Five Summer Scenes (1985-86)
by Gary Lee Nelson

This set of short pieces was composed at the National Music Camp in Interlochen, Michigan and at Melbourne University in Australia. In changing hemispheres I enjoyed a series of summers and springs uninterrupted by snow and ice.   The pieces are intended to celebrate summer moods of relaxation, playfulness, and reflection in the sun.

The voice in the bell
Closing time at the glass menagerie
Road unsealed next 17 km
A concert on the sand
An unexpected call

The works were composed using "algorithms" of my own invention.   I designed a Pascal program to control the dynamic aspects of the middle and large dimensions.   Gesture, movement toward climax, contrast, variation, and many other composition techniques were defined in exhaustive detail and cast into computer code to carry out artistic methods and procedures.   The small dimensions - intervals of pitch and duration - were organized using serial techniques.   Like all of my algorithmic composition programs, these underwent a sustained period of evolution and refinement that occupied more than a year from concept to first acceptable results.

The system of hardware used to realize these pieces included an Apple Lisa 2/10 micro computer, an IDAL RS232-to-MIDI interface, and digital synthesizers manufactured in Japan by Yamaha.   The synthesizers (DX7 and TX8/16) constitute an orchestra of 144 separate parts organized in nine ensembles of 16 parts each.   With my instructions, the computer "composed" sequences of notes and "conductor" functions that were translated into MIDI codes and transmitted to the interface.   The interface acted as time keeper by holding each musical event until its action time arrived then passing it on to the synthesizers.