- Prelude (3:00)
- ich fühle luft (5:25)
- Barcarolle I/II (6:38)
- Synchronic/Diachronic (2:48)
- “Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key” (4:28)
For many years I had the idea of pairing turntablism with acoustic piano but I never had the resources to approach it. The primary barrier for me was the turntable itself: acquiring the vinyl, building a turntable/mixer deck, learning the instrument (or at least the basics). To resolve this, I used samples from the UVI Scratch Machine VST plugin within the Dorico notation/DAW software. The samples were recorded from turntables performed on by a professional DJ, and I have taken portions from each to combine and create the motifs and phrases for the turntable parts. Although Scratch Machine provides dozens of samples and hundreds of variations for each sample, I’ve only used one of the “Fresh” samples and one of the “Classic Aahh” samples, each with 37 different scratch techniques and technique variations, and with two speeds: a quarter note at 120 bpm and at 60 bpm.
There is little repertoire for turntablism in the modern canon (aside from a handful of works from Gabriel Prokofiev) even though it’s become a more accepted and taught instrument and even has two methodologies for notating transcriptions, expanding the potential for such a canon (see Turntablist transcription methodology and S-Notation: A Complete Musical Notation System For Scratching And Sample Music Derived From “Theory of Motions” (pdf)). (Side note: I used my own shorthand that, though less expressive that those two, more easily transcribed the intent within the limitations of Dorico.) For each movement of the suite, I’ve tried to take different harmonic and rhythmic approaches and adapt different musical styles in order to take advantage of the range of the instrument. Others may find an equal richness in the turntable’s potential.
(written 11 Aug 2021–9 Feb 2022)