Subotnick, Morton

Electronic Works 3

Label: Mode Records Country: USA

"This disc brings the first CD and surround release of the quadrophonic work for analog tape "4 Butterflies", and Subotnick's live remix/recomposition of the classic tape piece "Until Spring as Until Spring: Revisited".

"Until Spring" was first conceived in 1975 on the Buchla synthesizer using only analog techniques. "It was about 10 years from "Silver Apples" to "Until Spring"," Subotnick explains, "and I'd evolved a whole concept and a technique, but I had gone as far as I could go with it. I could do everything I wanted to do, but I couldn't do it in real time." As computers and software developed in the coming decades, Subotnick created a software-based instrument that he felt could allow him to complete his original vision, which led to "Until Spring: Revisited", a reinterpretation constructed around source materials from "Until Spring", recorded live in San Francisco. The work has been performed many times by the ensemble of Morton Subotnick (live electronics), Miguel Frasconi (live electronics and glass harp), and stunning live improvisational visual accompaniment by Sue Costabile (SUE-C) [the latter on DVD only].

"Four Butterflies" was originally released as a stereo LP on Columbia Records. This is its first release on CD. Mode has made a high-resolution transfer from the analog master tapes, newly remixed by the composer. Set in four sections separated by two interludes, "Four Butterflies" is a floating, mysterious electronic landscape. On DVD, two sections are accompanied by films created by artist Mario Castillo, which were projected during live performances during the period of the premiere. These films have not been seen since that time and have been newly transferred for this release. Also, one movement is accompanied with Subotnick's original video experiments, never publicly screened before.

Morton Subotnick

Morton Subotnick is one of the United States' premier composers of electronic music and an innovator in works involving instruments and other media, including interactive computer music systems. Most of his music calls for a computer part, or live electronic processing; his oeuvre utilizes many of the important technological breakthroughs in the history of the genre.

The work, which brought Subotnick celebrity, was "Silver Apples of the Moon". Written in 1967 using the Buchla modular synthesizer, this work contains synthesized tone colours striking for its day, and a control over pitch that many other contemporary electronic composers had relinquished. There is a rich counterpoint of gestures, in marked contrast to the simple surfaces of much contemporary electronic music. The exciting, exotic timbres and the dance-inspiring rhythms caught the ear of the public -- the record was an American bestseller in the classical music category, an extremely unusual occurrence for any contemporary concert music at the time.

The next eight years saw the production of several more important compositions for LP, realized on the Buchla synthesizer: "The Wild Bull", "Touch", "Sidewinder" and "Four Butterflies". All of these pieces are marked by sophisticated timbres, contrapuntally rich textures, and sections of continuous pulse suggesting dance. In fact, "Silver Apples of the Moon" was used as dance music by several companies including the Stuttgart Ballet and Ballet Rambert and "The Wild Bull", and later works, including "A Sky of Cloudless Sulfur" and "The Key to Songs", have been choreographed by leading dance companies throughout the world.

In addition to music in the electronic medium, Subotnick has written for symphony orchestra (including "Before the Butterfly" a bi-centennial commission for the NY Phil, La Phil, Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra), chamber ensembles, theater and multimedia productions. His "staged tone poem" The Double Life of was premiered at the 1984 Olympics Arts Festival in Los Angeles.

"Jacob's Room", Subotnick's multimedia opera, received its premiere in Philadelphia in April 1993 at The American Music Theater Festival. "The Key to Songs", for chamber orchestra and computer (1985), "Return", commissioned to celebrate the return of Halley's Comet, premiered with an accompanying sky show in the planetarium of Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles in 1986.

His 3 CDROMS: "All My Hummingbirds Have Alibis" (1994), "Making Music" (1996), "Making More Music" (1998), an interactive 'Media Poem', "Intimate Immensity", premiered at the Lincoln Center Festival in NY (1997) and "Echoes from the Silent Call of Girona" (1998). "Gestures: for DVD surround sound and DVD ROM will be released on Mode Records in the spring of 2001. "Making Music" has now sold over 400,000 copies and is in 12 languages. In addition, his website for children, creatingmusic.com, is now online.

He also produced a series of concerts and events (1990-1997) where performers interacted musically in three cities simultaneously.

Subotnick holds the Mel Powell Chair in composition at the California Institute of the Arts. He tours extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe as a lecturer and composer/performer. He is published by European-American."-Mode Records