CDCM Computer Music Series, Vol. 35: Ottuplo! (Larry Austin)

Chronique

Texas-based composer Larry Austin, long a proponent of the avant-garde and the capability of new technological resources to create previously unheard soundworlds, has probably never felt like he was the "elder statesman" of anything -- his acknowledged catalog of works remains stubbornly "new" even though it stretches back to 1960. Austin founded the CDCM Computer Music Series on Centaur Records in 1988 and Ottuplo! Larry Austin: The Eighth Decade is Volume 35 in the series and the third disc given over entirely to Austin's computer music. Although purely computerized music is not completely foreign to Austin, he prefers to interact with live ensembles or instrumentalists; of the seven works here, one is scored for two string quartets and there are pieces for clarinet, saxophone, contrabass, bass clarinet, and flute, all with computer and/or tape. While the selection mostly dates from 1998 or later, this retrospective does contain a remix of Roma (1965), Austin's earliest electronic work dating from his years at the American Academy in Rome.
The title work, Ottuplo!, is from a Merkin Hall performance where the FLUX Quartet appeared "live" and the Smith Quartet was heard in "virtual" form. Upon hearing the result one might wonder, outside of sound effects employed, what the electronic medium affords here that could not be rendered in a standard octet scoring. However, the overall effect of Ottuplo!, with its downward glissandi, desolate atmosphere, and occasional bursts of frantic motion, does ultimately override such concerns. The technique utilized in both Adagio: Convolutions on a Theme by Mozart (2004-2005) and Tableaux: Convolutions on a Theme (2003-2004) is similar -- both extract a bed of sustained pitches from the playing of the soloist and these slowly morph in space as the soloist plays. Some might find the effect rather new agey, but the pitch complexes aren't so, particularly in the Mozart piece. Perhaps the most immediate and successful of these works in art is self-alteration is Cage is... (1982-1983), which features contrabassist Robert Black performing with a tape of 15 tracks of himself; the extreme limitations of pitch choices (just "C-A-G-E") and dynamics result in a fluid and dramatic texture that begs revisiting. Threnos (2001-2002), scored for "real and virtual" bass clarinets, is one memorial to September 11, 2001, that doesn't contain any violent upheaval and is appropriately mournful. Les Flutes de Pan (2005-2006) is a virtuoso piece for flute that includes some low-key sound effects and pitch complexes; in spirit, it is closest to replicating the atmosphere of Roma, the earliest piece in the collection, bringing Austin's music full circle.
Larry Austin has meant many things to new music since 1960 -- as an educator, publisher, and editor of Source Magazine in the 1960s, and founder of the CDCM series itself. Ottuplo! Larry Austin: The Eighth Decade is about as worthy and as handsome a retrospective as one could want for Austin, and while the pieces are mostly later in terms of chronology, in a sense the collection speaks for his whole career as a composer of electronic music.

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