Federico Schumacher

Estrellas Compactas, 2003

For tape

[En español...] In this piece, as in nearly all the electroacoustic music in the Schaeffer tradition, the recording of the sounds is the starting point of the work. It is at this moment that the work starts to take shape and outline itself, offering the promise of how it will unfold and committing the composer to his material.

With this in mind, the composition Compact Stars was essentially created during the recording of all of the sounds that can possibly be obtained from a flexible vacuum cleaner tube. At times, ways of making precise sounds were discovered, while at other times the production of sounds was left to chance. For this reason, all of the compositional decisions (form, digital transformations, dominant morphologies, etc.) act to amplify and develop the work already carried out during the recording process, while the manipulation of the sound material retains a manual aspect that is both highlighted and hidden: the computer as an extension of the hand.

The structure of the piece is twofold: the first is the process of developing the material in a linear manner that extends from the raw sound straight from the vacuum cleaner tube to something further from the source. This process also determines the type of digital transformation the original sound material will undergo at any given moment and the computer program to be used to achieve this objective.

The second level of organization is based on the concept of an "irregular spiral with a variable density." The form of a spiral appealed to me as the most convenient for material whose sound morphology is redundant. It also stands in opposition to the structure outlined above, offering less drastic and evident alternatives to those found in formal construction. Due to this duality, two or more elements are constantly juxtaposed and trying to recapture the attention of the listener.

The sound recordings were made in the Pantin Conservatory studios. The composition was developed in my home studio using Pro-Tools LE on a Macintosh G-3, and the final mix was done in the Nanterre Conservatory studios.

En español : 

Estrellas Compactas es una obra basada sobre las enormes posibilidades musicales del tubo flexible de mi aspiradora. Pero también, es un homenaje a un pequeño departamento en Nanterre donde viví los ultimos tres años. Era un viejo departamento, lleno de ruidos y sonidos particulares que traté de sorprender con un micrófono. Desgraciadamente, nunca logré hacer tan buena música como él.