Category Archives: UPIC

Pieces realized with UPIC

Organic Forms

[play] Organic Forms
2005

This piece was created on the UPIC system at CCMIX in Alfortville, France. When UPIC was invented, composers using the system would typically create a drawing and then listen to it, making changes as needed. Today, composers tend to listen as they go and the drawing aspect of the system is not emphasized. In this piece, I started with a drawing, inspired by the sorts of shapes that Xenakis used for his compositions. In order to add richness, I used a triangle wave for high sounds, a sawtooth wave for low – mid range sounds and a very short period square wave for very low sounds.

This is my second UPIC compositon and it may be my last.

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UPIC Impressions of Paris

UPIC Impressions of Paris
2005

This is my first UPIC piece at CCMIX. UPIC (plus bonne version française) is a graphical, glissando-oriented system designed by Xenakis. This piece uses all sine tones and all glissandos are straight lines (no vibrato)

This piece contains extremely low frequencies that may be difficult to hear on some speakers. The sounds are inspired by the surprising, different and wonderful mechanical noises made by the appliances in my kitchen here.

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