Annotated Catalogue of Denis Smalley's Opus by John Young, 2010

7
Annotated Catalogue of Denis Smalley's Opus
by John Young, 2010
Introduction
This list of Smalley’s works includes his own notes on the works. Given that
these vary in approach and scope (in general for earlier works, the notes give a
more detailed account of the technical bases of pieces), I have attempted here
to highlight what I hear as some of the consistent threads and longer-term lines
of development of his musical ideas to date.
Smalley’s strong advocacy for acousmatic music and the fact that at the present
time he has not composed for instruments since Piano Nets (almost twenty years
ago) should not detract from the fact that much of his early output engaged with
instrumental and vocal resources. These were all set within electroacoustic
contexts, such as pieces for instrument and acousmatic sounds and the creative
use of amplification to allow him to work with spectromorphological detail in
ways that would otherwise not be possible. The instrumental and especially
the vocal pieces of the 1970s and early 80s show rigorous engagement with
defining the salient procedural qualities in sound production, allowing him to
blend improvisatory features of performance practice with precise articulation of
desired sound colours and shapes.
Across all of Smalley’s works a fundamental feature is the interplay between
sound’s referential attributes and the possibility of non-referential ‘abstract’
discourse. At one level, this is reflected in titles: breath in Pneuma, water
behaviour in Tides, an eponymous specific sounding object in Wind Chimes,
garden pots in Empty Vessels, sweeping vistas in Valley Flow. The identity of
musical instruments are signalled as agents-subjects themselves in Cornucopia,
Piano Nets and Clarinet Threads and to some extent in the acousmatic Base
Metals derived from sounds made from metal sculptures by Derek Shiel. In
some cases the works embody source recognisable ‘theme’ sounds, and in
others a more programmatic stance is taken by presenting us with environmental
analogies. But within the music is found also the subversion of source identities
into more elaborate play with timbre, gesture and the structural attributes of
sound. It does not seem too fanciful to detect in Smalley’s pieces the composer’s
inherent fascination with the simple sound phenomenon of the attack-resonance
morphology: an object is struck and produces a range of pitches. This could be
seen to engender two further features of his work. Firstly, the use of drones as a
means of focusing attention on pitch, both as tonal ‘horizons’ and as resources
for play within a spectrum—providing, crucially, the time in which to engage
in that play. Secondly, the idea of pulse or recurrent articulation of sound,
articulated over short and longer-range time scales, which can be heard in both
the initiation of sound and in the modulation of the resonant ‘interior’ of sounds.
These two fundamental musical features are employed by Smalley to allow

8
inner detail of sound to be explored, while retaining a very directed approach
to the manipulation of time. It is a strong feature of the early vocal works and in
The Pulses of Time which have an inevitable, ritualistic quality as a result. It is
developed through pieces such as Vortex and Piano Nets and informs the most
recent trilogy of pieces Base Metals, Ringing Down the Sun and Resounding,
in which very extended play of seemingly malleable resonance are sparsely
punctuated with attacks and metre-inducing rhythmic constructs. But it must be
remembered that Smalleys’ works demonstrate that the very idea of composing
with timbre has a tendency to draw the composer into the tug-of-war between
the referential and the abstract, since timbre concerns both identity (what caused
the sound?) and the shaping of the frequency content of sound over time (the
perception of pitch, resonance, attack, modulation, etc). Thus, as a listener, it not
difficult to find oneself questioning the relationship between the resonances and
sparsely places attacks in Base Metals—longing for the grounding force/realism
of the attack—and it is not difficult also to feel the deep rhythmic pulses in the
middle section of Resounding as larger-than-life objects whose clanging together
may make us feel dwarfed in their presence.
Successive development of the same sound materials and constructs can be
detected over several works. This emphasises a key point in the Schaefferian
roots of much of Smalley’s thinking about the electroacoustic medium. For
example the horn sound initially used the basis for materials in Gradual and
Pentes is so thoroughly transformed as to produce a uniquely electroacoustic
element, which is not redolent of the horn itself. In Pentes, perhaps paradoxically,
the clear instrumental identity of Northumbrian pipes is introduced into the work
toward the end. Although the melody itself as played on the pipes is relatively
understated and plaintive, it forms the climactic moment in the work bringing us
back as it does into an image of human performance and gestural scale. It also
functions as a moment of revelation since the work has otherwise developed out
of much more abstract sound types—especially explosive granular formations
and drones (derived from the sound of the pipes). This has also allowed his
music to follow broader lines of enquiry into the development of particular
kinds of sound identities to be followed across different works, for example
the environmental imagery that surfaces in Clarinet Theads sharing as it does
materials derived from Tides.
At the concert given to mark his retirement from City University (13 October
2009), Smalley presented three works which could be seen to summarise strands
of his acousmatic music to date: Wind Chimes, Empty Vessels and Resounding.
These presented a kind of journey from the framing of a specific source object
(sounds drawn from the ceramic Wind Chimes) to the intensified presence of
a sound often not obvious in daily life (the natural resonance inside garden
pots) offered in its natural environmental context, to a world of more abstract
resonance and metrical rhythmic constructs. It is worth noting that in some of his
programme notes, Smalley characterises the structure of works as ‘journeys’.
Smalley’s work is a true example of a composer with seemingly effortless
control of materials—so much so that his transition from the analogue works of the
1970s to the digitally realised works of the 1980 and 1990s shows no excessively

9
abrupt change in the composer’s sound world, which is characterised by textural
richness, vivid spectral colour and gestural assertiveness. In fact, a work such
as Pentes foreshadows the kinds of sizzling sound surfaces that later became
commonplace through digital granular synthesis methods. In short, though the
works are based on immense technical accomplishment, the core musical issues
around the nature of sound are consistently maintained. (JY)
Denis Smalley: List of works in chronological order
1973, rev. 1980
Cornucopia for amplified
horn and electroacoustic
sounds on fixed medium
Duration: 15’30"
Studio realisation: Electronic Music
Studio, University of York.
Premiere:UniversityofYork,November
22, 1973, Martin Mayes (horn).
Performance resources: Horn in F
and electroacoustic sounds on fixed
medium.
Technical resources: 5 microphones,
7-in 2-out mixer for stereo sound
projection
Composer’s notes: The sound world
in Cornucopia was developed in
collaboration with Martin Mayes, who
gave the first performance in 1973,
and provided the source sounds
which formed the basis for the tape.
In Cornucopia I was attempting to
create maximum richness from a
single source, and create a language
for the instrument which would be
compatible with the electroacoustic
medium. However, the sound
world is fairly constrained in that
the tape stays close to the horn’s
character despite the many types of
transformation applied to the source
sounds, including some electronic
modulation; the electroacoustic
element is pulled more towards the
instrument than vice versa. The
tape is ‘instrumental’ in other ways,
sometimes apparent, sometimes less
so—for example, chamber canons
for two, three and four voices, and in
one section a canon for forty to fifty
voices in a continuous polyphonic
web. There are also recurring motives
and snatches of tunes.
The horn has its solo moments,
it orchestrates the tape (and vice
versa), comments on it, mocks it,
chatters along with it. It is amplified by
strategically-placed microphones –
two at the bell, one at the mouthpiece,
and two at the outlet of a small petrol
filter which replaces one of the horn’s
crooks, all five microphones allowing
the player to create various kinds of
stereo image. There are three basic
timbres—double-tonguing, mute
turning in the bell, and the sounds
directed via a petrol filter which has a
similar effect to a trumpet ‘wah wah’
[harmon] mute, and also permits a
certain dipping of pitches; the player’s
right hand is able vary the timbre,
and direct the sound towards either
of the filter’s microphones. (DS)
Commentary: The horn utilises two
special muting devices: a small
petrol filter replacing one crook as
a hand-controlled mute, and another
placed over the bell to isolate the 5th
harmonic (in the first performance a
hollow round lampshade was used).
The original length of the work was
26’40” and drastically reduced in the
1980 revision. (JY)

10
multiphonics, which progress towards
the normal clarinet sounds with which
we are familiar.
The player performs strictly notated
material, passages of controlled
improvisation (set within boundaries
of rhythmic groupings, tempi ranges
and pitch regions), and interprets
graphically notated sounds (the
trombaphone in the third movement).
Sourcematerialfortheelectroacoustic
sounds came from four instrumental
sounds which have been highly
transformed by both traditional tape
techniques and electronic means.
(DS)
Commentary: Some of the sound
sources in this work were developed
originally for Cornucopia, and the
final section is recognisably used in
Pentes. The title reflects the growth
of a musical discourse out of sparse
initial sounds, complex impulses
which cluster, group and become
more iterative in exchanges with
the live instrument. This develops in
distinct phases projecting a co-active
relationship between the performer
and electroacoutsic sounds. In the
first movement (with the bass clarinet)
complex short sounds are extended
toward more iterative continuity. In the
second movement (with clarinet) the
performer also vocalises, while the
textures again become more sparse.
More extended pitched envelopes
emerge from the instrument, and the
final movement (with trombaphone)
introduces the explosive gestures
used in the first section of Pentes.
These gestures also express a
Gradual textural development from
short explosive articulations out of
which continuous energy forms. The
strength of the electroacoustic sounds
in this final section dominates the
discourse. The trombaphone elicits
1974
Gradual for amplified
clarinettist and
electroacoustic sounds on
fixed medium
In three movements
Duration: 11’05”.
Premiere: University of York, 1974,
Richard Ingham (clarinettist).
Performance resources: Clarinet in
B-flat,bass-clarinetandtrombaphone
(tenor or bass trombone with
played with clarinet or saxophone
mouthpiece). electroacoustic sounds
on fixed medium. The player is also
required to perform vocal sounds
which are amplified.
Technical resources: 5 microphones,
7-in 2-out mixer with panning controls
for stereo sound projection.
Awarded: Fylkingen Prize 1975
(Stockholm).
Recording: On Fylkingen Electronic
Music Competition 1975, Fylkingen
FYLP 1012, 1977.
Composer’s notes: The title has a
double reference, to the mass, and to
various types of musical progressions
in the piece. Listeners will find some
materials in common between the
three “verses” of the structure.
Gradual explores a limited world of
short sounds—impulsions, attacks
with and without resonance, and
iterations. The clarinettist’s language,
for example, uses a scale of short
sounds: unvoiced vocal sounds, the
reed used as a percussion sound,
key sounds, air pushed into the open
holes by the fingers, impulsions
of air which hardly articulate, and

11
Olivier Messaien], Maison de Radio
France, Paris, 20 March 1975.
Recordings: On Sources/Scènes,
Empreintes Digitales, Montréal, IMED
0054, 2000; On 50 ans de musique
électroacoustique au Groupe de
recherches musicales, Teatro
Massimo, FTM 002, 2001, On Tides,
Ode Records, CD MANU 1433, New
Zealand 1993; On The Pulses of Time,
UEA Recordings, UEA 81063, 1981.
Audio format: Stereo.
Composer’s notes: The French title
(the same in Latin)—slopes, inclines,
ascents—was suggested by the
outlines of the broad stretches of
the piece, which evoke spacious
landscapes. Most of the music was
created by transforming instrumental
sounds. However, the only
recognisable sound source is the
Northumbrian pipes, whose drone is
responsible for the slowly evolving
harmonies out of which a haunting
traditional melody appears. (DS)
Commentary: This work is widely
regarded as one of the landmarks
of electroacoustic music, since
it exemplifies a virtuoso analogue
studio technique in a compelling
musical discourse. The sound world
of Pentes is marked by powerful and
engaging development of gestural
energies, and rich, transparent
spectra—innately satisfying qualities
of sound that must have contributed to
the sense of freshness that work still
projects. The work is broadly in four
sections: the first—sourced directly
from the final (third) movement of
Gradual—is based on a developing
interplay between individual and
grouped attacks, progressively
extended through explosive gestures,
and more continuous pulsing sounds
which rise in response to the
strong attack profiles; the second
an unusually extended range of pitch,
from rich pedal tones to rather metallic
sounding high notes. The instrumental
part is scored graphically, employing
a range of extended instrumental
techniques (for example, reed flicking
with the right hand while fingering
one the bass clarinet, air attacks,
multiphonics, key action sounds,
fingering resonances and sub tones,
as well as vocalising and the use of
the trombaphone). The improvisatory
nature of the performer’s part is
structured through the use of a tempo
series and a rhythmicity series.
In the tempo series a specified
value “… indicates the number of
sounds which can be played per
second”, while the rhythmicity series
“… shows the number of sounds
which may occur before a silence
intervenes, or the equivalent value
in silence which may occur before
a sound intervenes.” [extracted from
the preface to the score]. Smalley
illustrates their combination with the
following example R1-6 T1-8, which
means using the sounds specified
(given separately graphic notation)
“play groups of 1 to 6 sounds (or their
equivalent in silence) at the rate of
1-8 sound/silence units per second.”
(JY)
1974
Pentes acousmatic
electroacoustic on fixed
medium
Commissioned: Ina-GRM, Paris.
Studio realisation: GRM studios,
Paris.
Premiere: Auditorium 104 [now Salle

12
1975
Ouroboros acousmatic
medium
Premiere: University of York, 1975.
Composer’s notes: “The creature as
conceived in the divine mind is simple,
unchanging and eternal, but in itself it
is multiple, changing, transitory.”
Honorius of Autun, 12th century,
Liber Duodecim Quaestionum
The ouroboros, the dragon or serpent
which bites its tail is an ancient symbol
of time and the continuity of life—the
cyclical nature of matter in a process
of perpetual renewal. It expresses
the counterbalancing of the opposing
constructive and destructive forces.
My Ouroboros reflects these ideas in
the use of source material, the larger
shape of the piece, and in the shapes
of smaller segments and individual
sound objects. Some sounds are new
to the piece, but others are drawn
from previous pieces but are now
developed or transformed further,
undergoing a process of renewal.
The Northumbrian pipes from Pentes
make an appearance; other sources,
some evident, some transformed
to destruction, include a Chinese
flute, a Ghanan talking drum, a kaen
(bamboo mouth organ), a gong, two
French horn pitches, one piano string
attack, a very few pure electronic
sounds. (DS)
Commentary: Ouroboros develops
the drifting, ambiguously pitched
textures that were a feature of the
introduces more clearly pitched
sustained sounds which move in
Gradual glissandi; the third section
offers a simple canonically-treated
melody on Northumbrian pipes
over a drone established out of the
previous section; the final section
reintroduces pulsed explosive
morpholgies of the first section, with
high pitched inharmonic resonances
supplanting the high pitched granular
texture previously associated with
the drones. A key source used in the
work is a single note played on the
horn and materials from this form
the basis of the first section. Original
sound shapes were created from this
note by manually ‘scrubbing’ it on an
open reel tape recorder, producing
rhythmically complex, unstable
sliding tones. These were then edited
to form structured phrases which
were taken through various stages of
transformation (the sound is used to
trigger voltage-controlled oscillators,
mixed in multiple delays, edited and
transposed, and pulsing textures
were created by editing small sections
of blank tape at regular intervals
into more elongated sound streams).
This kind of cumulative process
demonstrates an aspect of Smalley’s
analogue technique wherein the
innate qualities of a source sound
are reshaped through the imposition
of direct gestural manipulation and
intervention, producing new sound
objects whose characteristics are
then further extended. The organic
nature of the work can be attributed
at least in part to the way in which
morphological identities and details
are formed out of a source sound
which then has salient morphological
characteristics adapted and
carried through each stage in the
compositional process. (JY)

13
cardioid microphones, 12-in 2-out
mixer with panning and equalization,
amplification to 2 loudspeakers (4 for
larger venues).
Recording: On Mouth Music, Hyperion
A66060, 1982.
Composer’s notes: The title refers
to the concept of ‘pneuma’ (breath),
current from the time of Aristotle
to St Augustine. ‘Pneuma’ was a
means of explaining the nature of
change—a material and mobile
phenomenon producing motion,
growth, and continuity. Its shades
of meaning varied from the literal
to the metaphorical and symbolic—
soul, spirit, and inspiration. These
connotations seemed appropriate
reflections of the literal, symbolic and
ritualistic associations of the sound
world created in my Pneuma.
Pneuma explores the origins and
nature of vocal sound outside
and beyond melody, the result
of continued vocal experiment,
awareness of vocal practice of
other cultures, and influences
from electroacoustic music. There
is an emphasis on delicate timbral
distinctions, on moving contours
and sound masses moulded out of
air sounds, and on polyrthythmic
textures. The vocal language grows
from the basic articulations of vocal
sound—attack-consonants and
vowel-continuants, initially heard as
percussion-like sounds and coloured
air noise. Vocal sound is developed
and extended through relationships
with instrumental sounds—revolving
tam-tam, two revolving Chinese
gongs, metal bars, tuning forks,
and most important, talking drums,
whose variable pitches and liquid
glissandi expand the character of
the consonants and vowels. Further
noise bands are created by blowing
second section of Pentes though they
are more complex, with a wider array
of gestural material infused within the
often very slowly moving textures.
The granular quality of textures in the
second section of Pentes is evident,
as are timbral and melodic traces of
the Northumbrian pipes melody from
that work. Ouroboros relies little on
clear attack profiles for its structural
morphology, building more on slow
evolutions of rich sound masses,
which are notable for their superbly
‘orchestrated’ registral layers. There
are strongly foregrounded gestural
strings in the middle of the piece, but
these are broadly static in that there
is no consistent directed motion within
pitch space or overt transformational
goals, making them function more
as a highly contoured elaboration of
this inherently texture-driven ‘trame’
piece. (JY)
1976, rev. 1981
Pneuma for five amplified
vocalist-players
Commissioned: York University
Chamber Choir.
Premiere: York Festival, 1976, York
University Chamber Choir, Keith
Williams (director).
Performance resources: 5 vocalists
(3 male, 2 female) 2 large and 2
small talking drums, 5 tuning forks
(2 A440, 1 E 659, 1 C 523.3, 1
E 329.6) 5 resonant metal bars of
different timbre (obtainable from the
composer), 2 Chinese Gongs, large
tam-tam), conductor (necessary).
Minimum Technical resources: 12

14
not damped; there is a slit along the
centre of each bar, either side of the
hole—so that the distance between
a stereo pair placed on the bar could
be varied—and this probably aids the
resonant properties. (DS)
1976
Darkness After Time’s
Colours acousmatic
medium
Studio realisation: Electroacoustic
Music Studio of the University of East
Anglia.
Premiere: Music Centre, University of
East Anglia, Norwich, 1976.
Awarded: Second prize in the Bourges
Electroacoustic awards in 1977 and
a Euphonie d’Or at the 20th Bourges
Competition 1992.
Recording: On Impacts intérieurs,
Empreintes Digitales, IMED 0409,
2004.
Composer’snotes: Thesoundmaterial
for Darkness After Time's Colours
grew out of Pneuma, a live work
composed in the same year for five
vocalists who also play percussion
instruments, all amplified to bring out
soft details. Many of these sounds
formed the starting-point for the
piece—gong strokes, vocal sounds,
air blown on to the skins of talking
drums, finger rotations around the
drumskins, unvoiced consonants,
and tuning fork pulsations. New
electroacoustic sounds (including
synthesized sounds created with
on the drums’ skins as the tension
of the skin is varied, and by scraping
the fingernail around the skin. The
metallic sound sources provide a
variety of pitched material, from the
simple, almost pure tuning forks
(made to resonate by striking them on
stones), to the haunting, inharmonic
intervals of the metal bar resonances,
and to the more complex gongs and
tam tams. A curious fluctuating,
vowel-like sound is created by using
the drums as variable resonators for
the tuning forks. Amplification makes
audible the otherwise inaudible, and
the distribution and motion of sound
across the stereo image is composed
into the piece.
Commentary: The work was revised
in 1981 in preparation for a series
of performances by the group
Singcircle (conductor: Gregory Rose)
on an Arts Council Contemporary
Music Network tour in February
1982. It was performed alongside
Trevor Wishart’s Anticredos. In the
Singcircle version two female voices
replaced two of the five original male
voices; three of the original five
tuning forks were replaced by forks
of different pitches; five metal bars
were added; and improvements were
made to the vocal and drum parts.
The metal bars were specially made
in the Physics Department at the
University of East Anglia. They are
copies (but in different sizes) of bars
sound engineer Tryggvi Tryggvason
used for positioning stereo pairs
of microphones for instrumental
recordings; they have rich and
interesting inharmonic resonances;
there is a useful central hole (where
the bar was screwed to the end of
the microphone stand) where one
can hold the bar between thumb and
forefinger so that the resonance is

15
1978
Chanson de Geste for
amplified soprano-player
and amplified clavichordist-
vocalist
Premiere: Stedeljik Museum,
Amsterdam, April 22, 1978, Carol
Plantamura (voice), Denis Smalley
(clavichord).
Performance resources: There are
three possible distributions of perfor-
ming roles in this work:
1.The ‘standard’ version—there are
two performers: a soprano vocalist
also performing on 2 stones, an
A440 tuning fork and gong (which
must be made to rotate rapidly at the
end of the work), and a clavichordist
who also vocalises
2.An additional performer takes over
playing the stones and tuning fork
from the soprano after 7’49”, and
3.As above, but the additional per-
former also takes the clavichordists
vocal part.
All the sound sources in the work
are amplified and the use of the
additional performer increases the
technical requirements.
Minimum technical requirements:
5 cardioid microphones (6 for the
version with additional performer),
6-in 2-out mixer with panning and
equalization, amplification to 2
loudspeakers.
Recording: On The Pulses of Time,
Composer’s notes: Chanson de
Geste arose out of vocal researches
and experimentation which have
periodically occupied me since 1975,
the EMS Synthi100) extend, imitate,
and intermingle with these sources,
elaborating an ambiguous journey
which can be looked on as a vocal
voyage passing through various
'ordeals' and encounters. The title
(taken from Dante) alludes to the
descent into the Classical underworld.
(DS)
Commentary: Pitched resonance
and noise are announced as sonic
protagonists in the opening gesture
of this work, which accrues energy
in a sequence of envelopes which
present arrangements of coexistent
complementary sound forms—noise
bands of contrasting spectral colour
and articulation and sounds with more
focused gestural articulation. The
penultimate section settles on a deep
E fundamental with wide ranging play
of harmonic content above it (this
pitch had emerged earlier in the work
from an inharmonic sound initiated at
6’45”). The final section collapses this
harmonic quality with noisy, crudely
vowel-like articulations, panning
noise bands and a pulsing drone (with
fundamental at approximately 32Hz)
closing with a musically ambiguous
gritty noise band and profoundly low
pulsation. As such, Darkness After
Time’s Colours might be broadly
characterised as having a structure
that progresses from layers of
complex noise spectra and unstable
pitch to spectral/harmonic clarity,
though with a poignant question mark
raised at the end as the harmonic
grounding is dissipated. (JY)

16
two types of production for sustained
air – palatal, and throat.
2. Unvoiced/voiced simultaneous
production of pitch and air with or
without harmonics.
3. Voice production with harmonics.
4. Fully-voiced production without
audible harmonics.
Several of these modes can be
produced with closed mouth. Vibrato/
trills/portamento, or more broadly,
variations in the steady state of pitch,
were developed as an elaborate
system of ornamentation.
A pair of stones, a tuning fork, and a
detailed clavichord sound language
complement and extend the voice.
The clavichord, in its capacity to bend
notes and provide a rich reservoir of
percussion-like sounds, in fact its
ability of act in m a vocal manner,
proved an ideal companion.
I would like to think that in a good
performance Chanson de Geste gives
the impression of a long tradition
of a performance style which might
have been— comparable perhaps to
music traditions outside Europe. The
title, though, refers to the epic poems
of the European medieval period,
although my ‘gestes’, being mainly
textless, are musical and visual (hand
movements are often notated) rather
than the narrative account of human
deeds.
The general governing features
of Chanson de Geste were based
sometimes specifically, sometimes
vaguely on symbolic attributes
associated with the planets, in the
following sequence:
Saturn reserve, endurance, silence
Jupiter constructive order
Mars active principle, destruction (in
this case, of melody)
and more directly as a result of
Pneuma (1976) for five amplified
vocalists equipped with talking drums,
tuning forks, three Chinese gongs
and tam tam. These vocal researches
led me to create a vocal language
from scratch out of the basics of
vocal articulation—the consonant-
attacks and vowel-continuants of
speech and song abstracted from
their normal context of words and
meanings. I regarded this as a move
fairly much in opposition to the
increasingly popular use of vocal
sounds strongly associated with
non-musical human behaviour, often
attached to the individual virtuosity of
a particular performer. I was equally
disenchanted with the use of vocal
‘effects’—one-off sounds which were
rarely capable of being integrated
into a musical argument. It was
important that my vocal language be
universal, in the sense that anyone
is potentially capable of producing
the sound repertory, that the vocal
techniques benefit and not harm the
voice and control of the ‘classical’
singer, and that such a language be
detailed in its control of inflexions
and articulations. Such details, which
are usually understood as part of
the fashions of performance style
and are taught orally rather than
through notation, would need to be
created in sufficient microcosm if the
new language were to possess an
expressive interior.
The ‘classical’ Western norm of fairly
full voice with almost continuous
vibrato came to be regarded very
much as an extreme, and was
therefore used as only one type of
production. The production modes
are:
1. Unvoiced production – consonants
and sustained air contours; there are

17
regarded as a collection of sound-
sources based on the consonants
and vowels of speech and song …
two types of air production, vocal
harmonics, air and harmonics
sounding simultaneously, and
conventional production with or
without vibrato.” There are virtually
no directly presented words used
by the singer, but rather these more
elemental sound sources. But despite
being conceived as a “collection of
sound-sources” the vocal writing
imparts a sense of celebration in
the richness of the sound repertory
used and their human origin. The
very precise graphic notation and
improvisatory phrases (expressed in
tempo and rhythm series akin to
those of Gradual) require responsive
listening rather than automatic sound
production. Structurally, the work
has sense of a broad spiral moving
between planes of articulated noise
bands and pitch, through such polar
oppositions as breath and sung tones,
plucked strings and soundboard
resonance of the clavichord and
struck stones and tuning forks. The
morphological phenomenon of the
attack is explored in this work through
groupsofattackandattack-resonance
events from different sources. Strong
attacks impart an impression of
quasi-periodic temporal articulation,
and there are also suggestions of call
and response interaction between
voice and instruments, though these
are exploited in ever more complex
ways as the work progresses. This
process is powerfully end-accented
by the strong closing gesture of the
soprano’s fully voiced high note,
which should be pitched above the
treble clef on a tone to match the
gong’s timbre (on the recording it is
an A-flat) giving an impression of
Venus relationships (exchanges with
clavichordist’s voice)
Mercury the spoken word, neutrality,
capacity for transformation
Moon world of forms, arbitrary
fantasy, imagination, intuition
Sun the heroic principle
A basic outline of the main musical
signposts is as follows:
0’00” establishing of a slow time-
base, 10” plus
3’27” the appearance of pitch and
melodic fragments; development ion
the clavichord and voice
4’55 expansion and contraction of
the time-base; quickening of time
base
8’04” regular, pulses cells and
patterns
8’37” pacing doubled; disintegration
of the time-base and the return of
melody and pitch; development of
internal pulses, trills and vibrato
10’23” freer rhythmic interaction –
relationships and exchanges with the
second voice
11’24” introduction of the spoken
word – the words ‘sound’ and ‘word’
in slow motion
12’35” increasing harmonic
emphasis; increasing ‘orchestration’
of events and sound objects, drones,
continuity
15’19” the word ‘armonia’ (harmony)
in slow motion air and harmonics
16’12” orchestration of attacks
17’05” gong attack with decorated,
pulsed resonance; breath
(DS)
Commentary: In the notes
accompanying the original LP
recording of Chanson de Geste,
Smalley states that: “The voice is

18
the West Square Electronic Music
Association, London, with funding
from the Arts Council of Great Britain.
Anglia.
Premiere: St John's, Smith Square,
London, 1979.
Recording: On The Pulses of Time,
Composer’s notes: In The Pulses
of Time various approaches are
taken to the idea of pulses: the
regular pulses of metre, the much
slower pulses underlying the pacing
of sections of music, the pulses
which form the interior identity of
sounds, the accelerating pulses of a
bouncing sound, and the fast pulses
which create the grain of textures.
The work comprises a series of
sections the character of each being
directly related to the main sound
sources—the synthesized bounced
sound, metallic harmonies which
expand the resonances of dramatic
gong-like attacks, noise contours,
drums and percussion both real and
synthesized, and the clavichord,
which provides a rich reservoir of
sounds—deep clusters, sighing
pitches, soundboard resonances,
strings plucked and stroked. The
primary contrast is between
the clavichord (untransformed,
apart from some slight corrective
transpositions), and the synthesized
material (EMS Synthi 100 voltage-
controlled synthesizer). (DS)
Commentary: The basic attack-
resonance morphology from several
instrumental and electronic sound
sources forms the main substance
of this work. The work develops a
perceptible polarity between sounds
emerging from a single loud gong
stroke, which in itself unifies the
basic opposing sonic states of pitch
and noise.
Early in the work the clavichord’s
oscillation across resonant attacks
projecting a minor third interval
provides a basic foundation of
essentially stable pitch, underscoring
and participating in the interplay
of attacks, resonances and noise
bands. While the work must
inevitably evoke an image of ritual
in performance, a recording perhaps
even more powerfully presents the
richness of sonic interplay. Detailed
use of microphones is crucial to the
work. Not only are small details of
sound production made more vivid
through amplification, but dynamic
shaping of sound is also employed.
For instance, the tuning fork is used
by the soprano in conjunction with
the microphone, where bringing it
into the microphone’s field makes it
able to emulate the Gradual onset
of sound of the voice, and rotating it
in close proximity to the microphone
introduces a pulsing morphology.
Similarly the suspended gong is
made to rotate rapidly in front of a
microphone in the final loud gesture
of the work with the singer standing
behind the gong and delivering her
sound ‘through’ it. (JY)
1978
The Pulses of Time
acousmatic electroacoustic
on fixed medium
Commissioned: Barry Anderson and

19
Performance resources: Two voca-
lists also performing on stones (a
pair for each performer), 6 tuning
forks (each has A440 and C523.3,
in addition performer 1 has E329.6
and performer 2 has E 659) and 2
chromatic pitch pipes.
4 cardioid microphones (2 for
each performer), 4-in 2-out mixer
with panning and equalization,
amplification to 2 loudspeakers.
Composer’s notes: Work on Word
Within began originally in response
to a request from Five Centuries
Ensemble singers Carol Plantamura
and John Patrick Thomas for a piece
for two voices. My attention had been
drawn to a Petrarcan poem set by
the Italian Marco da Gagliano in the
early 17th
century. The love poem
makes extensive use of imagery
drawn from music and the sounds
and movement of nature. I chose four
words from the poem as the basis
for a three-movement piece: words
which, in their sound and sentiments,
suggested musical ideas. Each word,
analysed into its phonemic shapes
and timbres, acts as a motive, a
source of ideas. Word Within is
not a setting or comprehensive
interpretation of the poem, although
its atmosphere is often reflected both
in the details of word contours and in
the general musical ethos.
The first movement is based entirely
on the word ‘sospirando’ (sighing) –
“…And I have heard sighing words
which make the mountains turn and
the rivers stand still…”. Besides
appropriately possessing a sighing
contour, the word ‘sospirando’ also
spans the extremes of the vowel
spectrum, from the dark ‘o’ to the
higher, brighter ‘i’. If the word is
pronounced in very slow motion
which evoke tactile origins, such as
the interaction of hand and string
and the struck resonant interior of
the clavichord, and sounds devoid
of any direct material origin, all of
which participate in a development
of the impulse as a morphological
identity and its clustering into
phrases and textures. The form is
driven by the accumulation of pulses
toward continuous sound energy,
exploiting the relationship between
the sonic phenomenon of the attack
and the consequent resonance of
the sounding body. This provides
the basic developmental energy
in the music, for example where a
resonance is extended to develop
its own self-sustaining morphological
identity as something formed
independently of the impulses which
may have generated them. Rhythmic
clarity is maintained in moments of
extreme textural density through fine
control of registral balance. (JY)
1981
Word Within for two amplified
vocalist-players
In three movements: 1. Sospirando
(4’30”) 2. Dolce Concento (4’01”) 3.
Armonia (4’30”).
Text taken from Petrarca’s Canzone
CLVI I’ vidi in terra angelici costumi.
Duration: 13’.
Commissioned: Bath Festival with
funds provided by South West Arts.
Premiere: Bath Festival, Concert
Room of the Royal Baths, Bath, May
25, 1981, Gregory Rose and Penelope
Walmsley-Clark (vocalist-players).

20
stones and tuning forks as well as
pitch pipes, as cognates for the
consonant and vowel components
of vocal sound. The microphone
is an integral performance tool,
allowing subtle sounds such as vocal
harmonics to be given greater impact
and role in the discourse, and the
natural decay of tuning forks to be
counteracted by altering proximity to
it. (JY)
1982
Vortex acousmatic
medium
Commissioned: Electronic Music Now/
Tim Souster for the Arts Council’s
Contemporary Music Network Tour
with funding from the Arts Council of
Great Britain.
Music Studio of the University of
East Anglia, incorporating material
developed at University of Toronto
Computer Systems Research Group’s
(the Structured Sound Synthesis
Project System)
Premiere: The Round House, London,
February 27, 1983.
Recording: On Tides, Ode Records,
CD MANU 1433, New Zealand 1993.
Awarded: First prize in the Bourges
International Electroacoustic Music
Competition; Special Prize of the
International Confederation of
Electroacoustic Music, 1983.
Composer’s notes: The title reflects a
concern with motion, not necessarily
its detailed contours and vowel
transitions are revealed. The word
is most clearly present when the
majority of its features are retained,
or it may be only vaguely present if
split up or stretched out in time, when
it becomes more ‘musical’. Apart
from the final phrase the movement
has no voiced sounds.
The second movement is based on
the words ‘dolce concento’ (sweet
harmony) “…Love, good sense,
valour, pity and pain crying together
made the sweetest harmony ever
heard on earth…”. Two ideas are
explored – ‘dolce’, in sustained
contours, and ‘concento’, in rhythmic
groups of consonants. The two ideas
are finally brought together in canonic
rhythmic exchanges. The notion
of harmony is developed by vocal
harmonics and sustained and pulsing
tuning forks, and the consonant ‘k’
finds an extension in the percussive
use of stones.
The third movement is based on
‘harmonia’ (harmony), taken from the
poem’s final lines “…And heaven was
so intent on hearing their harmony in
the wind that not a leaf moved, so
sweetly was the air filled with their
sound.” This movement is less
specifically related to the phonetic
content of the word involved, although
the contours of ‘harmonia’ are audible
among the superimpositions of vocal
harmonics. Through the use of pitch
pipes harmony is extended into new
timbres,firstlybyextractingharmonics
from the pitch pipes, and secondly by
singing through the pitch pipes. (DS)
Commentary: The work represents
a culmination of the very detailed
approach to vocal writing found in
Pneuma and Chanson de Geste
and again uses percussive sources,

21
of decisively signalling the start of
the work with a clear onset, but also
presents a complex spectrum that
initially implies an E-flat fundamental
and both a natural harmonic (major)
and minor modality. By the end of
this first opening sustained section
(at 2’03”) the spectral pitch has
drifted toward an E fundamental.
The twisting of harmonic implications
in new directions (in the case of
the opening through the meshing
of complex inharmonic glissandi
and dense, almost noise-like sound
masses) is a feature of the work,
along with clearly directed phrase
structures through devices such as
rhythmic spatial rotations, pulsing
modulation of resonance (such as the
comparatively still section from 5’15”)
and scattered clusters of attacks
which sometimes take the form of
extended groups of transients which
settle into more continuous states of
resonance and sometimes become
moments of relative stability as self-
propelling textures in themselves.
Glissandi are often employed
to complete the general image of
vortical sound motion, including
some spectral constructs resembling
Shepard tones, such (for example
at 11’20”), such that the vortex
image is partly literal but primarily
metaphorical in the spiralling motion
of pitch. Vortex is a pivotal work
in the evolution of Smalley’s sound
world, building on his well established
capacity to generate sounds that
are inherently demanding of aural
attention and are confidently directed
in time, but also opening up new
levels of complexity in the handling
of pitch and implied tonal/spectral
centres within morphologically
complex sound shapes. (JY)
literal spatial movement, but sound
objects, textures, contours, and
particleswhoseshapesandbehaviour
suggest analogies with motion both
real and imaginary. Such relationships
can be striking in acousmatic
music, where the listener may often
perceive sounds as physical entities
moving in space – a kind of invisible
kinetic sculpture. One almost sees
the points and textures, the broad
sweeps and curves, the dimensions
and shapes of the sound structures.
Large, rich, resonant attacking sound
events provide the structural pillars
of Vortex. Their impact and radiating
energy signal climaxes, initiate
changes of direction, and propel the
music forwards.
Materials for Vortex were composed
at the Computer Systems Research
Group, University of Toronto
(Structured Sound Synthesis Project),
the Finnish Radio Experimental
Studio, and the Electroacoustic
Music Studio at the University of
East Anglia. The Toronto material
resulted from two months’ synthesis
work in Toronto in 1981, working
with graphics-based computer
programmes. The Finnish Radio
material created in the space of a
few days’ work in September 1981,
used several standard Synclavier
2 sounds treated by vocoding and
digital delays/harmonizer (Publison).
At the University of East Anglia
further sounds (in particular, metallic
resonances) were developed for
inclusion. The full range of ‘classical’
tape techniques was used to shape
further the material, and the assembly
process took place over about four
months in 1982. (DS)
Commentary: The highly energetic
rush of sound that opens this work
is characteristic of Smalley’s device

22
Tides is the first of my works to use
computer transformations. Materials
were created at the University of
Toronto Computer Systems Research
Group (Structured Sound Synthesis
Project), the Experimental Studio
of Finnish Radio, and the Digital
Studio of the Groupe de Recherches
Musicales. These elements
were expanded and mixed in the
Electroacoustic Music Studio at the
University of East Anglia. Tides was
commissioned by the Groupe de
Recherches Musicales. (DS)
Commentary: The first movement
is episodic in form, though the
emphasis on a basic textural model
of bubbling water gives cohesion to
the movement. An organic quality
is also suggested in the opening
series of low frequency surges,
which generate small ripples of
additional sound energy, suggesting
seeds of musical growth, which
recur through the movement. Each
episode or ‘pool’ is marked by a
particular spectromorphological
character, structurally building on
the extended ‘water’ presence from
1’05” to 3’39”. Contextualising water
sound-images are carefully placed to
perceptibly maintain the water-sound
analogy, often where extreme forms
of transformation and resonant play
develop. One of the features of the
transformations of the bubbling water
sounds is the creation of images of
unusually viscous or quasi-solid forms
of liquid, such is the effectiveness
with which the underlying water
imagery is maintained. The wave
sound which emerges at the end
of the movement (even with a hint
of birdsong) projects an image of
transition from a submerged state
to a view of water motion from its
surface. ‘Sea Flight’ builds on the
1984
Tides acousmatic
medium
Intwomovements:‘PoolsandCurrents’
(17'30") and ‘Sea Flight’ (12'47").
Commissioned: Ina-GRM, Paris.
East Anglia, incorporating material
developed at University of Toronto
Computer Systems Research Group’s
(the Structured Sound Synthesis
Project System), the Experimental
Studio of Finnish Radio, and in the
Digital Studio (123) of the GRM.
Premiere: Maison de Radio France,
Paris, April 30, 1984.
Recordings: On Sources/scènes,
2000; On Tides, Ode Records, CD
MANU 1433, New Zealand 1993.
Awarded:SecondprizeintheNewcomp
Award, USA, 1984.
Composer’s notes: The sonic images
of Tides are based on analogies
between water and sound—textures,
images of turbulence, strength and
tranquility, the play of colours and
light, and the intimacy and immensity
of space. The first movement – ‘Pools
and Currents’—is constructed around
a series of interlocking ‘pools’, each
of which has a different character.
The pool idea suggests textural play,
while the idea of ‘currents’ stresses
the more linear motion that propels
the movement forward. The pools
come to rest in a broad seascape out
of which the wave-like gestures of
the second movement, ‘Sea Flight’,
emerge.

23
Experimental Studio of Finnish Radio,
the Digital Studio (123) of the GRM,
and the Electroacoustic Music Studio
of the University of Birmingham.
Premiere: Norfolk and Norwich
Festival, Church of St Peter Mancroft,
Norwich, 15 October 1985, Roger
Heaton (clarinet).
Performance resources: Clarinet in
B-flat, electroacoustic sounds on
fixed medium.
4 microphones, multi-loudspeaker
diffusion system for projection of
sound around and behind audience.
Awarded: Golden Nica in the Prix Ars
Electronica of the Austrian Radio,
1988.
Recordings: On Impacts intérieurs,
2004; On Computer Music Currents,
vol. 6, Wergo WER 2026-2, Mainz,
1990.
Composer’s notes: The clarinet can
produceavarietyofsound-types—key
noises, air sounds, degrees of sound
production producing less definite
pitches, very high notes produced
by biting the reed, multiphonics. The
electroacoustic medium provides
an opportunity for integrating this
sound repertory into an expanded
sonic environment. Thus the
clarinet is threaded through the
electroacoustic fabric, sometimes
merged with it, sometimes surfacing
in a more soloistic role. Besides
passages which use the clarinet in a
traditional manner there are stylized
environments drawn from outside
music—the calls and cries of nature,
the movement of wind and water, and
textural motion suggesting floating
and drifting.
Most of the electroacoustic sounds
were created during visits to a variety
of studios in the early 1980s—the
apparent parabolic motion of wave
energy that was announced at the
end of the previous movement. The
first part of the movement creates
an intriguing spatial anomaly as
the finely defined arc motion of the
sounds, as though heard from a great
distance, are also texturally alive with
close-up turbulent water splashes,
making them feel exaggeratedly
realistic, yet they recede into and
re-emerge from a completely neutral
and unnatural silence. They are the
set against an emergent world of
turbulent resonance, similar to those
of the first movement, but generally
slower paced. Toward the end of
‘Sea Flight’ the parabolic motion of
the movement’s opening sounds
are reintroduced but moving at a
faster rate, producing a more visceral
stringendo effect, which relaxes into
a state of more detached calm at the
close. This is the first of Smalley’s
works to use the computer as a
transformation tool for natural sounds
(as opposed to digital synthesis which
was used in Vortex). (JY)
1985
Clarinet Threads for
amplified clarinet and
fixed medium
Commissioned Roger Heaton with
funding from Eastern Arts.
East Anglia, with elements realised
at the Computer Systems Research
Institute, University of Toronto, the

24
1986
O Vos Omnes motet for
3 soloists, 8-part choir and
fixed medium
Commissioned: Michael Nicholas and
the Norwich Cathedral Choir.
Anglia.
Premiere: Contemporary Church
Music Festival, Norwich Cathedral,
Evensong, July 6, 1986, Norwich
Cathedral Choir, Michael Nicholas,
conductor).
Uses material later developed in Wind
Chimes, and some material from
Tides.
Composer’s notes: The text takes
selected words and phrases from the
Vulgate version of the Lamentations of
Jeremiah, with one clause translated
into English:
O vos omnes qui transitis,
Videte,attendite,auditedolorum
meum;
Populi universi, attendite;
O you who pass by; sperabo
(O all you who pass by, look,
consider, hear my sorrow; all
people, consider; I shall hope)
Jeremiah was imprisoned for
suggesting a seemingly unpalatable
solution to a racial problem, and is
appealing to passers-by to consider
his plight. His appeal was not
headed, and disastrous, longer-term
consequences followed. This is an
eternal cycle of a human predicament
which can occur at a personal or
national level whether in a political or
psychological context. My setting is
Computer Systems Research Institute
attheUniversityofToronto(Structured
Sound Synthesis Project), the Finnish
Radio Experimental Studio, the
Groupe de Recherches Musicales
Digital Studio, and the University of
Birmingham Electroacoustic Music
Studio (Fairlight CMI). Mixing was
carried out at the University of East
Anglia.
Commentary: The clarinet provides a
fixed instrumental identity—but one
that is also rendered more malleable
through non-standard performance
techniques (such as multiphonics,
teeth tones, very wide glissandi and
bending of pitch). This is interesting
in that the clarinet has something
of a protagonist role as a stable
sound agent, but it is also based
on an extended notion of what
clarinet timbre-identity actually is.
Fine balance of electroacoustic
and clarinet sounds is crucial to
successful performance, for example
where the instrument executes rapid
sotto voce arabesques of subtones
that fuse with fleeting electroacoustic
flourishes. The many static pitches
required of the clarinet often impart
a kind of tonal perspective to
electroacoustic material, for instance
providing a timbral reference with
which harmonic content of more
complex electroacoustic sounds may
intersect. These are often articulated
with fades and glides so that they
do not sound patently instrumental,
a feature which is often enhanced
by the use of extremely high clarinet
tones. In the electroacoustic sounds,
material from Tides, and some that
hints at Wind Chimes can be heard.
(JY)

25
and other details pass the listener by.
But the general ideas of invocation,
transience, time and space should
break through in the music and the
electroacoustic sounds. DS
Commentary: This short work utitlises
electroacoustic materials later
utilised more fully in Wind Chimes.
The harmonic language of the
vocal writing is straightforward and
emphasises the resonant qualities of
the electroacoustic sounds with which
they blend in the acoustic space for
which they were intended. (JY)
1987
Wind Chimes acousmatic
medium
Commissioned: South Bank Centre,
London.
Anglia, with sounds developed in the
Digital Studio (123) at the GRM.
Premiere: Electric Weekend, Queen
Elizabeth Hall, London, 11 September
1987.
Empreintes Digitales, IMED 0409, 2004,
On Computer Music Currents, vol. 5,
Wergo WER 2025-2, Mainz, 1990; On
Archives GRM, ‘Le Son en nombres’
(excerpt), Ina-GRM, INA_C 1033, 2006.
Composer’s notes: The main sound
source for Wind Chimes is a set of
ceramic chimes found in a pottery
during a visit to New Zealand in 1985
designed to highlight this universality.
Firstly there is the idea of transition or
transience-recurrence down through
the centuries. Thus “qui transitis”
(who pass by, cross over) trudges
its faltering, syllabic way in simple,
recycled chord progressions. Thus
also the interlocking of older and
newer techniques – the imitative
motive engendered by a word or
phrase, as opposed to more modern
procedures. The passage between
old and new is also reflected in
the two languages and in the
traditional nature of human, choral
sound placed in electroacoustic
surroundings, which in itself has a
new-old content—bell- and gong-like
sounds take on both an ancient and
a modern guise. And there are other
electroacoustic sounds which stress
continuity through time—a spinning/
cycling sound which occurs near the
opening, and the static character of
the drone into which the end of the
motet sinks. Not least of all, these
electroacoustic sounds, particularly
the resonant ones, enhance the
sense of space. The voices, too,
have a spatial role in spreading out to
the extremes of vocal range achieved
in the closing stages.
The second idea taken from the text
is that of invocation and supplication
expressed in the plural and singular
imperatives—videte,audite,attendite;
vide, audi—appealing to the visual
and aural senses, and to reason and
intellect. These are mainly composed
into a variety of rising and falling
gestures of differing strengths and
character, allocated to varying vocal
combinations – both collective and
individual appeals.
In a motet only 6 minutes long where
it is inevitably difficult to hear the sung
text it is not surprising if many of these

26
pitched resonances. The pitch of B is
emphasised in the first of these two
phrases with a rhythmically simple
D-B (octave displaced) motion. In
terms of form this is one of Smalley’s
most complex pieces as its materials
and their overall design rest on a
mixture of highly detailed textural
states, strong rhythmic articulations
and shifting pitch foci. There is also
no decisive climax point in the work,
but rather a sequence of moments
of intensification of spectral richness
and gestural energy. (JY)
1990-91
Piano Nets for piano and
fixed medium
Duration: 17’52”, in three movements.
Commissioned: Sonic Arts Network
with funds from the Arts Council of
Great Britain.
East Anglia, incorporating sounds
developed at IRCAM.
Premiere: Norfolk and Norwich
Festival, Music Centre Concert Room,
University of East Anglia, 13 October
1990, Philip Mead (piano), to whom the
work is dedicated. The third movement
was revised following the Premiere.
Performance resources: Piano, elec-
troacoustic sounds on fixed medium.
Minimum technical requirements: 3
microphones, 2 pairs of loudspeakers
(piano and electroacoustic sounds
are projected on separate pairs), with
additional pairs of loudspeakers, as
available, to expand the width and
[not 1984 as in some literature]. It
was not so much the ringing pitches
which were attractive but rather the
bright, gritty, rich, almost metallic
qualities of a single struck pipe
or a pair of scraped pipes. These
qualities proved a very fruitful basis
for many transformations, which
prised apart and reconstituted their
interior spectral design. Not that the
listener is supposed to or can always
recognise the source, but in this
case it is audible in its natural state
near the beginning of the piece, and
the ceramic quality is never far away
throughout.Complementarymaterials
were gathered to expand the piece's
sound-families, among them very
high metallic Japanese Wind Chimes,
resonant metal bars, interior piano
sounds, and some digital synthesis.
The piece is centred on strong
attacking gestures, types of real and
imaginary physical motion (spinning,
rotating objects, resonances which
sound as if scraped or bowed, for
example), contrasted with layered,
more spacious, sustained textures
whose poignant dips hint at a certain
melancholy.
Commentary: The single inharmonic
attack of the opening, framed by
silence, offers a spectral seed for
the work, presenting deliciously
ambiguous pitch (though resonating
finally near the note B, at
approximately 1930Hz). The next
70 seconds presents two phrases
(the second twice the length of the
first) which herald the character
of the work’s development. Strong
attacks initiate each of these, the first
marked by a decisive accelerando
gesture—whose behaviour recurs as
a feature of other elements in the
work— along with splashes of Wind
Chimes textures and more focally

27
Commentary: In contrast to the very
malleable, even ‘smeared’ approach
to instrumental sound in Clarinet
Threads, Piano Nets limits the
piano almost exclusively to chordal
articulation, with an extremely
detailed approach to pedalling.
Particularly in the first movement
this echoes the ritualistic quasi-cyclic
approach to structure in earlier works
such as Chanson de Geste, and
is emphasised by the presence of
recurrent fixed register harmonic
constructs and the often declamatory
nature of synchronised sound events
between piano and electroacoustic
sounds. Some of the gestural and
timbral qualities of the electroacoustic
element in the first movement also
reflect sound types from earlier works
that utilised the clavichord—The
Pulses of Time, Chanson de Geste—
drawing the listener closer to sounds
that might be drawn directly from the
instrument’s interior (sound board,
knocking the frame). The second
movement begins in the manner of
a scherzo, with alternating fast and
slow tempi, where the piano engages
in tightly coordinated dialogue
with rapidly articulated inharmonic
electroacoustic resonances, while in
the slower sections are found some
delicately exposed beating between
frequency components in piano
and electroacoustic sounds. The
work can provide an extraordinary
spectacle in performance, since the
fixed electroacoustic part requires
the performer to have an exceptional
ability to anticipate and synchronise
with all sound events, such as the
dramatic fusions of piano chords
and sharply articulated noisy sound
masses in the outer movements.
(JY)
depth of the electroacoustic sound
image.
2004.
Composer’s notes: Piano Nets
(1991-2) is in three movements which
have common piano material but
are different in style, mainly due
to the influence of the changing
electroacoustic environment. The
piano writing revolves around
a variety of chord-flavours and
sonorities which can be heard across
all movements—chords of thirds,
of fourths, whole-tone chords, for
example. Certain harmonies provide
home bases which are constantly
returned to, and the "nets" in the title
expresses the idea of these networks
of chords and a certain feeling of
confinement created by them. Also
net-like is the fact that the piano is
trapped almost entirely in a chordal
style. Such a restriction enables a
concentrated exploration of subtle
blendingsofpianoandelectroacoustic
sounds. The relations between piano
and electroacoustic sounds vary -
they can be mutually decorating or
supporting; they can act in a cause
and effect manner; they collaborate
in attacking events and resonance
colourings; the electroacoustic
sounds can sound as if emanating
from inside the piano's sound, or
conversely (towards the end) they
can surround the piano whose chords
swing around in a clangorous interior.
Most of the electro-acoustic material
was created during a research period
at IRCAM funded by an Arts Council
bursary, but there are also sounds
borrowed from previous pieces. The
final mixing was carried out in the
Electroacoustic Music Studio at the
University of East Anglia.

28
the bulk of land masses, and at yet
another swamped by the magnified
details of organic activity. Landscape
qualities are pervasive: water, fire and
wood; the gritty, granular fracturing of
stony noise-textures; and the wintry,
glacial thinness of sustained lines.
The force and volatility of nature are
reflected in abrupt changes and tur-
bulent textures.
The mixing of the piece was started
during a Creative Residency in the
Media Arts Program at the Banff
Centre for the Arts situated in the
Bow Valley. Sounds created at
IRCAM during a previous research
period were incorporated, and
further materials were subsequently
developed at Simon Fraser University
in Vancouver. The piece was
completed in the composer's studio
in Norwich. (DS)
Commentary: This work is one
of Smalley’s most successful
integrations of shimmering granular
textures (that were already a feature
of his earliest works) with complex
forms of morphological articulation.
For instance in the middle of the
work (from 5’45”) simple intervallic
patterns are projected in a loosely
cyclic way through overlapping high
pitched grainy sounds, in themselves
clearly a growth from the opening
shimmering unstable pitches. This
is established as a distinct stratum
defined by register, timbre and
melodic profile, making a kind of
unified gesture/texture identity. A
pause at 8’05” is followed by a section
in which this now established identity
is overlaid with a wider range of
sound constructs: clusters of complex
attacks, fracturing and rattling
morphologies and rain-like granular
textures. Formally this imbues Valley
Flow with a cyclic quality as the
1992
Valley Flow acousmatic
medium
Commissioned: Birmingham Electro-
Acoustic Sound Theatre (BEAST),
funded by West Midland Arts.
Studio realisation: Banff Centre for the
Arts; Electroacoustic Music Studio of
the University of East Anglia, incor-
porating sounds created earlier at
IRCAM and Simon Fraser University,
Vancouver.
Premiere: BBC Pebble Mill Studios,
Birmingham, simultaneously broad-
cast live on BBC Radio 3, February
27, 1992.
2004, On A Storm of Drones (excerpt),
Asphodel, ASP 0966, San Francisco,
1995.
Composer’s notes: The formal
shaping and sounding content of
Valley Flow were influenced by the
dramatic vistas of the Bow Valley in
the Canadian Rockies. The work is
founded on a basic flowing gesture.
This motion is stretched to create airy,
floating and flying contours or broad
panoramic sweeps, and contracted
to create stronger physical motions,
for example the flinging out of tex-
tural materials. Spatial perspectives
are important in an environmentally
inspired work. The listener, gazing
through the stereo window, can
adopt changing vantage- points, at
one moment looking out to the distant
horizon, at another looking down
from a height, at another dwarfed by

29
glacier and whose compaction
initiates glacial flow. The surface
expanses of smooth material conceal
organic processes and pressures
beneath.
A corrie (from the Gaelic "coire" -
a cauldron) is an armchair-shaped
hollow with steep sides and back wall,
formed as a result of glacial erosion
on a high mountainside. This form is
often reminiscent of a mortar in which
one grinds spices and grains, and it
is sounds derived from recording the
frictional motions of a large, Indian
mortar and pestle which provide the
basis for the movement. Since the
névé material is also featured, an
analogy linking the domestic and the
environmental is suggested.
A sandar (from Icelandic) is an open,
coastal plain of sand and gravel
with streams of meltwater flowing
across it, stretching out from the
mouth of a glacier. To begin with
this movement concentrates on
fragmented, pressurised debris and
outwash activity, but soon spreads
into larger harmonic vistas. (DS)
Commentary: The first movement
is characterised by a continuous
undulating and complex drone,
whose core is very low frequency, but
appears to draws around itself more
grainy high frequency spectral energy
in Gradual surges. Two key climaxes
are reached as a result of this spectral
‘intensification’, a very rich noisy
one from 2’53” and a further more
clearly pitched spectrum at 3’54”
emphasizing an F fundamental—this
movement towards greater clarity
of pitch implying a point of arrival,
and heralding the movement’s
closure. In the second movement
the texture is stratified into distinct
spectromorphological layers, defined
not only by the frequency centre
gesture/texture identity is projected
through the work, submerging and
re-emerging and rising and falling in
its general registral space, drawing
around it new and contrasting sound
shapes. (JY)
1994
Névé acousmatic
medium
The work is in 3 sections: ‘Névé’,
‘Corrie’ and ‘Sandar’.
Commissioned: Groupe de Musique
Expérimentale de Marseille with funds
provided by the Arts Council of Great
Britain.
Studio realisation: Composer’s per-
sonal studio, with material developed
on the Syter system at the Groupe de
Musique Expérimentale de Marseille
Premiere: Premiere: La Criée, Théâtre
National de Marseille, January 13,
1995.
Recording: On Névé, Effects Input EI
03, Marseille, 1994.
Composer’s notes: Névé was inspired
by a walk on the Fox Glacier in
New Zealand, and takes structures
and imagery related to glaciers
as its starting-point. However, the
sound materials also suggest their
own developments, relations and
diversions. The work is a continuation
of Valley Flow, composed in 1992,
which was also influenced by
environmental images and materials.
The Névé is the mass of hardened
snow which feeds the source of a

30
immensity. In the second movement,
the low pitch of the initial sound along
with its gritty noise and bounce-like
contour suggest fricative physical
interaction on an exaggerated scale.
This is offset by the presence of
lighter, more fragile high pitched
sound materials, which are more
akin to sound production on a
human scale—foliage, movement of
gravel, observation of water. This is
only one way of reading this work,
which is delicately poised between
abstraction and referentiality. The
potential to interpret contrasts in
apparent scale of sounds through
an imaginary interpretation of the
physical dimensions of whatever
physical cognates we find for them
allows the listener to place themselves
into a vicarious relationship with the
musical imagery—a process which is
not confined to, but greatly enhanced
by, multi-loudspeaker diffusion of this
work. (JY)
1997
Empty Vessels acousmatic
medium
Commission: French State (Music
Office), Ina-GRM.
sonal studio.
Premiere: Salle Olivier Messiaen,
Maison de Radio-France, Paris, 31 May
1997.
Recording: On Sources/Scènes,
2000.
of sounds, but by morphological
behaviour, principally: ‘bouncing’
abrasive sounds which are initially
of very low pitch, but subsequently
appear to be part of a family of similar
sounds at different transpositions;
the undulating drone for the first
movement; brittle high frequency
sounds suggesting of dry foliage or
other fragile organic material, and an
almost nasal vowel-like tremolo. Even
more than in the first movement the
structural design presents an image
of layered coexistence between the
sounds, supporting the composer’s
concept of environmental analogy.
Specific environmental sources are
more strongly evidenced in the final
movement, with overt suggestions
of water, stones/gravel and foliage
sound-imagery as well as very
direct bell-like sounds in the middle
of the movement (naturalistic wave
sounds are especially telling from
4’46”). In the broadest sense this
gives ‘Sandar’ a powerful sense of
emergence into a soundscape more
denotative than the first two. As in
the first and second movements the
tendency is for the musical texture to
move in continuous sound masses,
but the greater variety of sound
types, along with the presence of
more gesturally distinctive sounds
(both in terms of spectro- and spatio-
morphology) allows the musical to
have a more complex structural
design. And because sounds from
the previous movements are recalled,
a summative, end-accented formal
statement is made. More broadly,
this work may engage the listener
in imaginative play with the scale of
sounds. While there are not always
specific sounding objects implied,
an emphasis on rich low frequency
clusters of sound implies depth and

31
2000
Base Metals acousmatic
medium
Commissioned: Swedish Radio,
Malmö.
sonal studio.
Premiere: L’Espace du son Festival,
Brussels, October 15, 2000.
Recording: On Sources/Scènes,
2000.
Composer’s notes: Base Metals was
commissioned by Swedish Radio in
Malmö. The title refers to the metal
sounds that provided the central
material for the piece, and it also
evokes the creative process of trans-
muting these raw sources to a higher
musical and expressive plane. All
the metal sources derive from sound
sculptures constructed by the artist
Derek Shiel from metal objects col-
lected over a period of time. From the
wide range of objects I selected those
whose internal resonant properties
would provide me with variegated
spectral families. Some possessed
intervallic and tonal properties, others
were inharmonic or noisier, and some
sounded more synthetic than truly
metallic. Although there is a number
of striking orchestrated impacts and
resonances in the piece, I was less
interested in the clatter and clash of
metal than in more sustained mor-
phologies. Thus there is a focus on
varied pushes, surges, swirls and
sweeps of spectral energy, balanced
with calmer drifts, undulations and
Composer’s notes: The Empty
vessels of the title are some large
garden pots from Crete and an olive
jar from Turkey. Recordings of the air
resonating in these vessels provided
the starting-point for the piece. Since
these recordings were done in a
garden (my garden in North London),
sounds from the environment were
also captured by the microphones
inside the pots, and changes in the
timbre of these sounds resulted from
interaction with the filtering effect of
the resonant vessels. These "natural"
transformations were extended
through computer treatments of the
sources, and they also suggested
relations with very different types
of resonant sounds. The garden
palette was expanded by recordings
made in the same environment
without the benefit of the vessels'
transformations. The resulting work
may be regarded as a journey which
passes through the highly charged
and more restful events, textures
and spaces inspired by the Empty
Vessels. (DS)
Commentary: This is Smalley’s most
straightforwardly environmental
sounding work. His interest in
resonanceandauseofthemicrophone
to capture and expand natural sonic
detail is present, but within an overtly
‘soundscape’ context. The close up
and exaggerated perspective offered
on the Helmholtz resonances of the
garden pots lends an almost sinister
presence to the work, as the natural
sound world is heard simultaneously
from the two perspectives of the pots’
interior resonances and the external
daily sounds of overhead birdsong
and aircraft. (JY)

32
given different forms of injections
of energy. The sparse placement of
attacks gives them a long term formal
role as we direct listening toward the
slow-motion shaping of the spectral
fields unfolding out of them. Yet the
varying nature of the attacks implies
a transformative function, which is
heightened by their relatively sparse
placement. This is also underlined by
the way in which injections of energy
through attacks can be shaped
into resonance, such as the pulsed
decays at 4’20”, 7’25’ and 9’42”,
encouraging for the listener a sense
that the phenomenon of the attack
and its attendant release of energy
is something fluid, but integral to the
way pitched resonances form. The
separation of attack and resonance
over extended periods with hints of
emergent attacks through careful
dynamic shaping becomes a
mechanism for exploiting musical
expectation—from the opening we
expect attacks to be part of the
musical discourse, helping to drive
spectral change—and listeners may
find themselves anticipating their
arrival and gaining a sense of long
range structure from them. (JY)
2002
Ringing Down the Sun
acousmatic electroacoustic
on fixed medium
Commissioned: Danish Institute for
Electroacoustic Music.
Studio realisation: The composer’s
personal studio, incorporating mate-
dips, all of which move in and out of
more clearly pulsed moments. These
motions are also spatial so there are
approaches, emergences, dispersals
and distant disappearances, some-
times leaving behind the residues of
spectral trails. The metal-based fami-
lies, which are hardly ever absent,
are brought into relations with a few
other sound-types, and those who
know my other pieces might spot the
occasional refugee-sound from the
past, recontextualised. (DS)
Commentary: The sound world of
Base Metals is one of rich, largely
inharmonic spectra that present the
listener with an engaging journey
through a world of unfolding
resonance. The work’s opening
presents a sharply articulated attack-
resonancemorphology,whichheralds
a core structural motivation of the
work—attacks initiating inharmonic
resonances. The work presents
shifting perspectives on this basic
model. Attacks initiate resonance
which then ‘find’ their own energy,
drifting and merging. Within the
nearly 14 minutes duration of Base
Metals attacks are concentrated
in the first and last thirds of the
piece. Their structural function is
linked to instigation of resonance,
and therefore the initiation of spectral
fields. But there are varying qualities
and emphases in the attacks. The
opening, for instance, is an extremely
sharp, seemingly edited-in attack,
with no apparent ‘klang’ tone, and a
feature of the way the work unfolds
in the first four minutes is also the
way energy is also injected into the
spectral continuity with delta-shaped
attacks and surges rather than
abrupt onsets. This sets up a kind
of sound initiation continuum, with
slowly shifting continuous spectra

33
using, as in Resounding, a six-
channel format comprising a central
front pair of loudspeakers, a wider
pair and a rear pair. The sound field
created in the work is a powerfully
immersive one—the surround
field is constantly maintained, with
specifically localised sound events
helping to articulate points of change
and emphasis in the space. In
concert presentations, the two rear
channels may be projected via four
loudspeakers, using an additional
pair of loudspeakers placed between
the rear and wide pairs in order
to create a fully contiguous spatial
image. The work recalls the spirit
of Vortex’s rising and falling motion
of pitch, but with less inherently
complex morphological constructs.
There is however, a similar sense
of drifting tonal implications, inviting
the listener to anticipate moments
of tonal fusion and arrival, which
are generally fleeting. The first clear
attack is withheld until 2’43” into
the piece and, as with Base Metals,
these are generally reserved for
moments of emphasis to re-inject
energy when a spectral plane has
been reached, or to make decisive
injection of new spectral colour as an
enrichment of an established texture,
such as at 8’04”. The middle part of
the work is given a greater sense of
urgency through its relative richness
of attacks.
rial developed in the studio of DIEM,
Aarhus, Denmark.
Premiere: MIX.02 Festival, Aarhus,
Denmark, Auktionsscenen, June 13
2002.
Audio format: Six channels.
Composer’s notes: It was while
working on the commission at DIEM
in Aarhus that I came across the
Danish tradition of “ringing down
the sun”—the tolling of church bells,
which signals the end of the working
day and the descent of the sun
through dusk and on into night. The
tolling signal, and all it represents,
remains part of Danish culture,
even if it is now more “abstract”, in
that it no longer necessarily has a
real function in daily life. This idea
seemed metaphorically to coincide
with my attitudes towards the sounds,
contours and spaces I was emerged
in at the time, and thereafter it steered
the direction and preoccupations of
my composition.
There is a number of tolling, resonant
sounds which, although they may
be set off with striking attacks, draw
us inwards, in contemplation. There
are circling, pulsed garlands which
travel and radiate energy. There is a
prevalence of descending contours—
drifting, floating, falling—and
sometimes descents into sombre
hues. But the sun also has to be “rung
up”, and so the form of the piece is
governed by the progress of wave-
like, cyclical contours. Lastly, there is
the spatial dimension itself, designed
to evoke both the open spaces of the
outdoors – sky, landscape, and even
coastline but also the more intimate,
surround feeling embodied inside
resonances. (DS)
Commentary: This is Smalley’s first
multi-channel acousmatic work

34
(the first of the trilogy) are taken up
and given new lives. Thanks to Derek
Shiel, whose sound sculptures have
provided a never-ending richness of
resonant sounds. (DS)
Commentary: Resounding employs
the same six channel format as
Ringing Down the Sun, and gives the
listener a similar sense of continual
envelopment in sound. The work is
broadly in three sections of roughly
equal length: the first characterised
by sequences of metallic attacks and
resonances, the second by metrically
organised low frequency metallic
pulsing and the third by gliding chordal
organ-like sounds (which were hinted
at the first section) with a notable
brief reference back to the middle
section’s rhythmic figure at 12’31”.
As with many of Smalley’s works,
rhythm is projected in short and
medium term time frames through
the spacing of attacks, the pulsing
of resonances and the flow of attack
into resonance, which are variably
paced and shaped. In the first 1’30”,
for instance, an oscillating vowel-like
resonance without defining attack
is initially presented, establishing
a focal point for pitch and rhythm
through rocking fluctuations of
dynamic level. Over the next 45”
a series of attacks of increasing
abruptness inject additional spectral
content, forcing a drift way from the
focal pitch of the opening, leading
to a more dramatic attack at 1’30”.
Rhythmic figures are also constructed
in the central section which emulate
something of the pace of earlier
pulsing resonances, but carry more
visceral impact and momentum. The
final section is triggered from the
coalesence of the spectrum around
the pitch B-flat and continues, through
gliding pitch, to impart a sense of
2004
Resounding acousmatic
medium
Commissioned: Sonorities, Belfast,
for the opening of the Sonic Arts
Research Centre; commission sup-
ported by the National Lottery through
the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
sonal studio.
Premiere: 2004 Sonorities Festival,
Sonic Arts Research Centre, Belfast,
28 April, 2004.
Audio format: Six channels.
Composer’s notes: Resounding is the
third in a series of pieces which use
resonant metallic sounds as the point
of departure. It was composed as a
companion piece for the second of
the trilogy, Ringing Down the Sun,
commissioned by the Danish Institute
for Electroacoustic Music in 2002.
Thetitlereferstotheringingofresonant
sounds, the filling of space with sound,
and to the notion of sounding again –
as heard, for example, in the cyclic
rhythms of resonances, prolonged,
decaying, or sent travelling through
the “orchestrated” listening space.
Spatially, two ideas are prevalent –
resonance heard as if from the interior
of objects of varying dimensions, and
the external resonance of spaces
as experienced, for instance, in a
large cathedral. The idea of sounding
again is also at the heart of the formal
progress of the piece, which focuses
on the return of materials in changed
surroundings. Furthermore, sounds
previously encountered in Ringing
Down the Sun, and in Base Metals

35
almost continual ascent, dissolving
finally into a stratified spectrum of
profoundly low and relatively high
frequency content. Even in the final
fading sonority, there is significant
fine detail: partials pulsing at different
rates, and strands of pitch that are
tonally ambiguous until the very
end—a pitch around E is prominent,
but is most likely to be heard as the
third harmonic of a spectrum rooted
on A, and marking a relatively stable
spectral/tonal resolution. (JY)

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