Olly Wilson, "Cetus"

On April 5, 1968 composers Milton Babbitt, Vladimir Ussachevsky and George Balch Wilson came to Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire to judge the first competition devoted to electronic music. The Dartmouth Arts Council had made available a five hundred dollar prize which was awarded to Olly W. Wilson for his composition "Cetus." Babbitt, Ussachevsky (Directors of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center) and Wilson (Director of the University of Michigan Electronic Music Studio) singled out five other works which they felt were significant compositions. Over one huindred entries were received front studios around the world and the judges listened to more than sixty of these before selecting the finalists whose works are presented here for the first time. The judging was anonymous and it was a mere coincidence that two of the finalists should have come from the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center and two from the Experimental Studio of the Polish Radio.

This recording is, in one sense, an historic document for it testifies to the breadth of interest in electronic music by composers and the new audiences. It is also significant that these works will reach that audience through this recording and not the concert hall. The following notes were written by the composers themselves.

Jon H. Appleton
Director, Electronic Music Studio
Dartmouth College
Hanover, New Hampshire

OLLY W. WILSON (b. 1937)
CETUS (1967) * Winner *
(Realized in the Studio for Experimental Music of the University of Illinois)

Cetus was completed during the summer of 1967 at the studio for Experimental Music of the University of Illinois. The title refers to an equatorial constellation whose arch-like configuration was suggested to the composer's mind by the form of the work. This musical structure is the result of an evolutionary process in which basically simple timbres, textural combinations, and rhythmic events become more complex before ultimately returning to simpler relationships. For example, the basic timbre of the first selection was produced by amplitude modulation of a single sine wave which evolves into a combination of modulated sound sources, the sum of which is then modulated.

The compositional process characteristic of the "classical tape studio" (the mutation of a few basic electronic signals by means of filters, signal modifiers, and recording processes) was employed in the realization of this work and was enhanced by means of certain instruments which permit improvisation by synthesized sound. Cetus contains passages which were improvised by the composer as well as sections realized by classical tape studio procedures. The master of this work was prepared on a two channel tape. Under the ideal circumstances it should be performed with multiple speakers surrounding the auditor. By Olly Wilson