All music and noises © Copyright Paul A. Williams aka Elwood Herring - Please read these notes before downloading
EXPLORING NEW DIRECTIONS AND NEW POSSIBILITIES IN MUSIC COMPOSITION.
LOTS OF DIFFERENT STYLES AND APPROACHES, EVERY PIECE A MUSICAL EXPLORATION. GIVE YOUR EARS A TREAT!
1st mvt Astonished 2nd mvt Terrified |
 114:40
119:20 |
PAN TECHNICON Opus: 64 Length: 234 minutes Instruments: Synthesisers, guitars, harmonica, balophon, tin whistles, voices, animal noises, traffic noises, undersea sounds, marching band, archive recordings, various sound effects including the kitchen sink, and all extensively processed by computer Composed: December 2008 Dedicated to "Isla Wiatt" |
| For this gargantuan shamelessly self indulgent sonic juggernaut I have used just about every technique and musical instrument in my arsenal and incorporated many uncompleted pieces and sound effects I've amassed over 30 years to create a sort of aural autobiography. Well, if Stockhausen could get away with making long pointless pieces (Hymnen for example, and his tedious Licht opera cycle for another), then so can I. The dedication has absolutely nothing to do with the Isle of Wight as it happens, but is actually an acronym for It Seemed Like A Wonderful Idea At The Time. Clever, eh? The meaning of the main title should be obvious; it denotes the wide range of techniques and instruments that were used. The work is in two huge movements named "Astonished" and "Terrified" respectively. These titles are taken from Sir Arthur Sullivan's 1888 speech to Edison, where he states on record: "I am astonished, and somewhat terrified. Astonished at the wonderful power you have developed, and terrified at the thought of so much hideous bad music being put on record forever." Well this is my response to Sir Arthur's warning, which would probably be a bit tricky to fit on to a wax cylinder! (It's tricky to fit it onto a CD too, but I have produced one containing the whole work in 320kbit mp3 format. Email me if you want one. Go on, it's free!) The opening sentence of Arthur's classic recording introduces the first movement which is generally ambient in nature and features mainly sounds from the Waldorf synthesiser, although there are still plenty of other surprises woven into it, including my own voice singing "No feedback" from my song November which, when played backwards, sounds quite convincingly like "No different". You will also hear a cat purring at one point, and further on, a sound just like a cat purring, but isn't. The movement concludes with a very famous voice giving a famous speech, which gradually emerges from the electronic storm to bring the movement to a sombre but satisfying conclusion. The second movement is generally more violent, rhythmic and spasmodic, incorporating many more instruments and sound sources, including some more famous speeches from history and a couple of contemporary ones too. Have fun trying to spot them. There are also numerous examples of electronically manipulated noises that sound like voices, but aren't. Verses from my poem Counterpoint are heard here and there, as is Sir Arthur's speech which is woven into the whole work. Edits from it pop up in strategic places throughout, and of course he gets the final word. This work as a whole is intended more as a journey through an assortment of interesting sounds (and combinations and manipulations thereof) rather than what most people consider as "music". In classical symphonic music, various themes are stated, then go through a system of development and evolution; here though it is the sounds themselves that are developed and manipulated. Still, whether or not this work can be classed as "music", I think I can claim that it holds some sort of record by utilising sounds that span the entire period of recording history to date i.e. 120 years from Arthur Sullivan's opening speech (on which the whole work is based) to 2008 when I completed it. (Actually there is one recording hidden in the mix which is even older than Sullivan's. See if you can spot it.) NOTE: As of June 16th 2009 this piece is still being developed and altered occasionally; the downloads provided here are invariably out of date since I keep finding things I want to change (which is hardly surprising in a work which lasts nearly 4 hours!) It will probably go on changing well into 2009 too, and maybe even beyond that. I actually like the idea of an artwork that never stands still and is constantly being altered. I had the same idea with The Expanse but this piece is far more tinker-friendly. So, come back in a year or two and see how much it's changed! |
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