Electronic Explorations

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Album Info
This CD is 1 of 6 CDs that together total over 60 musical compositions and are a representative sampling of over 800 musical compositions composed by Richard Strunk over the course of the past 3 decades (1974 - 2007). A substantial number of Rick's 800+ musical compositions are Classical pieces for solo instrumental players and include works for almost all the instruments existing within the modern symphony orchestra. There is also a large body of chamber music by Rick composed for both Classical ensembles such as String Quartets; Piano Trios etc, plus much that is written for Jazz quartets and quintets that utilize the fusing of either Pop song and/or Classical work with Jazz, as well as electronic music and some larger orchestra works too. Occasionally Rick has also written some Pop/Rock tunes through the years too. More CDs are coming soon. Enjoy!

Description:
Composition sounds were created using the Studio Buchla Synthesizer at The Grinnell College Electronic Music Studio. Spatial movement was equal in importance as a compositional parameter within the score with timber or any others such as pitch or rhythms. The organization of the sounds was accomplished solely but splicing all the sound events together using a splice block and Revox Rell-To-Reel; probably a 1000 or more splices were used to assemble the entire composition. It was written as a 3 movement work.

Description:
This work was created at The Grinnell College Electronic Music Studio. Dick Steel, a professor and linguist at Grinnell College, assisted me in recording all known human phonemes on tape that were eventually recorded over and over again slightly out-of phase and mixed into into a controlled feedback for developing a 4-channel minimalist electronic composition called Phonetic Cloud. 'Prelude To Phonetic Cloud' is a short excerpt of the actual voice of Dick Steel during our first recording session of human phonemes. Steve Reich's 'Come Out' was a work I had been familiar with since High school and I always wanted to try my hand at this especially with a composition designed using spatial movement. Spatial movement was equal in importance as a compositional parameter within the score with timber or any others such as pitch or rhythms. So the effect would really seem as if one was slowly moving or passing through a Phonetic Cloud.

John Cage was among a number of composers that were inspirational for me in High School and College. This lecture was constructed entirely of chance operations during my Senior Year in High School that also occurred simultaneously with my Freshman Year in College. The order of the phrases used for each of the 2 voices was determined by a flip of a coin and pulling them out of a hat. The choices of the phrases used were done serendipitously by randomly thumbing through Cage's books 'Silence' and 'A Year From Monday' and whatever words i might happen to glance at were recorded and used. Both voices use the same content but the phrases are in different orders for each voice. When this work was performed for my lecture-performance at Kansas State University in 1975 it actually caused a small riot. Amazing as it sounds some students were enraged by it and were angrily shouting and denouncing the presentation some were stunned to silence and a few were utterly delighted. The 2 teaching Assistants were polarized too. One had assisted me in this project and defended both the project and I; while the other was furious at my project and myself. One TA was insisting I be given an 'F' and flunked while the other insisted I be given an 'A'. The matter was handed over to the Composer-In-Residence to decide. He invited me in and we conversed for a while concerning John Cage's views and works. It became obvious that this presentation was no flippancy on my part for I had done extensive studies on this composer and his works and so the composer Hanley Jackson gave me an 'A'. However, I am sure that if I had simply been 'pulling a stunt' without any real background of study or thought I would have gotten the 'F' instead. I performed 4' 33" on Congo Drums as a part of this lecture performance too. 4' 33" is Cage's famous or infamous Silent Sonata marked tacit for all 3 movements. No sound is played and instead people in the audience have the opportunity to begin to focus on any unintended sounds occurring around them including environmental. On this recording of the lecture the 2nd Voice is done by Clay Shropshire and he imitates several well known people while speaking his part such as Jimmy Carter and John Wayne.

Below is the link that pop ups the full Lecture text:

See Lecture Text

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