Meeting Point (electroacoustic music for dance, 1992)
Made in collaboration with choreographer Sarah Rubidge; on CD Issue no. 1 of Unknown Public (upcd 01)
All of the sounds in this piece started life in a recorded reading of text fragments.
What we don't hear, however, is a setting of the words. Occasionaly words appear, sometimes we hear voices where words are indistinguishable and often the sounds are nothing like voices at all.
So, if the text is lost, why use text? If the sounds don't sound like voices, why use voices in the first place?
The texts and words describe or imply different senses of movement and energy, which in turn suggested ways of changing the readings in the studio. The readers' voices also have particular qualities and rhythms which could be transformed and extended. What remain from the reading, then, are the musical qualities of voices and texts distanced from their specific semantic meanings. Exciting and maleable musical material.
Meeting Point was composed in collaboration with choreographer Sarah Rubidge. Music and dance materials, both based on the same texts were made over a two month period with frequent swapping of ideas: movement patterns in the dance material influenced phrasing and timings in the music, and vice versa.