Travelling Music [1960]
Travelling Music was originally composed as a monaural piece (Electronic Piece No.8), It was, in effect, my Poème Electronique, after Varèse, and my first piece to be strictly organized with a few sound materials (instead of throwing everything in and stirring briskly, as I'd done prior to this). When I got the use of a two-track recorder, I used this piece, instead of doing a new work, so I could concentrate on teaching myself the techniques of placing sound in space (between speakers) and moving it through space - hence the title (Jackie Gleason, in his black-and-white TV days, used always to ask the pit-band conductor for "a little travelling music" to help him move across the stage).
Sound Sources
- Gong
- switch arc (multiplied into antiphonal rhythms with tape-echo)
- one test generator
- jet 'plane
- metal plate
- metal bowl
- voice
- hollow tube
- adhesive tape