Electronic Interlude: Part 2 of 3

Source: The New York Times

Election day has (finally) arrived, and millions of Americans will be going out to vote today; many have already voted as well.  While this is not a political blog, I do want to take this opportunity to share a piece I put together almost exactly a year and a half ago.  Like the piece I shared in my most recent post, this work is electronic.  The title of the piece is "Responsibility," and it was composed as part of a fairly open-ended final project for a class I was taking at the time called "Music Since 1950."  (In other words, the project was not specifically to write an electronic piece; some students in the class simply wrote research papers, etc.)

"Responsibility" is purposefully based off of a piece titled "Come Out," composed by Steve Reich in 1966.  (Interesting factoid: Steve Reich and I have the same birthday.)  "Come Out" was one of the pieces we studied in the class, and I wanted to go through the experience of putting together a similar work.  I detailed both the backstory of "Come Out" and my own process in creating "Responsibility" in an accompanying paper, which you can find here.

For those of you who don't have the time to read through everything, here's a brief rundown:

"Come Out" was written in the aftermath of the Harlem Riot of 1964 and is arguably most famous for its use of phasing.  Reich takes a small selection from tapes he had containing interviews with the police, the Harlem Six, and the mothers of the six accused youths.  The selected phrase—which is repeated countless times—is "come out to show them" (hence the title of the piece).  As this phrase is looped continuously, Reich phases it with itself; that is, he has multiple copies of the original playing at ever-so-slightly different speeds.  Ultimately, the words themselves become unintelligible, leaving only the tonal and rhythmic patterns.

In "Responsibility," I used the same technique, except I used two recordings: one from President Obama and the other from Congressman Paul Ryan.  (This piece was completed in May 2011; while I had no idea that Ryan would end up being picked as the Republican vice-presidential candidate, I did conclude that he represented a popular viewpoint within his party.)

Initially (and purposely) separated into the left and right channels, Obama and Ryan offer their dueling opinions: "responsibility for each other" and "limited government," respectively.  Like in "Come Out," these phrases are looped and phased, though in "Responsibility" I play with the panning to a greater extent.

The piece is on the longer side, but I hope you'll take a listen and hear it all the way through.  Then go vote!