Bigger than a Frog

The Music Machines have developed from my earlier works and my work exploring generative music. Each Music Machine explores a single idea. Some are simple, some more complex. All are generated by the computer within established parameters, all run continuously until stopped by the listener and all are different each time they are played. Some involve interaction by the listener either to make choices from a number of parameters, for example Music Machines 6 requires the user to press a button to play along with a backing track, most require only to be listened to. The term Music Machine is a reference to John White's Machine Music - The Machines which date from the period 1967-1972 represent a departure from the more traditionally narrative nature of the rest of my pieces. I use the word Machine to define a consistent process governing a series of musical actions within a particular sound world and by extension the listener's perception thereof. One might thus regard the Welsh Rarebit as a Machine in which a process is applied to the conditioning and perception of the world of bread and cheese. My Music Machines share many similarities with the work of the English Experimental composers of the 1960s and 1970s. There is a connection with the American minimalists through the use of a steady pulse, repetition and tonality. Music Machine 2 for example could be entitled In C and Music Machine 4 will invariably involve glimpses of phasing. At present there are 15 Music Machines but the project is ongoing and I expect to produce more in the future.

Macintosh

Multimedia

Educational