Search - David Rosenboom :: CDCM Computer Music Series Vol 4 -- (CCM) David Rosenboom: Systems of Judgment

A brave release; challenging and demanding

Steve Benner | Lancaster, UK | 08/12/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This fourth volume in the series of releases from the Consortium to Distribute Computer Music (CDCM) dates from 1989 and follows the pattern of others in the series, in that it focuses on the output of a particular (American) University-based computer music studio - in this case the Center for Contemporary Music (CCM) at Mills College, Oakland, CA. In a departure from every other of the 30-odd volumes to date, however, the disc features just a single work, "Systems of Judgment" (1988), composed and performed by David Rosenboom, erstwhile Darius Milhaud Professor of Music at Mills College, where he was also Head of the Music Department and Director of the CCM during the 1980s. (Just for the record, since 1990, David Rosenboom has been Dean of the School of Music and Co-director of the Center for Experiments in Art, Information and Technology at the California Institute of the Arts.)Composed as the musical score for a choreographic work by Duncan MacFarland of the DanceArt Company of San Francisco (who also provided the title for the work), "Systems of Judgment" is intended for live performance, having no tape part. For its production, however, it requires a huge battery of electronic synthesis and sampler technology, computers and processing devices, as well as a variety of acoustic instruments - violin, piano, and various items of tuned and untuned percussion - together with samples of real-world sounds, ranging from rainstorms and waterfalls to trains, motors and engines and animal noises, and including samples from other acoustic instruments and instrumental ensembles.The work's underlying conceptual paradigm is the elucidation of three parallel views of evolution: the evolution of the individual; evolution of thought, by probabilistic processes; and the evolution of social organisation. All three of these processes - the 'systems of judgment' of the work's title - operate simultaneously within the flow of the piece, resulting in a single evolutionary trajectory from the opening's largely undifferentiated drone materials, to an infinitely more complex yet ordered soundworld at the work's triumphant conclusion. The work's 64 minutes are divided into six main sections, of lengths varying from approximately four to twenty-three minutes, prefaced by an introductory three-and-a-half minute Prologue.The sounds of rain, processed thunder peals, and filtered train and road-traffic noise of the Prologue form a brooding and highly atmospheric introduction to the tough sonic journey that lies ahead. Subsequent movements rely more heavily on the use of more traditional sources of musical sounds, in the form of live and sampled acoustic instruments, allowing the formulation of harmonic, contrapuntal and rhythmic ideas within each section's sonic mass, these building by degrees into an increasingly dense and musically complex assault on the senses.For, as you can probably imagine, this is no comfortable Sunday afternoon drive out with the family. Rather, "Systems of Judgment" provides an intense musical excursion, evoking all of the trials and terrors inherent in mankind's journey from the simple undifferentiated chaos of the primeval soup, to the complex yet highly ordered chaos of the modern world. (Or, viewed another way, from the primitive rainforest, to the Mount Washington Steam Railway!) However you view it, though, there is no escaping the fact that this hour-long sonic barrage demands of the listener the utmost attention and concentration throughout. It is, nevertheless, an exciting and exhilarating experience for those with the courage and fortitude to ride the work out to its conclusion. Overall, I would say that this is a brave release by CDCM but also one that deserves to succeed and to be heard. I recommend it wholeheartedly to those who like their music to be challenging."