Search - Michael Theodore :: Strings & Machines

Hugh Livingston, cellist, commissioned and performed the works on this CD. And all of the works call for electronics as well as cello, as Livingston describes it, "practical off-the-shelf hardware in some cases ... the video projection unit and screen, two Macintosh computers, the SGI and ISPW providing computing horsepower, and enough cable that Mark and I felt like a major stage show as we packed up a van and headed up the California coast for the concert tour ..." And despite a stage filled with $150,000 of equipment, it is clear in the music that all of the sounds originate with the cello. In fact, this CD is a wonderful example of using electronics to enlarge an instrument's sounds. It's also a wonderful example of interaction. Livingston writes, "With this project I was examining the collaborative process while creating new literature for the 'cello. I had no idea the results would be so varied and fruitful for as many years. Each composer was given some of the same guidelines, but a distinct approach, so as not to have identical imprints on the results. The composers were allowed free rein on their choice of electronics ..." Indeed, these collaborations between Hugh Livingston and composers at the University of California, San Diego and the University of California, Berkeley, are a wonderful addition to the growing field of interactive performance with acoustical instruments and computer systems.