Compositions » Luna Park

Luna Park was my first “new” piece in stereo. I used some of the techniques I’d learned doing Travelling Music: tape-echo antiphony, delay between channels, placement, and “panning.” By now, the organization of the sounds was very important to me: Luna is a very simple piece: three movements - fast/slow/fast - using few sound materials (people remember the laughter; one station broadcast it as “Dockstader’s Laughing Music” - but there isn’t actually that much laughter in it). I wanted it to be silly and sad and simple. The title comes from the old Luna Park at Coney Island, named for Miss Luna Dundy of Des Moines, sister of one of the park’s founders. The park burned down in the 1940s, and, by the time I saw it, all that remained was a vast, rutted parking lot.

First Part Sped laughter of two people, little bells, one generator

Second Part Piano sped and slowed, bamboo flute, marimba (dropped), metal bowl (bell), something called a “bell-tree” (an Asian instrument, I believe), water, more laughter

Third Part The Third Part used one generator (all the notes were “played” with a razor blade and splicing tape, then the tape was sped, overdubbed, and inverted)

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