Moonlit Palms
Michael Robinson
About this work:
The CD titled Hamoa was a major turning point in my life. All nine pieces on the CD were composed with a new multi-timbral sound module that includes a generous number of world music sounds. In addition, the results of my studies with Harihar Rao, Ravi Shankar's senior disciple, pervade the music on this recording.
Moonlit Palms, inspired by the beauty of an evening in Lahaina, Maui, opens with contrapuntal voices of clarinet, trumpet, flute and piano all tuned to a Japanese scale. This unusual mixture of Western instruments and Eastern tunings is followed by an equally exotic rhythmic cycle of thirty-four and a half beats played by percussion voices well below their normal range. Melodic voices of synthesizer, African harp, and finally, tom-toms, take their turns over the percussion music.
-Michael Robinson, December 1999, Lahaina
© 1999 by Michael Robinson All rights reserved
Year composed: 1995
Duration: 00:05:12
Ensemble type: Electronic Instruments and Sound Sources:Live Electronic Sound Sources
Instrumentation: ,1 Computer/Laptop soloist(s), ,1 Sampler (Keyboard/Other) soloist(s)
Instrumentation notes: A computer and sound module are programmed to perform the fully notated composition in real time. Moonlit Palms is voiced with samples of the following acoustical timbres using Japanese tunings: flute, clarinet, trumpet, kora and Indian, Near Eastern and European percussion. A synthesizer timbre is also used.