Paul Lansky
Things She Carried (first movement of the work Things She Carried)
by Paul Lansky, with Hannah MacKay
I never begin a piece with an image of it in my head. For me it's always been an interactive process. I usually begin with a general idea, try some things, revise my expectations and internal images, try again, etc. Particularly when working with machines it is important not to come with too many preconceived notions. So many times, wonderful things happen by accident, and even more often the things that you think will work well turn out to be awful. …I think a composer is in trouble if the piece he writes is just what he imagined in his head. Maybe Mozart could do this, but for we mortals composing is a trip into unknown territory.
(Paul Lansky in interview with Paul Clark, for Electronic Music)
Programme note for Things She Carried:
Things She Carried is a musical portrait of a woman, drawn in a series of eight movements. We learn a lot about her: what she carried in her purse, what she noticed, remembered, read, knew, felt, and liked. A large number of facts and ideas are provided with which to thread together an image of this woman, but little is explicitly stated.
In Things She Carried, the first movement of the eight-movement work, timbre, pitch, harmony and rhythm help shape our perceptions.
Paul Lansky biography:
Paul Lansky (1944) has long been recognized as one of the pioneers of computer music. His works are widely available on recording, largely on Bridge Records. His work Notjustmoreidlechatter is included in the Norton Anthology accompanying the widely use music appreciation text, The Enjoyment of Music. In 2002 he was the recipient of a lifetime achievment award from SEAMUS (the Society for ElectroAcoustic Music in the United States). In 1999 he was the subject of a documentary made for European Television, My Cinema for the Ears, directed by Uli Aumuller and now available on DVD. Numerous dance companies have choreographed his works, including Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company. He has received awards and commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim, Lila Wallach/Reader's Digest, Koussevitsky and Fromm Foundations, ASCAP, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, among others.
Though the bulk of his work is electronic he has keep his hand in instrumental music as well over the years, writing several works for instruments and electronics, and a number for instruments alone. His work, Three Moves for Marimba, written for Nancy Zeltsman and recorded by her, has been gaining wide recognition as one of the most challenging pieces for this instrument.
