 Robert
Mackay (b.1973) Robert Mackay is a composer
and performer based in the UK. He obtained a degree in Geology and Music
at the University of Keele, studying composition there with Mike Vaughan,
before going on to complete a Master’s
and PhD with Andrew Lewis at the University of Wales, Bangor. Currently
he is a lecturer in Creative Music Technology at the University of Hull,
Scarborough Campus.
His main area of research is in electroacoustic composition and sound
art. Recent projects have moved towards a more cross-disciplinary approach,
including theatre, text in performance, audio/visual installation work,
and human/computer interaction. Prizes and honours include: IMEB Bourges
(1997 and 2001); EAR99 from Hungarian Radio (1999); Confluencias (2003);
Concours ‘Luc Ferrari’ from La Muse en Circuit (2006). His
pieces are performed regularly worldwide (including several performances
on BBC Radio 3). He has played, written and produced in a number of bands
and ensembles, including the Welsh Hip-Hop collective 'Tystion' with
whom he collaborated alongside John Cale, as well as recording two John
Peel sessions on BBC Radio 1 and supporting international acts, including
PJ Harvey.
www.spnm.org.uk/shortlist
www.sonicartsnetwork.com
www.hull.ac.uk/cmt
www.festivaloflight.org.uk
www.hull.ac.uk/cmt/sea03
I have based this Composition on the following piece of text by Sophocles
(from 'Oedipus at Colonus'). Which I believe is still as relevent to us
today as when it was first written:
The Earth's strength fades,
And manhood's glory fades.
Faith dies,
And unfaith blossoms like a flower.
But who shall find,
In these open streets of men,
Or in the secret places of his own hearts love.
One wind blow true forever.'
In this piece I have tried to mirror the meaning and mood of the text,
both in its context within the play it is from, and in the more general
relevence it has to people of any generation. A gloomy truth pervades
the first four lines, but the second half of the text offers hope in the
enormity of time and the universe.
Also the material for the piece (which includes the text itself) relates
to the Greek ideals of music, set down by Boethius: Musica Mundana,
Musica Humana, and Musica Instrumentalis.
Within this piece I have carried on my interest in transforming from one
recognisable sound to another, playing on human auditory perception and
also using this to travel from the imaginary to the real and back again.
Voicewind was created in the electroacoustic music studios at Bangor
in 1998. It won a prize in the EAR99 competition of Hungarian Radio in
1999.
Sea Pictures was inspired by the sea town atmosphere of Bangor where I
have been living for the past four years. Many of the sounds in the piece
were recorded on location, including seagulls and folk music (from the
Bangor folk festival). In this piece I wished to paint sound images of
the sea, and sea town scenes. Some of them 'real', others surreal, or
even abstract. Recognisable sounds are juxtaposed against 'constructed'
sounds in order to exploit differences and similarities between them for
musical application.
During this voyage through different sound scapes, identifiable sounds
are transformed into the unfamiliar and vice versa. Also, transformations
occur from one recognisable sound source to another. The listener is taken
to far off places as well as parts closer to home.
Sea Pictures was composed in the electroacoustic music studios
at Bangor between late 1996 and early 1997. It won a Prix Residence from
the Bourges Synthese festival in 1997. As a result I travelled to Bratislava
to compose in the studios of Slovak Radio in 1998.
In my recent compositions I have tried to play on the way we percieve
sounds, using this to effectively transform one recognisable sound to
another, or travel from a 'real' space to an imaginary one. So far, this
has been done in pieces which are purely for tape alone. In Flute Melt,
however, I have endevoured to extend the work I have done into a piece
which includes a live flute performance. I have tried to make the flute
and the tape 'melt'into one another.
Sometimes a sound made on the flute will transform into a sound on the
tape. At other moments the flute will imitate sounds in the tape part.
The listener should be taken from the real space of the concert hall into
a realm where anything can happen, and back again.
Flute Melt was composed in the Electroacoustic music studios at
Bangor in 1999. Flute performed by Robert Mackay.
Work on Postcards from the Summer began in the Experimental Music Studio
of Radio Bratislava in Slovakia during the summer of 1998.
The piece is inspired by the various soundscapes of the different places
I visited in Europe during that summer. From a farm in North Wales and
the sounds of Bangor, to the cities of London, Bratislava, Prague, and
Munich.
In presenting these soundscapes, I have not conciously tried to conjure
up the national flavour of the countries I visited (although some sounds
inevitably do), but instead the piece represents snippets of my own personal
experiences of these places. The aural images are not necessarily in chronological
order, but instead weave a tapestry of different sonic landscapes.
Within this piece I have tried to continue my interest in transforming
one recognisable sound to another, and using this technique to 'travel'
from one place to another.
Postcards from the Summer was composed in the Experimental Music Studio
in Radio Bratislava and the Electroacoustic Music Studios at Bangor between
mid 1998 and early 1999.
Environs continues my interest in exploring the musical and structural
implications of using recognisable sound sources. Indeed, the piece contains
almost exclusively everyday sounds (the unidentifiable sounds being derived
from the recognisable). I have used the sounds for their physical connotations
as well as for their acoustic properties and musical potential, thus creating
different levels of meaning.
I have created different sound environments. Each environment having its
own environs, or perimeter, defined by a door motif. Gradually these perimeters
are broken down, as sounds occur in increasingly bizarre contexts.
During this dialogue, sounds familiar to us are transformed into different
material and from one source to another. Eventually even the opening and
closing doors themselves are taken out of context and developed upon.
Further sections develop material to create longer sequences, exploiting
the ambiguities which can occur when using recognisable sounds, out of
context, along side each other.
Environs was composed between mid 1996 and early 1997 in the electroacoustic
music studios at Bangor.
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