly for Barbara Held, who has performed it several times in the Unites States and Europe.

"Trio for a Flute Player" uses three sound components, sound from the flute itself, the flutist's voice and electronic sounds, all to be performed by the solo flutist. These components are based on a single source, poems from the 8th Century Japanese anthology, the Manyoshu.
The curvy line of calligraphy of the poem, overlaid by a musical staff, does not correspond with pitches or any tonalities but with the player's finger placements. (Note that a flute player uses nine fingers, coinciding with the number of lines and spaces of the staff---five lines and four spaces.)
Fingering, with its movement and pressure, triggers an electronic sound, varying in pitch and intensity, which is generated by an oscillator with a capacitor. The poems, translated in "The Peerless Mirror", are read through the flute mouthpiece. The sound of the original Manyoshu poems, the other part of the "signifier" of the poem, serves as the substructure for the rhythm and intensity of performance. The poems are not interpreted but transformed into sound.
Commissioned by Barbara Held and made possible by funding from the New York State Council on the Arts' Commissioning Program.

In "Lyrictron" the sound of the flute causes a text to be generated by a computer system.
The source of the flute score is a western transcription of flute tablatures from the Tang dynasty. When a tune is played the computer system detects pitches and converts the flute sound into a Haiku poem by choosing lines from a "dictionary" composed for this piece and stored in the computer. The poem is displayed on a TV monitor and is read aloud by the voice synthesizer at the same time.
The process of generating Haiku from pitches played on the flute through a pitch tracking program is somehow similar to the Surrealist's "Cadavre Exquis" method of writing a chance-determined poem. Commissioned by Mutable Music Productions for Barbara Held.

"Trio For A Flute Player" and "Lyrictron" were written as performance art, and are meant to be played and heard live. For both pieces, then, this recording is a documentation of but one performance.
Flute-to-Haiku conversion and pitch tracking software commissioned by Yasunao Tone, September, 1988.

The sounds for "Upper Air Observation", collected over the course of a year, include a radio sonde weather balloon launching, recorded at the National Weather Service in Atlantic City; a marine navigational system recorded off the coast of Spain; and the flute--air in motion. It is a collage of found sounds, the result of a sort of "audio anthropology."

Produced for Mutable Music Productions.
Engineered at Classic Sound.

Special thanks: Maurice Friedman (VIZ Corporation); Bob Gager, Wayne Albright & Jay Krieger (National Weather Service); Garuda Records; Brenda Hutchinson; Elisa Anachina; David Meschter; Tomas Molina.

Dedicated to Betty Held, 1932-1990

Barcodes

• Matrix / Runout: LCD 3031 <02> U.S. OPTICAL DISC
• SPARS Code: DDD

Companies

• Record Company – Mutable Music Productions
• Phonographic Copyright (p) – Lovely Music, Ltd.
• Copyright (c) – Lovely Music, Ltd.
• Engineered At – Classic Sound, New York
• Glass Mastered At – U.S. Optical Disc
• Produced For – Mutable Music Productions

Info

Upper Air Observation. Held is a psychologist and professor known for her research and publications in the fields of clinical psychology and theoreticalphilosophical psychology. Held is the Barry N. Wish Research Professor of Psychology and Social Studies at Bowdoin College. She served as President of the Society for Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology APA Division 24 from 2008-2009, and was recipient of the 2012 Joseph B. Glitter Award from the American Psychological Association recognizing her. HELD,BARBARA Artist Format: Audio CD. Flutist Held presents works by Alvin Lucier, Nils Vigeland, and Yasunao Tone and a composition of her own. Known for her collaborations with composers, Held has beautifully chosen and performed this wide-ranging sampling of contemporary musical styles. Held is flawless in tone and fearless in her devotion to the flute with electronics in muted, listenable ways. Kyle Gann, Village Voice. Track Listings. Preview, buy, and download songs from the album Upper Air Observation, including Lyrictron and Upper Air Observation. Buy the album for đ. Songs start at đ. 5 Songs, 1 Hour 7 Minutes. Released: 1 Feb 1992. 1991 Lovely Music, Ltd. More By Barbara Held. BARBARA HELD. NILS VIGELAND. Vara 28:12. Joseph Kubera, piano. ALVIN LUCIER. Self Portrait 10:08. YASUNAO TONE. Upper Air Observation 09:41. Vara, by Nils Vigeland. Vara for flute and piano was composed in 1979. I was very conscious at the time of deliberately extending the materials, sonorously and durationally. The title, discovered perusing the dictionary for another word for variation, is a Portugese unit of measurement of no fixed length, a useful structural metaphor. Nils Vigeland. Upper Air is the second studio album by the folk band Bowerbirds. It was released in 2009. Barbara Held: Upper Air Observation. Artist: Barbara Held Genre: Label: Lovely Music Catalog No: LOV 3031 Format: CD Release Date: 1992-06-03 Original 1999 Number of Discs: 1 UPC Code: 745295303121. FreeFreight Is Available. Click for Details List Price: Your Price: Back Ordered, usually ships in 1 - 2 weeks . Album Notes. Selections: Nils Vigeland Vara 1979, Alvin Lucier Self Portrait 19791990, Yasunao Tone Trio for flute player and Lyrictron, Barbara Held Upper Air Observation. Barbara Held. Play artist. Play similar artists. Latest release. Play album. Do you have any photos of this artist Add an image. Genre: Electronic, Classical Album: Upper Air Observation Country: US Released: 1992 Style: Musique Concrète, Contemporary, Experimental MP3 version RAR size: 1871 mb FLAC version RAR size: 1602 mb WMA version RAR size: 1373 mb Rating: 4. 6 Votes: 810 Other Formats: APE AA XM WAV AC3 DMF AUD. Companies, etc. Record Company Mutable Music Productions Phonographic Copyright p Lovely Music, Ltd. Copyright c Lovely Music, Ltd. Engineered At Classic Sound, New York Glass Mastered At U. Optical Disc Produced For Mutable Music Productions