Lejaren Hiller, "Algorithms I"

LEJAREN HILLER
(geb. 1924)
Algorithms I, Version 1 (1968) (9'15)
I. The Decay of lnformation
II. Icosahedron
Ill. The Incorporation of Constraints

Seite 2:
Algorithms I, Version IV (1968) (9'15)
I. The Decay of lnformation
II. lcosahedron
Ill. The lncorporation of Constraints

Petr. Kotik, Flote (Flute) . Jerry Kirkbride, Klarinette (Clarinet) . Darlene
Reynard, Fagott . (Bassoon . Basson) Frank Collura, Trompete (Trumpet Trompette) . Mario FalcBo, Harfe
(Harp. Harpe) . Ed Burnham, Schlagzeug (Percussion) . Charles Haupt, Violine . Marijke Verberne, Violoncello.
James Kurzdorfer, Kontrabass (Doublabass Contrebasse) George Ritscher, Tonband (Tape recorder. Bande)
Lejaren Hiller, Dirigent (Conductor Direction)

(Music Publisher: Theodore Presser Company, New York . Universal Edition, Wien)

Lejaren Hiller:
Algorithms I, Versions I & IV Algorithms I is the first of a cycle of three compositions entitled Algorithms I, Algorithms II, and Algorithms Ill that make use of progressively more complex and sophisticated computer programs for their realization. Algorithms I was completed in 1968 and its two sequels are now in progress of composition. In all three works, each movement exists in four "versions", any one of which can be chosen for a given performance. Each "version" reflects small but important changes inserted into the various computer programs used to produce this music. This plan not only demonstrates that such changes can drastically alter the overall effect of a given general musical structure, but also permits the controlled and identified isolation of the specific effect of a particular musical element on the impression of the whole. This is a novel application of a standard type of experimental design.

The first movement of Algorithms I is stochastic music in which the melodic lines become progressively more dependent upon previous pitch and rhythm choices. The second movement is a complete serial composition in which all row permutations are used once each; also, rhythmic choices are least organized at its beginning and end. and most organized in its center. In the third movement, controls of vertical sonorities, of melodic motion, of resolutions of dissonant chords, of rhythmic patterns and of cadential structures are progressively introduced.

In this recording, only "Version I" and "Version IV" of Algorithms I are performed. These differ in control of factors such as note density, types of rows used, melodic constraints and types of dissonances resolved. All the music, both instrumental and electronic, was composed on an IBM-7094 computer. In addition, the sounds in the two tape channels were produced by digital-to-analog conversion on the illlac I1 computer. Additional details concerning this composition are published in an article in "Music by Computers", edited by H. von Foerster and J. W. Beauchamp, published by John Wiley and Sons. New York.

Lejaren Hiller, born in New York in 1924, Is currently Slee Professor of Composition at the State University of New York at Buffalo, a position previously held by composers such as Copland. Chavez, Thomson, Kagel and Pousseur. His background includes science as well as music, for he had a successful career as a research chemist before he turned to muslc professionally. From 1958 to 1968, Hiller designed and direded the Experimental Music Studio at the University of Illinois. He was the first composer to employ digital computers for music composition. In addition to computer muslc, he has composed some 70 other scores in all forms, instrumental, electronic and theatrical, including "Three Rituals for Two Percussionists", "HPSCHD" written in collaboratlon with John Cage, "A Triptych for Hieronymus", "Suite for 2 Pianos", and "Machine Music".

Lejaren Hiller, "Sonata No. 3 for Violin and Piano"

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(b) SONATA NO. 3 FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO (1970)
I. Furioso
II. Largo
III. Prestissimo
Mark Sokol, violin
Roger Shields, piano

Sonata No. 3 for Violin and Piano (1970)
I wrote this three-movement sonata during November and December, 1970 in Buffalo and added some final touches and alterations while vacationing on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands in early January, 1971. I find it rather odd to explain why I suddenly decided to write a piece of "straight" chamber music after not having done so for a considerable number of years. One compelling factor at least was the presence in Buffalo of Mark Sokol and Roger Shields for whom the piece was written. Their virtuosity was perhaps a challenge - so whatever else it is, the sonata is at least crushingly difficult to play.

It is in the three traditional movements: a sonata allegro, a slow movement and a rondo finale. Its mood is harsh and relentless. In thls way, it is quite a contrast to its two predecessors. Sonata No. 1 (1949) is cheerful and cozy and Sonata No. 2 (1955) is rather full-blown and romantic by comparison. There is really little that needs to be said regarding each of the movements save to note that there is a case to be made out for regarding this Sonata No. 3 to be in C. There is repeated emphasis in the first movement on this tone - and on middle C in particular. The middle movement by contrast centers around F sharp and the final movement emphasizes C again. Also, much of the writing for each of the two instruments derives from their inherent possibilities and limitations, for example, the kinds of multiple stoppings assigned to the violin. With regard to the piano, incidentally, only in the middle movement is the pianist asked to produce sounds directly inside the piano; otherwise he is strictly treated as a keyboard performer, although occasionally he is required to do some rather unusual things like play with his chin and his elbows.

Mark Sokol comes from Seattle. After beginning violin studies with his father, Vilem Sokol, he went to the Julliard School of Music where he studied with Dorothy DeLay and Robert Mann. While in the army, prior to coming to Buffalo in 1970-71 he formed the West Point String Quartet which presented over 200 concerts. In the summer of 1971, he organized the Concord String Quartet which has since been engaged in recording contemporary string quartets for Vox Records. Their first record set includes Hiller's Quartet No. 5 that is written in quarter-tones.

Lejaren Hiller, "Machine Music"

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Machine Music for Piano, Percussion and Tape (1964)

Although compositions involving both performers and tape were hardly a novelty even in 1964, it was not so usual to make the tape part so closely related to the instrumental parts as is done here. The tape recorder part throughout exchanges musical materials with the other two instruments much in the manner of a normal instrumental trio.

Machine Music possesses a symmetrical arch form. Trio I is a compact sonata form movement laid out as follows with the main section set at a furioso tempo (1 = 21 6). (The bar numbers refer to the published score) :

Bars	Number of beats at 8th-note = 216
1-2 Introduction (grave; marcaio)	-
3-16 Exposition (first subject and transition)	60
17-22 Exposition (second subject and close)	30
23-35 Development	60
36-49 Recapitulation (first subject and transition)	60
50-55 Recapitulation (second subject and close)	30
56-57 Coda (grave; mnrcnto)	-

Each Duo and each Solo lasts precisely one minute. The Three Duos are closely related musically, as are Solo I and Solo V I and Solo II and Solo V. Solo III and Solo IV are derived in turn from these. The instrumentation is so arranged that each performer has the opportunity to play a given basic musical structure once and just once. Moreover, the tape recorder enters in every other section throughout the composition, thus permitting its operator each time to cue up and get set for his next entry. Incidentally, the tape part is fully notated in the score, not only for documentation, but also for the benefit of the performers, since they must precisely co-ordinate themselves to it as well as one to one another.

Three three Duos are identical melodically and rhythmically, but differ from one another not only in terms of instrumentation and hence tone color but also "tonally" by successive transpositions by a major third (G#-C-E). The music itself, in 5/4 meter and most simply laid out in Duo II, is built up from four basic "lines." Line 1, consists of four notes, assigned durations of 4, 5, 6, and 7 beats respectively. This guarantees a non-repeating accompaniment for 420 beats, so I set 210 beats as the total length for each Duo, since the next 210 beats would be the same except for the four-beat note. The "tune" of Line 3, played on the piano strings in Duo !I, uses only the other 8 notes of the chromatic scale. Line 3 also contains rhythmic interpolations to fill in beats not supplied elsewhere. Line 2 is a 3-bar ostinato based on three notes repeated 4 times on beats 1, 4, 7 and 10 of each bar. Line 1 consists first of a repeated note on beats 2 and 6 of every bar and second of a note pattern that chromatically expands outwards (in the bells in Duo I I from Ab up to F and down to C).

Solo I is simply a chord played on the piano pp according to the metric plan (1 +2+3+ . . . +lo). Solo V I is the retrograde of this played ff by the percussionist. Solo III is the combination of these on tape played mf. The duration of each sound event in this tape cue is exactly 0.5 second. The contents of these sound events are random cuttings from all the work tapes used to make the other five cues.

Solo II, for the solo piano, consists of four contrasting ideas presented in bars 1 through 4. Each idea is developed independently in successive bars by transposition, inversion, retrogradation, systematic shifting of material within the bar, and so on. The details of ail these changes are easily perceived in the published score. Then, since there are 24 bars in all, each item occurs 6 times and occurs according to the following symmetrical system:

/1234,/4123/3412/2143/3214/4321/

Solo V is essentially the same music, this time, however, reconceived for percussion. I have been told by several percussionists that this is the most difficult piece they know of in the percussion literature. Finally, Solo I V is generally related to these two virtuosic soli in that it is dense and aggressive in texture. The sounds on the tape here are also reminiscent of the two Trios.

Trio II, of course, serves as a traditional finale and climax. Remember that this is a piece meant to go somewhere dramatically and not just be a chunk of soundscape. Trio II not only contains many elements derived from the Trio I in particular but also the bulk of the more theatrical elements in the work - the use of a roller toy, the title of the composition spoken backwards on the tape and the close terminated by an alarm clock.

Lejaren Hiller, "Twelve-Tone Variations"

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Side 1 - 30:49 Min.
LEJAREN HILLER
TWELVE-TONE VARIATIONS FOR PIANO (1954)
I. Theme
11. Variations upon Individual Tone Rows
111. Variations upon Two Tone Rows Combined
N. Variations upon Three Tone Rows Combined
V. Variations upon Four and Six Tone Rows Combined
Roger Shields, piano

Twelve-Tone Variations for Piano (1954)
Twelve-Tone Variations shares with my String Quartet No. 5 of 1962 the dual characteristics of being composed according to serial techniques and being a full-scale set of variations. These are the only two compositions of mine that bear these two features in common though I have in numerous other works used variation form or have incorporated aspects of serial technique into compositions fundamentally based on other compositional premises. As indicated above, this composition is in five movements. The first movement, the Theme itself is brief. The "theme" as such is a combination of six tone-rows. This, right off, is a somewhat unusual feature of this work, since it is more usual to base a serial composition on one basic row and perhaps subsidiary rows derived from it. Here, however, these six rows bear no particular relationship to one another. Nevertheless, they are combined together to form a melodic phrase several bars long that constitutes the actual "theme," of the whole set of variations. The first movement, then, consists of four presentations of this theme, namely, itself, its retrograde, its retrograde inversion, and finally, its inversion. Note that it is the whole complex, not just the rows, that here undergoes the three classic permutations of serial writing.

The remaining four movements are all variations derived from this basic material. The second movement consists of six variations, all rather short, that are based upon each of the six rows taken in turn. The third movement consists of three more complex and longer variations utilizing combinations of rows 1 and 2, rows 3 and 4, and rows 5 and 6, respectively. The fourth movement, extending this process, consists of only two variation sets based upon rows 1, 2, and 3 and on rows 4, 5, and 6 respectively. By now, however, each of these is a fully developed complex movement in itself. Finally, the last movement consists of four variations, based on rows 1, 2, 3, and 4, on all 6 rows, on rows 3, 4, 5 and 6 and again on all 6 rows, respectively. Actually, the first variation on all six rows is in effect a restatement of the first movement, the Theme; however, it is this Theme played more-or-less upside down and backwards, that is to say, as if the first page of the score had been rotated 180" on the music rack. The final variations that follow this are an extended fugue and coda.

My remark about the restatement of the "Theme" reveals something of the freedom of the techniques applied throughout this composition. Although I have used all such standard techniques as inversion, retrogradation, retrogradation of inversion of both the rows and materials built from them, as well as building chords and other such structures from the rows, I have also not hesitated at all, to repeat notes freely in violation of the "classic rules," of devising novel techniques such as quadrature (90") rotation, i.e., interchanging the pitch and time domains, of lining out the rows down a page of manuscript, across the systems, rather than only linearly, and so on. On the other hand, there is no use here of serialized rhythms, dynamics, and the like since these attributes of total serialism did not occur to me at the time.

I should also point out that these variations are also much freer in form than the bulk of the classic variation literature. In variation structures by Beethoven, for instance, the harmonic plan, the phrase lengths, and really often the basic outline of the melody of the theme is normally rather closely adhered to. This is not at all the case here, not even in the earliest variations.

The Performers:
All the performers in this recording are or have been members of the Center of the Creative and Performing Arts in the State University of New York at Buffalo directed by Lukas Foss and Lejaren Hiller.

Roger Shields grew up in Arcola, Illinois and received the bulk of his musical training at the University of Illinois with Soulima Stravinsky. As the Kinley Fellow in 1955-6, he also studied with Yvonne Loriod in Paris and in 1969 he was a prizewinner at the International Busoni Competition in Italy. In addition to his work for the Center, he has also concertized as a performer of both classical and contemporary music in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

John Cage & Lejaren Hiller, "HPSCHD"

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SIDE ONE (21:00)
JOHN CAGE & LEJAREN HILLER
HPSCHD (1967-1969)
for harpsichords & computer-generated sound tapes
(publ. Henrnar Press Inc.)

ANTOINETTE VISCHER
Neupert Bach-model
harpsichord
(Solo 11)

NEELY BRUCE
Hubbard double harpsichord
with 17% Eltro time compression
(Solo VI)

DAVID TUDOR
Baldwin solid-body
electronic harpsichord
(Solo I)

Messrs. Cage and Hiller gratefully acknowledge the special assistance of Laetitia Snow, who wtote some of the
original computer programming for HPSCHD; James Cuomo, who helped prepare the original sound tapes with
ILLIAC II; Jaap Spek, who supervised the technical processing of the tape collage; and George Ritscher, who
engineered the final recording.

This recording of HPSCHD was made possible through use of facilities of the Experimental Music Studio and the
Department of Coniputer Science of the University of Illinois, Urbana.

The computer-output sheet included in this album is one of 10,000 different numbered solutions of the program
KNOBS. It enables the listener who follows its instructions to become a performer of this recording of HPSCHD.
Preparation of this material was made possible through the Computing Center of the State University of New York
at Buffalo.
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The esthetic is what we think in the presence of the object. The artist's means are not esthetic but his thinking on them is; his esthetic thought prevails over the means to make a work of art. The rules of fugue or sonata form prophesy no esthetic consequence, except by the thought and doing of the artist. The sound object HPSCHD-"harpsichord" reduced to the computer's 6-letter-word limit becomes HPSCHD-may be the most elaborately defined sound composite so far achieved by deliberate formal composition. All "chance" factors occur within limits closely or widely permitted by the makers. Each part includes ideas from both composers; together they shaped it. Their thought, the object, and our thinking responses, in whatever relationship we hear it, decide our reaction to this work as a work of art.

HPSCHD consists of 51 electronic' sound tapes and 7 solo compositions for harpsichord. Writing in the avantgarde music magazine Source, Cage explains that the piece can exist as "a performance of one of seven live harpsichords and one to fifty-one tapes." The present record is a composition including 3 "live" solos across a composite of the 51 tapes. The source work, Introduction to the Composition of Waltzes by Means of Dice, is attributed to Mozart (K. Anh. C 30.01). For each measure of a 32-measure "empty" form (four 8-measure sections) the composer provides 11 alternative "composed" measures, the choice made by throw of dice. Measure 8 is always the same. With each section repeated the final form is 64 measures (AABBAABB), lasting one minute. This Dice Game repeated 20 times is Solo 11. Using now a computer-derived numerical system borrowed from the digital principle of I-ching (an ancient Chinese oracular or wisdom book), assemble another 64 measures of the same pattern, until another 20 successive assemblages fill 20 minutes. Solos Ill-VI each start with one realization of the Dice Game, progressively replacing the original choice of measures by: Solo 111, passages from Mozart piano sonatas, treble and bass together as written; Solo IV, the same, trebre and bass dissociated; Solos V & VI, associated and dissociated bass and treble measures from keyboard works by Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, Gottschalk, Busoni, Schoenberg, Cage, and Hiller. Solo I is computer-written in 12-tone equal temperament on the same formulae which are used for the 51 sound tapes. Solo VII is anything of Mozart's chosen by the soloist, played as he wishes.

The 51 sound tapes contain music in equal-tempered scales of, successively, 5 to 56 tones in the octave, each tone deviating over a field of 129 (the half-interval up or down divided by 64 or the equal-tempered tone). Each tape is composed according to a series of programs: e.g., from simple repetitive tones and silences across a field to non-repetitive tones and complexly varied spaces. The patterns are overlaid and continually change, the more redundant being more clearly differentiated, the effect rather like individual trees merging into a forest. Other computer-formalized programs, for note sequence, time (in units), successive events, melodic "goals" (without cadence) and types (diatonic, chromatic, chordal arpeggiation), volume, and dynamics, are similarly intermixed. For the listener to this record a third program, KNOBS, enables him to alter the composite by increasing, decreasing, or eliminating some parts of the whole. On the record, Solo I1 (Dice Game) is in the left channel only, Solo VI in the right channel only, Solo 1 in both channels. "It's the first instance that I know of," Hiller comments, "where the home listener's hi-fi set is integral to the composition."

Each solo and each tape lasts slightly over 20 minutes, the length of this recorded performance. In "live" performance any part can commence at any time, and the length is determined by previous agreement. HPSCHD and the Second Quartet of Ben Johnston embody two extremes of esthetic experience. The multiple routines and subroutines of HPSCHD, although resulting from personal choices by the two collaborators, are In effect as impersonal as statistics or the Golden Section. The decisions concerning the intonational and melodic relationships of the Quartet are as personal as a fine handwriting-in many cultures as highly esteemed as any work of art. Neither work is "classic" or "romantic." Each is as free of the conventional indices for analysis as of the customary signals for emotion-the esthetic equivalent of an experiment in pure research.

Except the harpsichord solos, the sound medium of each work is composed in an intonation (system or scale of pitches) differing from the 12-note equal temperament of the piano. The macrotonal scales (5 to 11 pitches in the octave) and the microtonal scales (13 to 56 pitches in the octave) of HPSCHD are microtonally varied systems of equal division of the octave, without close relationship to the tones and intervals of the overtone series. They are disparate points of sound lacking acoustical coordination and rich overtone sonority. -- Peter Yates