︎
Wolf Notes #8, April 2015

Traces

Jane Dickson


Traces is a piece for elongated piano notes, pure tone and minor disruptions. It explores the point at which the natural and artificial converge, using this horizon as a third compositional element. The decay of the piano notes are heard on and just beyond the threshold of reality, lengthening gradually on a continuum to encourage the suspension of disbelief. Sparse single notes and intervals are used to create a skeleton, allowing a focus on decay, process and transformation. The low dynamic marking—pianissimo to piano—helps blur the line between natural and augmented acoustic. The effect of the piece—to unsettle the balance of perception and reality— rests on the volume and balance of each element: acoustic piano, extended decay, phase and pure tone, and is dependent on a mic-ing and speaker system capable of reproducing the natural acoustic of the piano as truthfully as possible. The single pure tone fades in slowly, rests on the threshold of audibility and fades away; it is predominantly perceived as a disruption to the partials of the piano or as elongated sympathetic resonances. Structure is provided by means of this shifting relationship; the complexities found in the decay phase of the piano note become potentially controllable compositional material. In this way Traces addresses a problem highlighted by John Croft: that compositions combining electronic sounds and acoustic instruments often present the gulf between the two, instead of working within it.


Grand piano
Discreet mic-ing and speaker system inside piano
Granular synthesis
Pure tone
Duration: c. 7 minutes


First performance: Sonic Arts Series No. 80, University of East Anglia, February 2014




In 2015, Wolf Notes invited composers and musicians to write a short text about one of their own pieces. A word count of no more than 500-words was the only guidance given.

Jane Dickson is a Glasgow based composer and pianist. Her background includes classical piano and conducting, live electronics performance and composition and free improvisation using extended techniques.