Details on My Electroacoustic Composition, "Synth vs. Synth", at Electronic Music Midwest October 2005

Exact Title of composition:

"Synth vs. Synth"

(Also okay to put title in caps (e.g., SYNTH VS. SYNTH))

Name of the performer (s):

Charles Joseph Smith, who will be the actual performer of the piece since it is a tape
composition. The actual improvisation in "Synth vs. Synth" was done beforehand on the
keyboard and a sequencer, which was transferred to tape.

Synopsis of "Synth vs. Synth"

 "Synth vs. Synth" started out in 1997 as an contemporary musical improvisation using a
 Kurzweil PC-88 synthesizer and a Master Tracks Pro (v. 4.3) sequencer, that lasts
 between 3-4 minutes, and at first, it was not composed out.

The piece uses three tracks: a trombone, Synth FX 1, and Synth FX 2 (the last two tracks
 being expansion sounds from the Kurzweil PC 88).
 As it was saved on a MIDI file, the same piece was played back using the Roland JV-35 and Roland

JV-40 synthesizers at the CAMIL (Computer Assisted Music Instruction Lab) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Playing it back, the Synth FX 1

and Synth FX 2 showed more of a white-noise distortion on the Roland synthsizer since
the types of preset sounds on that synthesizer were different than that of the Kurzweil PC-88.

The composer decided not to give up the composition....but realize that it can be a new form of the composition.The piece starts off with a key center in D minor. After the long notes, starting with two
octave Ds (which opens the piece), we hear the first theme, pointillistic and pizzicato in nature (on the notes A-G-F-E-F-A-D) in the bass line. Soon after that, arpeggiated chords on Gb-Bb-Eb and D-F-A create tension, and lead to a Gb-Bb-Eb-Gb/F-A-D-F/E-G#-C#-E, chordal pattern, in a style reminiscent of a film music featuring a mystery novel, which the chordal pattern creates tension.

A very brief staccato canon of only two measures takes place, and then two measures after that, a

crescendo appears. The tension leads to the E-Ab-Db-F chord, held along, depicting a certain person

having one's hair stand up on end, depicting that one saw something terrifying.

More detached chords come in the middle and lower registers, while another track

brings out longer notes decorated with dotted rhythms.
 
The pedal points in the bass comes afterward; first on an Eb-C, second on an E-D-F, and another on an E-C#-G reverberate as two open voices--one pointillistic and in a very high register, and the other, slightly lower in register and more melodic, permeate in a contemporary conversation.

 Suddenly, a D-E-G-Bb-C# chord on the trombone track indicates an aura of fright, as if you were watching a more scary version of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Then, the music relaxes a little as a partial reprise of the pizzicato, pointillistic theme in the bass heard in the beginning takes shape. At  the same time, long bass notes and long high notes linger at the point trying to make an almost pointless conversation.

Suddenly, a new part emerges, changing the key center to something like A minor. A haphazard

theme of pointillistic quality (toccata-like) occurs over a series of long bass

notes. At one point it is interrupted by 2 seconds of silence, with a lone note passage
F#-C#, in the trombone track. The toccata returns immediately, building up to a climax
on an E-C-G-F chord, and a Eb-Bb-F chord.

A brief quiet section with an ostinato-like pattern on the notes Eb-E, and after a brief

cascade in the upper tracks, staccato notes permeate and the key center is changed to
A minor as several bass drones on the fifths A-E add to the staccatos.

 This leads to the coda in A minor as the Synth FX 1 track does an running, haphazard

toccata, while the trombone and Synth FX 2, bring out chordal clusters in the mid-register and a staccato bass in the low register.

The final chords in the composition represent something like what I describe as "a white-noise type

of Armegeddon". It starts off with a G-A-B-Eb-G chord in the trombone track, finishing off with two bass chord clusters in Synth FX 1 and Synth FX 2 that depict something like someone trying to censor a radio program with indefinite noise so horrible that you feel like turning the radio off.