Benjamin Bartels Zucker - I/O/U

Notes:

“I(ntervals) O(vertonal &) U(ndertonal), R(ealized). Inspired by Harry Partch's Genesis of A Music but walking its own road, numeric sequences criss-cross to form spiraling trails of ratios shaping noise and sound into new harmonies. The name is perhaps ironic. Sound and music is not owed to anyone, but is perpetually given; even the same music gives itself over and over again in new ways by its very nature as an excess of experience. In this way, no two versions of the realization produced by the ratios and software will ever be exactly the same…”

Tuning information:

A series of whole-number ratios, with the numerator and demominators changing in ascending and descending sequences, was used to produce to produce parts based off eight fundamental frequencies initially chosen based off corresponding instruments.

Composer bio:

Interested in the possibilities of musical relationality amongst people, objects, and histories, Ben Zucker's work crosses and intentionally plays with genre and discipline, and has been performed by the Mivos Quartet, Apartment House, the New York Virtuoso Singers, Distractfold Ensemble, and Rinde Eckert. He was recognized as a "New Composer Talent" by the International Audio Branding Academy, and his work has won awards from the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, C4 Collective, San Francisco Choral Artists, and San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. Additionally, he maintains an active career as a vocalist, trumpeter, pianist, and percussionist performing jazz, new music, and improvisations solo and with bands around the world, including solo albums on Not Art Records and Verz Imprint, deemed “a testament to the power of restraint and arrangement” (Decoder Magazine). Ben received a BA in music and critical theory at Wesleyan University, and recently completed postgraduate studies at Brunel University London