Women in Synthesis, Part 1: Managing Their Musical Identities

The Holmes Archive of Electronic Music

Episode 98

Women in Synthesis, Part 1: Managing their Musical Identities

Playlist

1. Daphne Oram, “Four Aspects” from Oramics (2007 Paradigm Discs). This piece was composed in 1960 after Oram left the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and was running her own start-up. Four Aspects uses the Oramics instrument that she invented. It demonstrated her interest in creating works that were longer than the short snippets of music that she had produced for radio and television themes. The piece was patiently crafted and is strikingly harmonic, exploring a rich tone field that lacked the herky-jerky nature of other tape music of the time. You will hear the development of musical chords and harmonic fields from monophonic tone generators that she combined during mixing, developing gradually shifting texture employing filtering and loops. 8:06
2. Daphne Oram, “Pulse Persephone” (1965) from Oramics (2007 Paradigm Discs). Composed, realized, and produced by Daphne Oram. This was produced for the Treasures of the Commonwealth exhibition at the Royal Academy of the Arts. 4:03
3. Daphne Oram, “Costain Suite” (1965) from Oramics (2007 Paradigm Discs). Composed, realized, and produced by Daphne Oram. Music for a film production, circa 1970. 13:17
4. Teresa Rampazzi, “Immagini Per Diana Baylon” side a (1972), from Immagini Per Diana Baylon (2016 Die Schachtel). Music realized using analogue equipment, Teresa Rampazzi. One of her three known soundtracks for art installations. The analog work she completed at her Nuove Proposte Sonore (NPS) studio had striking parallels to the work of Daphne Oram in the UK. This piece was intended to be looped for 180 minutes while visitors perused an exhibit of abstract sculptures by Diana Baylon. 16:15
5. Teresa Rampazzi, “With the Light Pen” (1976) from Musica Endoscopica (2008 Die Schachtel). Composed and realized by Teresa Rampazzi at the Centro di Calcolo di Ateneo, Università di Padova. This was the first work realized with the Interactive Computer Music System (ICMS), in real-time. “The timbre, made by additive synthesis, adding frequencies in algebraic sequence, was sometimes acoustically harsh. On the other hand train pulses with regular rhythms were sweetened by long harmonic, dissolving tails.” (Rampazzi). 8:43
6. Teresa Rampazzi, “Atmen Noch”(1980) from Musica Endoscopica (2008 Die Schachtel). Stereophonic version (quadraphonic original) realized at the CSC (Centro di Sonologia Computazionale dell'Università di Padova). Composed in 1980 at the CSC Computer Music Center in Padova. Winner of the second prize at the VIII Concours International de Musique Électroacoustique, Bourges. Based on the mathematical analysis of “intersection sets, the elements of which were timbres. It was preceded by five months of research on timbres that were obtained from multitudinous ratios between the carrier and the modulating signals and inverted relationships with the ICMS program by Graziato Tisato.” (Rampazzi). This work will not immediately strike you as computer music, which is part of its beauty and uniqueness for all time. 15:16
7. Ruth White, “Wings Clipped (Too Many External Involvements / Flight Stopped” from 7 Trumps From The Tarot Cards And Pinions (1969 Limelight). Produced and realized by Ruth White. Clavichord, Harpsichord, Organ, Piano, Moog Modular Synthesizer, tape operations, Ruth White. 6:04
8. Ruth White, “Wanting Wings (Limited Capacity / No Flight Possible” from 7 Trumps From The Tarot Cards And Pinions (1969 Limelight). Produced and realized by Ruth White. Clavichord, Harpsichord, Organ, Piano, Moog Modular Synthesizer, tape operations, Ruth White. 3:42
9. Ruth White, “Love Gives Wings (With Wings)” from 7 Trumps From The Tarot Cards And Pinions (1969 Limelight). Produced and realized by Ruth White. Clavichord, Harpsichord, Organ, Piano, Moog Modular Synthesizer, tape operations, Ruth White. 8:48

Opening background music: Daphe Oram, “Introduction” and “Power Tools” from Oramics (2007 Paradigm Discs). Voice and electronic realization, Daphne Oram. Ruth White, “The Litanies Of Satan” from Flowers of Evil (1969 Limelight). Ruth White, all instruments including the Moog Modular Synthesizer. Realized by Ruth White. 6:56

Opening and closing sequences voiced by Anne Benkovitz.

Additional opening, closing, and other incidental music by Thom Holmes.

See my companion blog that I write for the Bob Moog Foundation.

For additional notes, please see my blog, Noise and Notations.