listen to complete piece

composer	Kathryn Alexander (b. 1955)
performers	Dorothy Stone, flute
affiliation	ASCAP
label	New World Records 80456http://www.newworldrecords.org
duration	13:17

about the music

Kathryn Alexander:

"Many works for live instrument and tape present the juxtaposition of a live performer against a collage of synthetically-generated/processed sounds. And the Whole Air Is Tremulous, however, utilizes a tape part generated only from recordings of the piccolo, C flute, alto flute, and the bass flute performed by the composer. The contemporary performance techniques employed by both the live and recorded performers are: quarter tones, glissandi, trills, flutter tonguing, harmonics, and whistle tones. The recorded acoustic sounds were then manipulated and post-processed both by extended traditional musique concrète techniques and digital processing units ... The intent, all in all, is purely musical: the live and processed flutists unite to create a greater whole.

"Although the piece is not programmatic, the following poem, inspired by a passage from Virginia Woolf's novel Jacob's Room (1922), reflects the nature of the work."

and the whole air is tremulous
stretching, bending; twisting, turning
restless

unable to still
gliding, slipping, sliding
escape?

shaking, trembling, vibrating
sparking and glinting
- water dances

cerebral plates juxtapose
grating, grinding; pressing, tensing
a spirit roams, creates, divides
and a fine wind roars -
then blows ...

sunlight scintillates on leaves
shining and glowing
- iridescence

about the composer		back to top

Kathryn Alexander (b. 1955) draws upon a variety of disciplines in her work, including literature, visual art, science, and technology. A native of Texas, Alexander studied composition and flute at Baylor University in Waco, Texas and with Donald Erb and Eugene O'Brien at the Cleveland Institute of Music in Ohio. She earned her doctorate at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where her composition teachers were Samuel Adler, Barbara Kolb, Allan Schindler, and Joseph Schwantner. She also studied with Leon Kirchner at Tanglewood in Lenox, Massachusetts. Currently on faculty at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, Alexander has also taught at Dartmouth College, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and University of Oregon.

Alexander's music has been performed throughout North and South America and in Europe. Her commissions include the Barlow, Fromm, and Rockefeller Foundations, Boston Musica Viva, National Flute Association, New Music Consort, Vermont Chamber Music Conference, and Women's Philharmonic. She is a recipient of the Rome Prize and grants from ASCAP and the National Endowment for the Arts. Among Alexander's recent projects are ... mania! for solo percussionist and interactive audio/video, and dreams ... reveries for So Percussion. Her work Abstracted Cisms, a multimedia performance piece for dancer(s), narrator, and performers, was based on a painting by Willem de Kooning. Trio Neos of Mexico City commissioned and premiered Faraway ... Nearby in May 1998 at the XX Foro Internacional De Música Nueva Manuel Enríquez.

related websites
http://www.yale.edu/yalemus/alexander.htm

about the performers		back to top

Dorothy Stone was a flutist, composer, and conductor active in contemporary music for over 20 years. She performed as a soloist throughout the United States and Europe, and was a founding member and artistic director of the California EAR Unit in Los Angeles. Stone's solo flute piece Wizard Ball (1984/1988), featuring a custom-built live electronic system, received prizes from the Ars Electronica Festival, Freeman Composition Contest, and International League of Women Composers. Her composition Chino (1994) was a collaboration with EAR Unit percussionist Amy Knoles and the New York City-based Doug Elkins Dance Company. Other works and performances can be found on the Bridge, Cambria, CRI, Crystal, New Albion, Newport Classic, Nonesuch, oodiscs, Tzadik, and Voyager labels. Stone was educated at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City and California Institute of the Arts in Valencia. She studied flute with Julius Baker, Harold Bennett, Ann Diener Giles, Thomas Nyfenger, and Harvey Sollberger, and composition with Stephen L. Mosko, Mel Powell, Leonard Stein, and Morton Subotnick.

related websites
http://www.earunit.org/DorothyStone.htm