Synchronisms is a series of twelve
musical compositions for solo or ensemble live instruments and pre-recorded
tape composed by
Mario Davidovsky at the
Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, the first dating from 1963. Davidovsky explains that, "One of the central ideas of these pieces is the search to find ways of embedding both the acoustic and the electronic into a single, coherent musical and aesthetic space."[1]
The series, "is characterized by the interaction of virtuoso musicians with a counterpoint of electronically generated sounds covering a broad
tonal and
timbral spectrum."[2] Davidovsky describes the goals of his series: "In those works, I try to keep, on the one hand, as much as possible of what is characteristic of the electronic instrument [medium], and, on the other, what is characteristic of the live performer. At the same time, each extends the other."[3] In the series Davidovsky attempts, "exact coordination only in short passages of intricate
counterpoint; elsewhere, in more extended passages in which one component clearly accompanied the other, 'an element
of chance ["
leeway in the synchronization"] is introduced'".[4]
The works are as follows:
Flute (1963)
Flute, clarinet, violin, cello (1963)
Cello (1964)
Chorus (1967)
Percussion quintet (1969)
Piano and electronic sound (1970)
Orchestra (1973)
Wind quintet (1974)
Violin (1988)
Guitar (1992)
Bass (2005)
Clarinet (2006)
Performance History
Synchronisms No's. 3, 6, 9, 11, and 12 were played at the Davidovsky Memorial Concert (2020) in Yellow Barn, Vermont[5][6]
No. 6 was written for pianist
Robert Miller (of
The Group for Contemporary Music[4]).[7] The Pulitzer jury found that the piece, "shows mastery of a new medium and its imaginative use in combination with the solo pianoforte."[8] Violinist
Mari Kimura, who studied with Davidovsky, cites Synchronisms No. 6 as prompting her initial interest in electronic music.[9]
Recordings
Boston Musica Viva - Boston Musica Viva Plays Schwanter, Ives and Others (1987) [No. 3][1]
Gryč, Stephen Michael (1978). "Stratification and Synthesis in Mario Davidovsky's Synchronism No. 6, ITO 4/4: 8-39. M.M. thesis, University of Michigan.[12]
References
^
abcdeGrimshaw, Jeremy (2005). "Mario Davidovsky", All Music Guide to Classical Music: The Definitive Guide to Classical Music, p.341-2. Woodstra, Chris; Brennan, Gerald; and Schrott, Allen; eds.
ISBN9780879308650.
^Holmes, Thom (2012). Electronic and Experimental Music: Technology, Music, and Culture, unpaginated. Routledge.
ISBN9781136468940.