Search - Warren Burt :: Harmonic Colour Fields

"Harmonic Colour Fields is a set of five computer pieces which explore static microtonal harmonic fields. This means that once a piece begins, harmonically, it's going to stay pretty much the same for it's entire duration. The pieces are descended from the 1970s "drone" pieces of such composers as La Monte Young, Charlemagne Palestine, Hal Budd, and myself, but they make greater use of slow harmonic progressions to make more varied musical surfaces. I wanted to make pieces where the quality of the harmony was the primary focus, and so used very simple rhythms, plain electronic timbres, and a minimum of melodic structuring. In fact, in these pieces, any sense of melody is simply the result of how the harmonic material is articulated. That is, change in harmony, and not construction of melody was my aim in making these pieces. The title refers to the "colour field" minimalist painters of the 60s and 70s. I thought of these pieces as analogous to those paintings, in that the explore the varieties and shades of one particular harmonic musical colour." Warren Burt attended the State University of New York, Albany (BA, 1971) and the University of California, San Diego (MA, 1975) before moving to Australia in 1975. In Australia he has worked in academia (La Trobe University, NSW Conservatorium, Victorian College of the Arts, Australian National University), education, and radio (freelance and commissioned productions for ABC and PBAA), and as a composer, film maker, video artist, and community arts organizer.