Musical Extensions to New York City

Turning the sounds of chirping crickets into music and venting built-up frustration on the piano have earned Waikato University students Hannah Gilmour and Peter McKinnon a trip to New York for an international festival.  Gilmour and McKinnon have been selected to present their works at the New York Electroacoustic Music Festival later in March. (25-27 March)

Electroacoustic music is made using electronic technology, which allows composers to create sounds not usually heard from traditional acoustic instruments.  Gilmour, a recipient of a $12,000 Waikato University Masters Research Scholarship, says she pre-recorded the familiar summer cricket sounds, then once she’d loaded them on to computer, transformed the sounds by stretching them out and changing them to create a piece of music.  The five and a half minute composition is called Chill Before Dawn, part of a bigger work called "Ode to a Cricket" which will be played in full at the New York festival.

Alongside her electroacoustic work she has composed more traditional forms of music, including pieces for orchestras, chamber music ensembles and solo works for piano and voice.  Two of her compositions have been worked by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and broadcast on Concert FM.  Her electrouacoustic works have been aired in Portugal, the United States and Australia. “I’m always thinking music.  It begins with a small idea and grows from there.  You’re learning all the time. You learn by listening to other works, by combining different sounds and experimenting.  I’m not sure where it’s all going to lead.”

Peter McKinnon has just completed his Bachelor of Music (Hons). His electroacoustic work for the New York festival is piano-based.  “It’s called Pianosophagus. The idea came from a sketch I had about getting into the vocal box of the piano and exploring it – and somehow linking that with the performer. I originally began by sampling a variety of different sounds from the piano that related to the idea of the work, and then began experimenting with ways to morph, extend and completely breakup the samples. At the same time I worked on a live piano part to be performed along with it – the idea that it would sound quite natural as a performance.”

The work took about half a year to complete - from concept to the final creation.  “When it was performed at the Lilburn awards last year my piano performance teacher had a good laugh.  The piece has touches of aggression and frustration and that’s often how I feel when I’m practising performance pieces.” McKinnon says having his work selected for New York was a bit unexpected, but it’s an exciting prospect and he’s looking forward to the trip.  He has applied for a Masters Research Scholarship to help him continue with his studies when he returns from New York.