Wave Edge is a synthesized
soundscape in the manner of my earlier "spatial environments," Sonic Landscape No. 3 (1975)
and Androgyny
(1978). Like its mate, Solar Ellipse
(1984-85), it is based on a
particular type of spatial trajectory and related image. In Wave
Edge the pattern is that of a wave breaking on the shore. The title
refers to the crest of the wave which appears to move along the shore
(in this piece, from right to left), yet the sound of the water remains
fixed in direction. It is with this environmental image that we begin,
and with each repetition we are drawn closer into and perhaps under
this crest. A new sonic world unfolds and towards the end we "surface"
to rediscover the waves, now surrounded by darting sound objects in a
large reverberant space. In the distance a foghorn.
Wave Edge is inspired by the I Ching hexagram number 4,
Youthful Folly, comprised of the trigrams for water and mountain, which
portrays a spring bubbling up at the foot of a mountain.
Wave Edge is available on the Cambridge Street Records and Wergo CD Digital
Soundscapes, as well as the
Cambridge Street Records album Sequence of Earlier Heaven.
Sound Examples:
Chordal
timbres with different envelopes: mono,
then stereo
Trajectories
designed
with overlapping linear envelopes (with constant speed or
constant duration)
Mapping a trajectory onto radial positions and increasing
distances (pre-graphic screens!)
Downward
glissando (with Doppler shift)
arriving at a drone
Left-to-right-to-left trajectories on vocal-like
timbres (complex carrier wave) - not used in Wave Edge
Simulated
waves with right-to-left trajectory,
with extended decays (complex modulator with noise component,
momentarily without noise in the centre)
Rhythmic sequence of
timbres mapped onto a continuous trajectory
Poisson
distribution of events: original version,
then with a trajectory darting off into the distance (constant speed
option) on each event (variations provided by: left-right shift,
greater distances, trajectory length, forwards/reverse)
Harmonic drone with
Doppler shift in circular
trajectory - not used in Wave Edge
Wave Edge is the first work to be
realized with the composer's PODX system
for sound synthesis and composition in the Centre for the Arts at Simon
Fraser University using the DMX-1000 Digital Signal Processor. The
synthesis technique used is that of frequency
modulation (FM)of arbitrary waveforms. A
spatial trajectory program developed by the composer was used to map
specific paths for the various layers in binaural stereo.
