Otto Luening, "Gargoyles"

OTTO LUENING (United States) studied music in Munich and Zurich. The artistic influence of Andreae, Jarnach and Busoni helped to form his career. He has composed over two hundred works, and is also an active conductor and educator. Since 1952, he has been a close collaborator with Vladimir Ussachevsky in the field of electronic music. GARGOYLES is a composition for violin solo and synthesized sound. The synthesized sound material was produced on the Synthesizer, and later manipulated by tape techniques. The composition consists of a subject and series of short variations, each complete in itself. Some are synthetic and others are for the solo violin. Several variations combine solo and tape. The single tones of the subject introduce different shades of the same type of sound, and continue to accumulate until the end of the piece when the subject is transformed completely. The violin variations function as lyric contrasts to the synthetic ones, which are mostly dramatic and brilliant. The violin solo part is played by Max Pollikoff.