SCHOOL OF MUSIC
GUEST RECITAL
JOSEPH ROVAN, Composer/Performer
April 10, 2000
7:30 P.M.
Elizabeth Hall
L'OBVIE/L'OBTUS
for clarinet, gestural controller and interactive electronics
by Joseph Rovan
"Continuities"
for custom glove controller and interactive electronics
by Joseph Rovan
Presentation and Discussion
PERFORMANCE NOTES BY JOSEPH ROVAN
L'OBVIE / L'OBTUS
for clarinet, gestural controller and interactive electronics
In an essay titled "The Third Meaning" in The Responsibility of Forms, Roland Barthes contrasts the
"obvious" meaning-that "which presents itself quite naturally to the mind"-with what he calls the "obtuse
meaning," which "seems to open the field of meaning totally,... extending] beyond . ..
knowledge, information." In L'OBVIE/L'OBTUS the timbre of the clarinet and its extensions through
computer manipulation create a similar field of possible interpretations. Based on short melodic fragments
recorded during an acoustic experiment in the anechoic chamber at IRCAM, the piece uses physical
gestures of the clarinetist to navigate within a field of timbral refractions.
Gestures are tracked by an infrared controller, measuring absolute position as well as velocity and
acceleration. Events often depend on how quickly the clarinetist enters or exits particular ranges of the
sensor; these transition velocities are used in the software environment MAX to control parameters of
event-generating algorithms. The natural gestures of clarinet performance are expected by the program;
L'OBVIE / L'OBTUS is, in a sense, a "rendering" of this hidden gestural language, bringing sonic
corporeality to the clarinetist's shadow.
■
