Greg Wilder

Category: Composition

List of compositions by composer Greg Wilder. Many works in the catalog were co-created with AI software.

  • Music in the Constellation at National Sawdust

    Music in the Constellation at National Sawdust

    An Evening of Immersive Audio…

    Composer Greg Wilder curates an evening of contemporary music from 1 to the 102 speakers that make up the Meyer Sound Constellation at National Sawdust. Featuring seminal works by Frank Zappa and Karlheinz Stockhausen in their original format, the evening explores immersive audio and the creative opportunities it affords in a way that can only experienced first hand in the space itself.

    In the past music was created to fit the instruments and spaces at hand. Intimate rooms with low ceilings could be filled with the sound of a single bard celebrating the achievements of warriors while large chapels required groups of voices to slow down and draw out pious praises, holding on to open vowel sounds so the long reverberation times could transform simple melodies into sacred harmonies. Today we can shape our own acoustic spaces and create our own instruments – virtually.

    Join us in Brooklyn on June 11th for an experience like no other. Contact National Sawdust for tickets.

  • FRB 121102

    FRB 121102

    Sometimes you can’t see the answer, even though it’s sitting right in front of you.

    Such is the case with Fast Radio Bursts, a phenomenon whereby new pattern discovery algorithms are used to analyze old, archival data collected from radio telescopes to uncover information about our universe.

    January 2019 | Fixed Media, Stereo

    FRBs are short, powerful signal bursts and since their discovery in 2007, no one has been able to determine exactly what causes them.

    Some think they’re the result of interactions between large extragalactic objects. Others imagine they point to the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. And until recently, they were thought to occur in single instances — as one-offs.

    But since 2012, one particular pattern known as FRB 121102 has been found to be repeating itself (based on dispersion measures and sky position of the original data) and in 2017 researchers pinpointed it’s location.

    It seems FRB 121102 is coming from a dwarf galaxy about three billion light-years from Earth…

  • The 13th Page

    The 13th Page

    It’s not unusual to create new music for Pierrot ensemble.

    In fact, composers in recent decades have generated so much new music for this combination of instruments, numerous groups have formed and risen to fame performing it. But what is slightly unusual is for a composer to collaborate with computer software when writing for this ensemble.

    December 2018 | Pierrot Ensemble (Fl, Cl, Vln, Vc, Pno) | Greg Wilder, piano

    Given that my recent work with Isomer has been realized fully within the digital realm, I thought it might be appropriate to apply these same spectral techniques to the generation of a score for a traditional ensemble of instruments. The result is The 13th Page…

  • Plume

    Plume

    Plume (for piano and computer) is one of a series of artistic collaborations with custom software called Isomer.

    Work on Plume began with the selection of six chainsaw sound recordings. Often source sounds are chosen for their personal relationship or meaning to the composer, but these recordings were picked solely for their rich harmonic content (vibrant rhythmic activity!) and strong harmonic fundamentals (good for harmony!).

    Why six different chainsaw recordings? So that they share sonic (and therefore musical) characteristics when processed by the Isomer software. The hope is that they feel closely related (but not too similar) so that when combined, they form a single, unified musical expression.

    November 2018 | Piano and Fixed Media

    Process

    One of the most challenging aspects of making music with spectral deconstruction methods is the development of coherent musical form. In a previous work called After October, I solved this problem by choosing source material with a relatively long duration and manually slowing the pacing of musical events. The use of a single source facilitated musical cohesion.

    With Plume, I wanted to develop musical form using sonically-related sources with a short duration that required the use of repeated material. To do this, I used relatively few output layers in the initial presentation of ideas and saved unused layers for the later repetition of material.

    I achieved additional variation through orchestration and spatialization. Because the chainsaws start and stop at distinct points in the source recordings, the entrances of musical layers appear close together. Orchestrating with sounds that feature sharp transients and fast decay times provided ample opportunity to vary the resonance and reverberation techniques applied to repeated gestures.

    Production

    For reasons described above, Plume was orchestrated with sounds that are struck, plucked, and strummed. The big question during production was — how to effectively alter resonance without always giving away the process?

    The answer required the development of synth and reverb patches and some fairly extreme EQ. Specifically, I relied on high-quality emulations of the Roland Jupiter-8 and an Oberheim SEM to shadow some of the foreground material. To create especially “darker” spaces I scooped out higher frequencies from the sources before sending the result through a few choice Lexicon spaces.

    Given the high-energy nature of these attack transients, mastering compression required several ritual dances and a highly versatile tool — the Rupert Neve Master Buss Processor. Among other things, this incredible unit provided the necessary sculpting of the mid/side frequencies.

    An early version of this work was created on March 27th, 2017 and was rendered for fixed media (without piano).

    March 2017 | Fixed Media, Stereo

     

  • After October

    After October

    After October is dedicated to my friend and mentor, Allan Schindler. It is part of a series of artistic collaborations with custom software called Isomer.

    When I arrived at Eastman in 1996, I had just about given up. I was convinced there was no way to coax music worth hearing from a computer. That is, until I learned from Allan Schindler’s example.

    Allan passed away suddenly in October 2018. This work is a small tribute to his inspiration and ever-lasting influence in my life.

    October 2018 | Fixed Media, Stereo

    Sources

    The material for this work comes from a single extended recording of a quiet (early-morning) street intersection in New York City.

    Very few vehicles pass close by, but the distant sound of car horns, people walking, people speaking, and even high-pitched break squeals combine with the din of the city to produce a naturally breathing sonic tapestry that’s rich in harmonic content.

    Sounds of life echo in the distance and the listener is forced to experience them alone — as an outsider.

    Process

    At its core, After October is a simple duet between an oboe and bass clarinet. The peaceful counterpoint is gently coaxed from slow-moving monophonic partial layers found in the source recording.

    Soft synthesized leads shadow and support each solo instrument while a wonderful emulation of an Oberheim SEM (processed by the amazing Trax Phase Vocoder from IRCAM) keeps the track honest by providing moments of unpredictable motion.

    Ultimately, the rendered performance is meant to evoke the feeling of an acoustic ensemble.

    Production

    It was important to create a sonic atmosphere where acoustic and electronic sounds coexist without competition. Where does the bass clarinet end and the electronic lead begin?

    My greatest challenge in production was to define a clear sense of space and separation between naturally thick and heavy sounds. To do this, each sound was isolated and carefully sculpted to avoid encroaching on the others. The result is a single, unified expression that subtly morphs between varying identities.

    Light spatialization was added to create the impression of a liquid-filled, slow-motion environment — as if the listener’s inner world has slowed down while the rest of the world passes by at its normal pace.

     

    An early version of this work was created on March 23rd, 2017. It was originally rendered as a duet between an alto flute and bass clarinet.

    March 2017 | Fixed Media, Stereo

  • From the Depths

    From the Depths

    From the Depths is a short work created for the wonderfully dark and ponderous sound of the Contrabass flute.

    The video was edited together from a film called “Time is Life” which is freely available from the Moving Image Archive at archive.org.