INTERCULTURAL EXPLORATION: THE COMPUTER AND TRADITIONAL MUSIC CULTURES
Mara Helmuth · 2009
The exploration of music and sound from traditions in Asia, Africa, America and Europe has provided a healthy contextual upheaval and a rich source of materials for an American composer using technology. Collaboration with performers and performer-composers skilled in folk, jazz, and traditional musics as well as contemporary music have resulted in the Sound Collaborations compact disk containing four collaborative works. Exploration in Asia included extensive travel to areas in China, Korea and Japan for recording sessions in temples, universities and mountain parks, and study of the qin, the ancient Chinese zither. Two installations, Staircase of Light and Hidden Mountain, based on sounds from these travels were composed and constructed at the Sino-Nordic Arts Space in Beijing in 2003 and 2007. This paper documents intercultural aspects of these compositions involving the computer. 1.