This is Internet Archive Avant Garde Project installment agp06 "Morton Subotnick."

For the previous Internet Archive Avant Garde Project installment, here.

For the next Internet Archive Avant Garde Project installment, here.

Take me (to the Internet Archive Avant Garde Project) Home, Morpheus.

The sixth AGP installment contains Morton Subotnick's series "The Double Life of Amphibians". This series includes four of the fourteen works that Subotnick wrote for "ghost" electronics in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The "ghost" electronics make no sound on their own, but alter the amplitude, frequency, and location of any sounds produced as the electronic score is playing. In his works for this technology, Subotnick explored the effects of these manipulations on a variety of instrumental combinations, from single instruments to chamber ensembles. The rather simple electronic manipulations in the "ghost" electronics nevertheless produce an interesting range of timbres, depending on the tone color of the instruments being manipulated.

While Subotnick is known chiefly as a composer for electronics, his instrumental writing in these works is interesting and innovative even in those passages where the electronic manipulation is minimal. "The Double Life of Amphibians" is in three parts, the first part consisting of two compositions. A description of the structure of the series is included in a text file with the installment.

To download AGP6 files, right-click on each of the following links and select SAVE LINK AS.

01 - Axolotl (cello and "ghost" electronics) [17:19]

02 - Ascent Into Air (ten instruments and "ghost" electronics) [24:04]

03 - The Last Dream of the Beast (soprano, two celli, electronics, and "ghost" electronics) [14:46]

04 - A Fluttering of Wings (string quartet and "ghost" electronics) [19:13]

Liner notes from LPs

AGP6 description

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