Roger Smith, Student No 152237.

Postgraduate Context and Methodology Module

Bath Spa University.

Timbre as Acoustic Parameter in the Solo Recorder Part of Ian Shanahans

Lines of Light (1991/1993).

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ABSTRACT

The significance of this paper in terms of contemporary recorder repertoire is that it seeks to
present an expos of the three recordings of the first improvisation of Australian composer
and recorder player Ian Shanahans Lines of Light, also providing evidence available to inform
a recorder performance for amplified prepared alto recorder, Yamaha DX7 synthesizers and
mixed percussion. Notationally Lines of Light combines aleatoric processes, randomized
rubric cells, parametrical ideology, and determinism. In this work, notationally, and in the
recordings, the recorder is brought into the twenty-first century with Shanahans inventive use
of multiphonics, in which the use of amplification, quartertones, microtones, inharmonic
spectra, extended techniques, and an armoury of articulatory means all define the recorders
timbral soundscape. Randomized articulation in the recorder score and in the recordings
i.e., fluttertongue, tongue-tremolo, normal articulations including: staccato, portato, legato,
grace-notes and embellishments are all equal to the essential multiphonics.

As an acoustical parameter, essential notated multiphonics in Shanahans recorded recorder

performances are analysed using Sonic Visualiser to determine overall shapes, contours,
melodic inflections, and integral articulation. In the recordings and in the recorder score,
upwardly spiralling randomized rubric cells create an improvisatorily consistent variation form.
Inspiration for such an enquiry was based upon chapter three of John Rinks Musical
Performance: A Guide to Understanding (2002), in which computerized graphical data
represents differing aspects of tempo, dynamics, time signatures and rhythm in recorded
performances. Since these elements are not notated in the score of Lines of Light,
improvisation based upon referential material in the score governs the placement of
essential multiphonics in the recorder performances, and notated intervallic clusters of the
accompaniment in the recordings. Lines of Light is colouristically harmonically conceived by
its exoticized vast instrumentarium of mixed percussion instruments, in combination with
recorder. Structurally the overall durations of the recordings dramatically differ in terms of the
musical illusory structural spatial depths created. All are equally defined by the differing
improvisatory interaction and intensity of harmonic and rhythmic interplay throughout the
entire ensemble.

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Background Lineage.

It is important to introduce Shanahans work, and place it in the context relative to the work of
Michael Vetter. Recorder player Michael Vetters pioneering work with multiphonics in his Il
Flauto Dolce Ed Acerbo (1974), stemmed from research in the late 1950s, and was also
combined with extended techniques. However, Shanahan builds upon Vetters work in terms
of multiphonics and extended techniques. Furthermore, Shanahans multiphonics move
microtonally, and quartertonally, in comparison to Vetters semitonal movement, also using
prepared alto recorder, and amplification. Shanahan also builds upon avant-garde
techniques used by the influx and plethora of works written for, or by, players and composers
of the Dutch Netherlands School, i.e. Frans Brggen, and his contemporaries Rob Du Bois,
Hans-Martin Linde, Louis Andriessen, and Luciano Berio. Many of these composers were
pupils of Darmstadt composers highly influenced by the strict academicism and serial
ideologies of Darmstadt. Moreover, lineage can be traced back even further, composers of
Darmstadt having also been highly influenced by composers of the Second Viennese School.

The first solo avant-garde recorder works included Muziek (1961) and Spiel Und
Zwischenspiel (1962) by Rob du Bois, Jrg Baurs Mutazioni (1962), and Makoto Shinoharas
Fragmente (1968). These works used serial techniques which were quasi-mathematical,
rhythmically complex, angular and disjunctive in intervallic movement, largely athematic. In
particular Jrg Baurs Mutazioni (1962), written for Michael Vetter uses multiphonics, in
combination with improvisatory sections. In response to a questionnaire sent to Shanahan in
regard to his favourite contemporary solo recorder works (unaccompanied and accompanied)
since 1960, and his awareness of other national schools of composers in terms of
contemporary repertoire for solo recorder, Shanahan stated:

I dont really have any favourite works, but there are many that I do consider to be
historically pivotal milestones those by Baur, Vetter, Berio, and Shinohara, etc.
(Questionnaire Appendix Two, Shanahan 2013).

Shanahans response regarding graphical scores for solo recorder works (unaccompanied, or
accompanied), and the issues such scores bring to the actual realization of music and
performance practice was:

Yes: Louis Andriessens Paintings; various pieces by Michael Vetter; and Sylvano

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 Bussottis RARA (dolce) do spring to mind. Such so-called scores put all of the
creative burden upon the performer, so I do not regard them as compositions per se;
rather as visual stimuli for improvisation. (Questionnaire Appendix Two, Shanahan
2013).

Moreover, his response to specific evolutionary features that distinguish Australian recorder
music is also worth noting:

Considering the ever-fracturing evolutionary paths of Western art-music over the past
50 years, or so, I can discern no specific feature that distinguishes Australian recorder
music from the general directions of those paths apart from the observation that
during that period, a growing corpus of professional-standard recorder players who are
passionate about new music which has emerged in this country. (Questionnaire
Appendix Two, Shanahan 2013).

Anti-intellectualism.

Postmodernism trends particularly favour ease of playability, traditional playing techniques, as

demonstrated by Melanie Walters (2004: 4) in Crossing the Modernist-Postmodernist Divide:
Performance Challenges in Late Twentieth Century Australian Flute Music, a common
reactionary approach to the complexity of modernism in Australian music. In avant-garde
styles as a whole, intellectual elitism, avoidance of banality, exclusion of less cerebrally
complex tonal music, has been highly prevalent since the establishment of the Second
Viennese School, and of Darmstadt. Intellectualism throughout all contemporary musical
genres has also fostered a culture that has produced a realm of intertextuality of explanatory
texts, and key writings.

Nicholas Cook illuminates common concerns regarding more cerebrally produced

contemporary avant-garde music, which may initially seem to be applicable to the music of
Shanahan:

Throughout the twentieth century, the most characteristic response to avant-garde

music on the part of its detractors has not been a cool indifference, but a hot-blooded
denial: Thats not music! is the pronouncement not of somebody who is simply
uninterested in the new music, but of somebody who feels that his basic musical

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 values are being challenged by it. Indeed it can happen that this response is elicited
not by the new music itself, but simply by the way its composers talk about it. (Cook
1990: 13).

Shanahans views upon anti-intellectualism generally in Australia are also worth noting:

Since anti-intellectualism is a great Australian sport, I would say that my work is

decidedly un-Australian! As for Australian recorder music in particular, I dont detect
any distinctive nationalistic type. (Questionnaire Appendix Two, Shanahan 2013).

Despite values of anti-intellectualism towards avant-garde composers of complex music from

postmodernists, classicists, and new-age romantics, in order to fully evaluate music such as
Shanahans in Australia and further afield, it is important that an educated encouragement is
engendered to avoid a biased approach towards complex music and modernism. Ian
Shanahans personal artistic vision, and credo must also be clearly established, so that a
fuller understanding of his music may be acquired, Brendon Broadstock refers:

Since I seek a new harmonious unity, how can I be satisfied with regurgitating
secure, established, second-hand musical syntaxes? Part of this endless theosophical
search involves forging ones own path, untainted by duality, and this entails continual
experiment. ... Paradigms from Mathematics, Astro Physics, Quantum Mechanics, or
Chaos Theory may inhabit my music, at every architectonic level; but most importantly,
they should naturally permeate the musics sound-world for listeners, so that my
composition perceptually becomes a metaphorical mirror filled with intricate structural
networks ... all of my music is a religious celebration, a desire to share and unite. ... It
is also complex. (Broadstock 1995: 325-327).

Shanahans two most notable contributions to recorder multiphonics include: The Avant-
Garde Recorder: A Preliminary Study of Some Developments in Alto Recorder Playing
Techniques and Their Notation [BMus(Hons) (1984)], and Recorder Unlimited A Preliminary
Study of the Alto Recorders Multiphonic Resources [Ph.D (Prelim) (1993)]. When questioned
about the overlap between his work in both these texts and Michael Vetters Il Flauto Dolce ed
Acerbo, and how similar or dissimilar these works are, he stated:

There is very little overlap indeed! My own work is far more detailed and, unlike that of

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 Vetter, does not resolve the pitches of multiphonic components to the nearest
semitone. The Avant-Garde Recorder, in its opening chapters, provides a detailed
comparison between itself and Vetters seminal work. Recorder Unlimited investigates
the subject of recorder multiphonics in much greater depth, including combinations of
multiphonics with other recorder techniques. (Questionnaire, Appendix Two, Shanahan
2013).

In essence, all of these concepts, with their vastly differing use of standard and alternative
fingerings and extended techniques, continually expand the dynamic extremities and
expressive nuances of the recorder. Another development in recorder multiphonics includes
Martine Kientzys monograph Les Sons Multiples Aux Fltes Bec (Salabert, 1982),
published in English and French, giving rise to 1191 fingerings and approximately 775
recorder multiphonics. Furthermore, this is subsequently expanded in Ian Shanahans
research into post-1960 recorder techniques, and extended techniques. Shanahans
inspiration was gained by him listening to the Japanese shakuhachi, drawing musical
analogies between the recorder and the shakuhachi. The shakuhachis compass, microtones,
quartertones, multiphonics, inflections, articulatory devices, and natural means of expression
closely resembling that of the recorder.

Lines of Light (1991/1993) for amplified recorders, two Yamaha DX7 keyboard synthesizers,
and metallic percussion instruments, deploys one recorder player, one or two keyboardists,
one or two percussionists, and optional assistant, the percussionist(s) playing: tubular bells, 7
Japanese temple bells (rin), a Chinese bell tree, a large autocoil, triangle windchime (3
triangles), 2 (or more) brass-tube windchimes, crotales (the lower octave), vibraphone
(optional: employ an assistant to regulate its rate of vibrato). However, on the recordings
only one keyboard player plays, and only one percussionist, along with Shanahan upon
recorders. The work is based upon seven improvisations on (aitheros melos:
Music of the Spheres), its title Lines of Light being appropriated from a novel of the same
name by Daniele Del Giudice, representing a dialogue between a novelist and theoretical
physicist.

Upon a physical plain, the work represents also solar spectra, as manifested by the
phenomenon of the arching rainbow. Lines of Light also has encrypted in it more ancient and
mystical meanings associated with the word/ikon of light. Commissioned by the new-music

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ensemble australySIS, it was premiered at a concert by them titled Redesigning the System,
at the Joseph Post Auditorium, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, 27th November 1993.

In examining Lines of Lights contribution to solo alto recorder repertoire, the work provides
intellectual challenges, as well as technical challenges for the recorder player in terms of
producing a smooth consistent flow of specific multiphonics that may haphazardly crack
upwards or downwards. The work is also challenging in its interactions and intensity,
responding with improvisatory freedom from a purely referential score from all players, at a
given moment in a time continuum, and producing a non-rigid performance continually in a
state of flux. Technically, Lines of Light also requires careful listening by all players, as well as
sensitivity to cueing and co-ordination. The amount of performance directives that have to be
processed internally by the recorder player, and the other players, is detailed in the
Performance Notes, which may seem overwhelming (forty-six pages!), but is purely intended
to inform and aid the performers.

Technological Innovation.

The reasons why this particular piece sounds as it does at this period may be reflected by the
vogue for synthesized keyboard sounds that was current during the early 1980s, continuing to
the early 1990s. In terms of recorder sounds, these had all been well established by the post-
1960 avant-garde composers. In response to a questionnaire regarding the compositional
processes and how such innovative original music is created, Shanahan stated:

Once my instrumentation has been decided upon, usually after much deliberation, I
immerse myself into detailed research often in conjunction with my performers
regarding each instruments technical capabilities, in order to establish their timbral
palettes limits and cartography. This often results in a compendious accumulation of
technical charts as part of my sketch material. Such research may even include
consideration of an instruments semiology and iconography (very pertinent in the case
of the recorder!). (Questionnaire Appendix Two, Shanahan 2012)

However, the use of Yamaha DX7 synthesizers and their plethora of algorithimic sound
sources, whose sounds may unintendedly linger on longer than specified in the score, used
in combination with recorder (prepared alto recorder in Improvisation One, then soprano
recorder, thence keyless tenor recorder, later in the work), and a percussion instrumentarium

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in Lines of Light defines a timbrally unique sound-world, the only other work similar to it is
Shanahans Zodiac (1996). The physical layout and playing techniques have also been
included in the Performance Notes. No other works during this period, or since, have used
this combination of instruments. Moreover, no other comparative works are made apparent in
the article Avant-Garde Recorder Music: An Evolutionary View Tracing Developments from
1950 through to 1990 in Europe, USA and elsewhere American Recorder Review,
September 1992.

The Stichting Blokfluit database lists no other solo recorder works which use synthesizers and
percussion in such an unusual combination since this date either. Shanahans cutting edge
modernism is primarily achieved by his highly unusual exoticized soundscape. He also
defines and creates an illusory spatial element in his music, in combination with amplified
electro-acoustic phenomena, akin to Trevor Wisharts (2005: 45-46) illusory musical space.
Juxtaposition of inharmonic spectra of the percussive instruments are closely aligned to the
microtonal and quartertonal frequencies of the recorder in this first section. In performing the
recorder part of Lines of Light, specifics and meta-specifics must be considered, as outlined in
the Performance Notes (See Appendix One).

Comparisons in Lines of Lights harmonic colouration, polyphonic interweave, include

klangfarbenmelodie, Messiaenic spirituality in terms of harmonic colouration, highly angular
disjunctive intervallic displacement of accompanying instrumentation (cf Schoenbergs Pierrot
Lunaire), and pointallistic styles akin to Stockhausens Kontra Punkte (1952). All such musics
are highly dependent upon individual sonorities, polyphonically and harmonically interwoven,
with differing intensities and rates of interaction, highly cognate to Lines of Lights first
improvisation.

Analytical Techniques to Analyse the Notation, Multiphonics, Recordings of the

Recorder Part in the Opening Improvisation.

In terms of analysing the recorder performances of Shanahan in these recordings, and their
relationship to the score, several approaches are applicable. Inharmonic spectra in recorder
multiphonics which include microtonality and quartertonality may be analysed mathematically
using fractional set theory in order to analyse microtonality and general melodic inflections.
James W. Beaumonts Analysis of Musical Instrumental Sounds (2007: 1-89) is highly

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applicable in terms of timbral analysis in which acoustic properties of instrumental sounds are
related to specific perceptual features i.e. amplitude and fundamental frequency easily
control loudness and pitch, other perceptual features being related to sound spectra and how
they vary with time.

Tonal brightness is associated with the centroid or tilt of a spectrum; attack impact called
bite or attack sharpness is associated with spectral features during the first 20-100 ms of
sound, tonal warmth being connected with spectral features such as coherence or
inharmonicity. However, the lack of a comprehensive theory in assessing specifically timbre,
makes it difficult to apply this to the analysis of Lines of Light; such data will be eventually be
based on data obtained from varying spectrum analysis deploying short-time Fourier analysis,
as outlined in Beaumont (2007: 1-89) specifically using the SNDAN synthesis package.

Nicholas Cooks Between Process and Product: Music and/as Performance (MTO Volume 7,
No.2, April 2001) may provide a viable alternative to analysing the improvisatory rubric cells of
the recorder recordings and score in Lines of Light, the notated recorder part acting as script
rather than text; however such an interdisciplinary approach using principles from theatre
studies, poetry reading, and ethnomusicology, does not represent exactly the pitch
frequencies, dynamic intensities, and specific multiphonic inflections of the recorder part in
Lines of Light.

Jos Bowens work in establishing the Centre for History and Analysis of Recorded Music in
1949 (CHARM) has led to the interest in the relationship between the musical work and its
performances, based upon his principal interests in performance, interpretation, reception,
jazz and popular music, and performance analysis largely based upon 19th-century music.
His journal article Using Recordings in Research (Chapter Ten in A Guide to Discography
[University of California Press, December 2002]) may be used in conceptualizing Lines of
Lights relatively few recordings, emphasizing the self-contained period styles of Shanahans
musical modernism, yet also showing how uniquely different Shanahans recorder
performances are throughout the three recordings featured. Such techniques may also be
applied to compare other recordings to examine stylistic change in recordings over greater
time-periods. Fellow member of CHARM Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, whose The Changing
Sound of Music: Approaches to Studying Recorded Musical Performances (2009) and
selective tour of 20th-century performance practices, works from the earliest of recordings

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taking voice, violin, and piano, to examine self-contained traditions, as well as the subsequent
mechanisms that cause stylistic change in performance. Leech-Wilkinsons observations
upon performance determinants i.e. interaction of the properties of their instrument,
physicality, bodily movement, personal choices, and particularly self-contained musical taste,
the main constant in all of the determinants listed that are likely to cause individualistic
metamorphic change in performance recorded or otherwise are all applicable to any genres
of performance practice. The multifaceted complexity and interaction of such elements can
still be applied even to such a small number of recordings as Lines of Light provides. The
uniqueness of Shanahans improvisatory freedom in each recording is worthy of comparative
analysis to reveal period taste and subsequent stylistic change. However, Daniel Leech-
Wilkinsons work in analysing recordings has been frowned upon by some musicologists; yet
paradoxically, his musicologist stance and analysis using Sonic Visualiser fully reveals the
differing elements of recorded music i.e. tempo mapping, tempo rubato, melodic inflection in
vocal and instrumental music, can all be used to compare performance practice in
recordings.

John Rinks comparative graphical analysis used in Musical Performance: A Guide to

Understanding (2002: 34-55) may also beautifully represent the opening improvisation of
Lines of Light, in which Sonic Visualiser can fully reveal the exact pitch frequencies,
inharmonicity (i.e. microtonal and quartertonal), differing dynamic intensities, relationship of
attack, fade and delay, melodic shape, and improvisatory inflections of the solo recorder and
its relationship to the accompaniment, and the differing relationship of the performances to
the score throughout the three recordings of Lines of Light. Lines of Lights modernity and
complexity, in a score wherein unmeasured bars, lack of dynamics in the recorder part and
accompaniment, absence of tempo markings, and the complex compound harmonic
language, makes traditional elements such as identifying formal divisions and its basic tonal
plan difficult, the music is not conceived as such. Graphing tempo, dynamics, preparing a
rhythmic reduction, and renotating the music are also difficult, but not impossible. Analysis of
melodic shape and consistent ideals as outlined by Rink (2002: 36-39) is highly applicable to
the recorder recordings and score of the opening improvisation of Lines of Light:

According to Dunsby, a more deliberate analytical approach might help performers

cope with difficult passages, but their generally pragmatic approach precludes the

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 methodological rigour normally associated with analysis. This sort of analysis, [is] of a
kind different from that in published analyses. This sort of analysis is not some
independent procedure applied to the act of interpretation but rather an integral part
of the performing process. ... I noted the importance of musical shape, rather than
structure, in the performers conceptualisation of music an elusive but elucidatory
notion more temporarily conceived than that of structure. (Rink 2002: 36).

In using Sonic Visualiser, the ensuing spectral analysis uses a single linear butterfly
waveform in combination with spectrogram representations to compare and contrast as an
acoustic parameter how registral extremities in recorder multiphonics define and shape
melodic contour, based upon notated referential randomized rubric cells, improvisatory
randomized articulation, and differing rates of dynamic intensity and interaction with the entire
ensemble.

Findings Spectrogram and Waveform Analysis.

Live World Premiere Recording at the Sydney Conservatorium (1993). (The small grey
square in each graph indicates the end of the first improvisation segueing into Improvisation
Two.)

Studio Recording (1993).

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Live Sydney Opera House Recording (1999), also featured on the Harmonia CD recording
(2001).

Findings Spectrogram and Waveform Analysis.

Performances/Recordings.

Throughout all of these recordings, Roger Dean performs alone on Yamaha DX7 keyboard
synthesizers, Daryl Pratt on metallic percussion instruments, and Ian Shanahan upon
recorders; this is not entirely in agreement with the forces mentioned in the Performance
Notes which lists one or two keyboardists, one or two percussionists, and an optional
assistant to regulate the rate of vibrato on the vibraphone.

Lines of Light Live World Premiere Recording at the Sydney Conservatorium (1993).

First Improvisation 3:16:05, Total Length of Recording 9:55:02.

In establishing a relationship with the recorder score and the actual recorder performance, it
is difficult to establish a specific ordering of the randomized referential rubric cells in
Shanahans recorder performance on this recording. This is largely due to the complexity of
improvised sounds, in which microtonality and quartertonality are prevalent, and bear little
relationship to the recorder referential sketch. However, Shanahans improvisatory recorder
intepretation creates a consisent variation form of upwardly spiralling multiphonics, which
define overall musical phrasing and contour by extremes of register, in which fluttertonguing
and tongue-tremolo as articuatory devices are also integral in defining this sections timbral
uniqueness. Randomized normal articulations in the recorder i.e. staccato, portato, etc.
are less prevalent.

The accompaniments differing dynamic intensities, chaotic kaledoscopic interweave

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represented upon the y axis, elements of attack, fade, delay of sounds, exact pitch
registration and the temporal relationship of such sustained sounds, are counterbalanced by
the consistent regularity of Shanahans spiralling multiphonics in this recording. Due to the
acoustical complexity of inharmonic sounds, overlap of inharmonic spectra in the recorder
sounds and percussive sounds does occur infrequently in the waveform analysis and
spectrogram representations; however, overall such sounds are well-differentiated. Shanahan
mirrors the dynamic and registral extremities of the accompaniment in his recorder-playing;
however, in the most dense textural and harmonic moments, even the amplifed recorder
sounds are lost.

Lines of Light Studio Recording (1993).

First Improvisation 4:02:05, Total Length of Recording 10.06.182.

In examing the waveform analysis of Shanahans recorder performance, the intensity and
rate-of-change of referential material in the score and his actual interpretation of this in the
performance bears no significant change in relation to the previous recording. However, the
unique placement of essentially upward-spiralling multiphonics in the recorder performance
used in combination with inharmonic spectra (i.e. microtonality and quartertonality) produces
a completely different general overall waveform in which there appears to be a greater
dynamic intensity, particularly in the recorders highest multiphonics. This is largely in
Shanahans improvisatory response to the accompaniment in this recording: he matches the
dynamic intensities and registral extremes of the accompaniment; this ensures that his
recorder sounds are not lost even in the most dense harmonic and textural sections of this
improvisation. Fluttertonguing and tongue-tremolo also equally define timbrally these
essential multiphoncs in the recording and the score less so than other normal articulations.
Structually, the accompaniment defines the overall architectonic dimensons of this longer
recording; Shanahans recorder multiphonics integrally seem to unify the chaotically ever-
changing textural interface that the accompaniment creates in the recording and the score.

Lines of Light Live Recording (1999), also featured on the Harmonia CD recording
(2001).

The importance that the accompaniment has in defining structurally and notationally this
opening section in the first two recordings is further emphasized in the third recording. In the

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accompaniment a more powerful dynamic range in this recording is reflected in the more
intensive levels of attack, longer sustain, and delay of sounds in the spectrogram
representation on the y axis, which equally defines the larger structural dimensions and
creation of illusory musical space, and is also emphasized by the longer recording length.
Waveform analysis of this recording reveals that Shanahans recorder-playing matches the
greater dynamic levels with an improvisatory intensity that uses very rapid changes of high-
register multiphonics, extreme integral tremolo and tongue-tremolo, microtones and
quartertones. Although there is a greater rate-of-change in multiphonics, such multiphonics
expressed in the score and recording are more consistent in establishing an overall unifed
contour in comparison to the other recordings, also with higher registral extremities of
recorder multiphonics in this recording. Paradoxically, although consistent multiphonics create
variation form based upon referential material in the score and recordings throughout these
recordings, this is achieved through juxtaposition of symmetrical and asymmetertical phrase
patterns throughout Shanahans improvisatory recorder performances.

Even to the trained musician, Shanahans recorder performances on the recordings may
appear similar aurally throughout the three recordings. However, the complexity of recorder
multiphonic sounds and the relationship to improvisatory referential randomized rubric cells in
the recording and in the score are far too complex to be retained aurally. Vertically and
horizontally, the improvisatory placement of recorder sounds in the score and recordings
govern essentially highly differing structural temporal time-continua; Shanahans recorder
performances in this opening improvisation are defined by upper extremities of essentially
notated upwardly spiralling multiphonics which structurally unifies and bonds this opening
section, which is essential in comparison to the chaotically everchanging textural interface
that the accompaniment creates in all of these recordings, and in the score. Furthermore, no
dynamic markings occur in the scores of the accompaniment or the recorder part, which are
entirely dictated by the interaction and differing intensities of improvisatory freedom
throughout the entire ensemble in these recordings.

Consisent to all three recordings is the way in which Shanahan delineates the end of this
section with a trill motif based upon the interval of a major second, used as a cueing device
for the rest of the ensemble. Throughout Shanahans three recorder performances, even
subtle changes in loudness among the multiphonics produce substantial changes in recorder

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timbre, too much breath-pressure means that notes may crack, too little means that the
specifically notated micotones and quartertones do not sound, further emphasizing the
volatility of this opening section.

The Use of Multiphonics.

The perceptual synthesis of successive tones in Lines of Light gives the impression of
musical line, as aptly surmised by Cook (1990: 23) similar to Gestalt principles. The specific
multiphonics of the recorder in combination with microtonal inflections enhance the
inharmonic spectra in this opening section. The upward registral extremities of the recorder
are continually emphasized, outlining melodic inflection. Shanahan quotes, in his Recorder
Unlimited A Preliminary Study of the Alto Recorders Multiphonic Resources, Section 2.1.3.,
under the heading Alto recorder multiphonics internal hierarchy: timbral implications:

Even in multiphonic contexts where spectra balance is actually somewhat variable, a

(loud) alto recorder multiphonics upper pitch, particularly if it is rather high within the
instruments tessitura, will sometimes overshadow the lower multiphonic elements.
This tendency has meaningful compositional implications for the perception of musical
sequences comprised entirely of consecutive recorder multiphonics: their highest
(instead of their lowest) constituent tones may define the dominant melody of the
progression. (Shanahan 1993: 37-38).

The above statement is particularly true in the way in which the upper extremities of the
recorders multiphonics shape and define the overall contours and consistent variation form of
the opening improvisation of Lines of Light. Such sounds are not experimental, as is often
the case in the work of less clearly defined recorder avant-garde composition. Shanahans
expertise as composer and recorder player can be aptly surmised in Linde (1991: 98), for in
Shanahans work he ensures that all fingerings are clearly notated, with no break in between
consecutive fingerings, all such patterns falling neatly under the hands. Shanahan is quite
strict in his Performance Notes Section 2: The Amplified Recorders Details in relation to this
point:

For each of the prepared alto recorders fractalous sonorities in sections 1 and 2, all
pitches between a pair of bold orthogonal brackets [ ] manifest themselves as distinct
vibrational modes of a single fingering: hence, no finger-movement whatsoever should

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 take place prior to progressing on to the next sonority! However, as a direct outcome of
engaging the randomized parameters given within these sections, compel these
orthogonally-bracketed pitches to crack upwards or downwards, flickering chaotically
between and through several vibrational modes and multiphonic component tones. The
overall impression of these complex coruscative objects should therefore be one of
volatile instability a locally unpredictable acoustic fractal. (Shanahan 1993: 5).

As a response to Shanahans use of multiphonics and experimental use of them in other

instrumental genres by other composers, there is no sense in which he uses multiphonics
haphazardly, used for their own effect, as utilized by so many other recorder composers. Less
accomplished recorder composers would fail to specify the exact acoustical resultant in terms
of specific recorder fingering, specific exploration of instrumental cartography sounds which
are mapped to specific instruments, providing the best clarity of nuances across all registers
of recorders. Shanahan further describes the timbral characteristics in Section 2.1.3. from his
Recorder Unlimited A Preliminary Study of the Alto Recorders Multiphonic Resources
(1993): This novel technical capability therefore greatly expands the instruments tonal
palette by providing a thoroughly relevant expressive medium for composers and recorder
players alike .... The production of multiphonics, extended techniques and articulatory
armoury upon the recorder are aided by its natural keyless construction, unhampered by any
mechanical paraphernalia. Shanahans meta-specific use of multiphonics in Lines of Light
ensures that the natural sounds of the recorder are sensitively balanced with the phenomena
of electroacoustic amplification, further clarified in his Section 1.3.2. B. Martine Kientzy: Les
Sons Multiples Aux Fltes Bec (1982):

... [E]very recorder multiphonic encompasses different acoustic details. Certainly, sets
of recorder multiphonics exist which are perceptibly very similar, but they are never
identical timbrally, because their precise spectral contents, air-noise elements,
undertones, or modulation characteristics will vary however subtly. (Shanahan 1993:
9).

However, other multiphonics, as in the first bar of the recorder part, include incomplete
multiphonic notation, not fully reflecting sidebands; difference tones are also excluded. In
Lines of Light, the importance of not distorting the natural recorders timbres should be a
primary aim in the performance of this music, this is also acknowledged in the composers

~ 16 ~
Performance Notes, Section 2: The Amplified Recorders Details:

In order for the recorders to achieve adequate acoustical projection and a proper
balance with the other instruments ..., some discreet sound-reinforcement of the
recorders (with a high-quality cardioid or omnidirectional air microphone) will be
necessary in concert i.e. all recorders must be amplified! However, the level of
amplification ought to kept to a minimum, so that the recorders natural timbres will be
heard as clearly as possible: so, excessive sound-reinforcement is to be avoided.
Optimally, the loudspeaker(s) for the recorders should be positioned near the recorder-
player, so as to create the impression of a single sound-source for these instruments,
thereby maintaining the integrity of the spatial distribution of sound as it corresponds to
the placement of each performer on stage. (Shanahan 1993: 5).

Throughout this work, generally only the highest and lowest multiphonic pitches are notated.
Issues of clarity and precision are highly important in terms of performance in the recorder
part of Lines of Light, despite the works improvisational freedom, randomized aleatoric
processes, in which a wealth of articulatory, monophonic, and multiphonic devices could
inspire and even provide innovation to performers wanting to phrase or shape musical
phrases from earlier styles. Heatons initial scrutinization and summary in his paper
Contemporary Performance Practice and Tradition, Music Performance Research for The
Royal Northern College of Music (2012) eloquently expresses a similar issue, which at first
may seem applicable to this opening section, and possibly other sections of Lines of Light:

Interpretation of complex modernist music demands rhythmic and dynamic and pitch
accuracy, but it often displays a significant lack of expression a tradition adhering
closely to the score. Players may believe that in playing new music they do not have to
reckon with the weight of an established performance practice, that they can create
their own in music. In modernist music for example, there is an interpretational
approach that has become the accepted style, demanding a level of accuracy, a
cleanliness of attack, and often significant lack of what one might call expression a
performance tradition in theory, adheres closely to the score: In Rosens words its
radical nature. However, performers of modernist music, almost all conservatoire-
trained, find it impossible to suppress an impulse derived from earlier styles to phrase
or shape, a kind of utility musicality. (Heaton 2012: 97).

~ 17 ~
However, with reference to Heatons comments above, complex music has often lead to
emphasize Stuckenschimidts (1969: 178) belief that: There is no doubt that the subjective
factor that dominated music for so long in the name of emotional expressionism is now close
to extinction. Further comments in the paper Performance Practice: A Manifestation of Our
Time by Judy Lochead (1992), in which concepts applied to period performance and
performance practice in Baroque music and authentic rendition in accordance with the
composers intentions, may initially seem applicable to contemporary music as exemplified in
the complexity and modernism of Ian Shanahans Lines of Light:

Downplaying of expressive factors, have often lapsed into a calculating and geometric
manner of expression, one that bears a close relationship to the anti-emotional
depersonalized stance evinced by a number of twentieth-century composers
Stravinsky, Boulez, Babbitt, et al. and by literary critics such as Pound, Eliot and
Ortega. (Lochead 1992).

However, this would be a far too simplistic view of the opening section of Lines of Light, in
which the players interact and create their own developmental discourse from a referential
sketch of a score, shaping and moulding the musical contours, reacting to each other and
upon the impulse of the moment. In essence, this opening section is conceived similarly to
minimalistic process music such as Steve Reichs Music as a Gradual Process, in which
small-scale structural change has implications upon the larger scale structural dimensions of
musical time and space relationships. The differing interactions of these elements create
substantial structural differences and metamorphic change in the accompaniment of these
recordings, and also a considerable difference in the amount of illusory musical spatial depth
created.

Chaos theory is particularly relevant to the whole of Lines of Light, demonstrated by the highly
volatile accompaniment, and by the contrasting unifying integral recorder part, paradoxically
also highly unique in its differing interactions with the accompaniment, as demonstrated in the
score and recordings. Structurally, the chaotic first two improvisations later move to strictly
notated time-space notation in the ensuing sections. The free variation form of Lines of Light
is cleverly disguised by variations generally segueing into each other, with the big recorder
theme occurring at the end.

~ 18 ~
Conclusions.

In the score, and throughout the three recordings of this opening improvisation of Lines of
Light, timbrally Shanahans recorder performances as an acoustical parameter are defined by
their upper extremities of essentially notated multiphonics which dictate the overall contour,
shape, and melodic inflections. Integral in the score and recordings to these essential notated
multiphonics are normal articulations (staccato, portato, legato), fluttertonguing and tongue-
tremolo, microtonal inflections, quartertones, and randomized ornamentation (i.e. grace
notes). The instability and volatility of this opening improvisation of Lines of Light notationally
and in the score is emphasized by the fractalous nature of amplified recorder multiphonics,
notes possibly cracking upwards or downwards in actual performance.

Production of multiphonics upon the recorder are highly dependent upon the individual player,
instrument, and amount of breath-pressure. The composer is highly specific in terms of
resultant pitch in this opening improvisation, notationally providing all fingering patterns, as
well as specific microtonal, and quartertonal intentions. In the recordings and in the score,
inharmonic spectra are used in the recorder and percussion instruments, and the unique
synthesizer sounds which unpredictablyly linger on longer than expected also uniquely define
timbrally the soundscape of Lines of Light.

A referential score with an absence of dynamic markings throughout this opening

improvisation places all the emphasis upon the performers: in the actuality of performance in
these recordings, they structurally metamorphically mould and create their own truly unique
musical discourses, being governed entirely by the improvisatory intensity, intercourse, or
interaction of the ensemble, and the genius of Shanahans integral response to this in his
recorder interpretations. Throughout the three recordings, and notationally, in terms of
responding to the improvisatory freedom of the vastly powerful exoticized accompaniment,
Shanahan in his recorder performances tries to mirror their dynamic intensities and registral
extremities in his recorder-playing: this ensures that even the amplified recorders sounds are
never distorted or lost, even when the most dense textural and harmonic moments occur.

Timbrally in terms of registral contrast, dynamic intensity, and overall interaction, an

exoticized accompaniment also emphasises the angularity, the highly disjunctive intervallic
writing, which rhythmically propels the music forwards. The kaleidoscopic interweave of such

~ 19 ~
sounds all increasingly become more intensively layered up throughout the recordings, the
differing registral attack and sustain of such sounds influencing the large-scale architectonic
proportions of the work and its ever-changing textural interface. Structurally in the recordings,
but not the score, the accompaniments sounds consistently become more sustained, and thin
down towards the end of this opening. The accompaniment provides a colouristic harmonic
soundscape that kaleidoscopically reflects refracted beams of light, as manifested in the
arching rainbow represented in the title of this work. Shanahans strictly notated score and
improvisatory playing also structurally bond and unify the work with his integral recorder
multiphonics throughout the three recordings, and in the printed score. Using the
accompaniment to structurally define a work mirrors musical principles akin to those stated in
Schoenbergs Fundamentals of Musical Composition (1999: 93).

Lines of Lights abstract harmonic language is an ambiguous compound harmonic language,

in which chromatic, microtonal, and quartertonal elements all coexist. The musics compound
harmony closely resembles atonal serialism in that: it avoids tonality, is largely athematic,
contains no traditional resolution of dissonance, is passed on throughout parts, has no
traditional cadential points, or traditional phrases in the recorder part; all these elements
define the modernity of this work.

Shanahans complex uniquely differing improvisatory responses in his recorder-playing

throughout the three recordings from referential rubric cells in the score create symmetrical
and asymmetrical phrase patterns that also paradoxically engender consistent variation form.
Timbrally as an acoustic parameter, recorder multiphonics, registral extremities, articulatory
devices, attack, fade and delay, and the interaction with the accompaniment may all be
beautifully represented with spectrogram and waveform analysis fully revealing the
complexities and how uniquely Shanahans recorder performances differ in relation to the
score throughout the three recordings. Strikingly, what is most noticeable in the spectrogram
and waveform analysis is the way in which throughout the three recordings initially the overlay
of the accompaniment with its vastly massive registral rhythmic and percussive timbral
extremities injects several differing layers of fragmented colouristic light, the recorder part a
coherent spiralling variation form of multiphonics and articulatory devices. As the three
recordings progress to the end of the work, literally single lines of light in high tubular bell
single-note stratospheric extremities, and a wealth of other percussive instruments singularly

~ 20 ~
express sustained notes which sound almost into infinity. As these singular notes attack and
fade away, the recorder finally seamlessly injects its final low registral note, fading into
eternity. Such graphical representation truly depicts lines of light in the spectrogram
representations, formed from a minutiae of volatility in which fluidity of rhythmic and
complexity of harmonic language form an ever changing textural interface.

References.

BEAUMONT, J. W., (2007). Analysis of Musical Instrumental Sounds, pp.1-89, Modern

Acoustics and Signal Processing.

BOWEN, J., (2014). http://www.jazz.com/encyclopedia/bowen-jose-antonio, accessed

15/1/2014.

ed. BROADSTOCK, B., (1995). Shanahans Manifesto in Sound Ideas: Australian Composers
Born Since 1950, A Guide to Their Music and Ideals, pp.325-327.

COOK, N., (1990). Music Imagination and Culture, pp.13-23, Oxford: Clarendon Press.

COOK, N., (2001). Between Process and Product: Music and/as Performance in MTO Volume
7, No 2, April 2007, (20/12/2013), http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.01.7.2/mto.01.7.2cook
html.

HEATON, R., (2012). Music Performance Research Paper, Contemporary Performance and
Tradition, Royal Northern College of Music, Vol. 5, including CMPCP/PSN Special Issue
pp.96-104, ISSM 1755-2219.

LEECH-W ILKINSON, D., (2009). The Changing Sound of Music: Approaches to Studying
Recorded Musical Performances, accessed 16/1/2014 www.charm.kcl.ac.uk/studies/
chapters/intro.html.

LINDE, H-M., (1991). The Recorder in the Twentieth Century in The Recorder Players
Handbook, pp.98-99, Schott.

LOCHEAD, J., (1992). Paper, Performance Practice: A Manifestation of Our Time.

~ 21 ~
RINK, J., (2002). Musical Performance: A Guide to Understanding, pp.34-55, Cambridge
University Press.

ROSE, P., (1992). Avant-Garde Recorder Music: An Evolutionary View, Developments from
1950 through 1990 in Europe, the USA and Elsewhere, in American Recorder Magazine,
September, pp.19-22.

SCHOENBERG, A., (1999). Fundamentals of Musical Composition, p.93, Faber and Faber.

SHANAHAN, I., (2013). Questionnaire 23/09/13, question 24, Appendix Two.

SHANAHAN, I., (2013). Questionnaire 23/09/13, question 10, Appendix Two.

SHANAHAN, I., (2013). Questionnaire 23/09/13, question 28, Appendix Two.

SHANAHAN, I., (2013). Questionnaire 23/09/13, question 20, Appendix Two.

SHANAHAN, I., (2013). Questionnaire 23/09/13, question 17, Appendix Two.

SHANAHAN, I., (2013). Questionnaire 23/09/13, question 30, Appendix Two.

SHANAHAN, I., (1993). Internal Hierarchy: Timbral Implications in Section 2.1.3. p.37, of
Recorder Unlimited: A Preliminary Study of the Alto Recorders Multiphonic Resources (Ph.D
(Prelim)).

SHANAHAN, I., (1993). Performance Notes, Lines of Light, Section 2, The Amplified Recorders
Details, p.5.

SHANAHAN, I., (1993). Timbral characteristics in Section 2.1.3. p.24, of Recorder Unlimited: A
Preliminary Study of the Alto Recorders Multiphonic Resources (Ph.D (Prelim)).

SHANAHAN, I., (1993). Books and Monographs, Section 1.3.2 B. p.9, from Recorder Unlimited,
A Preliminary Study of the Alto Recorders Multiphonic Resources (Ph.D (Prelim)).

STUCKENSCHMIDT, H. H., (1969). Twentieth Century Music, pp.178-179, McGraw Hill Books
Co.

VETTER, M., (1974). Il Flauto Dolce Ed Acerbo Celle Moeck.

~ 22 ~
WALTERS, M., (2004). M.A. Submission, Crossing the Modernist-Postmodernist Divide:
Performance Challenges in Late Twentieth Century Australian Flute Music, p.4, Adelaide
University.

WISHART, T., (2005). Sound Symbols and Landscapes in Analytical Methods of

Electroacoustic Music, pp 45-46, ed. Mary Simoni, Routledge Taylor and Francis Group.

Annotated Bibliography.

BEAUMONT, J. W., (2007). Analysis of Musical Instrumental Sounds, pp.1-89, Modern

Acoustics and Signal Processing. Timbral analysis of instrumental sounds using short-time
Fourier displays similar spectral elements cf Sonic Visualizer, which was used to analyse
Lines of Light.

BOWEN, J., (2014). http://www.jazz.com/encyclopedia/bowen-jose-antonio, accessed

15/1/2014. Bowens work with CHARM and recorded music in particular performance,
interpretation, reception and performance analysis can all be applied to the recordings of
Lines of Light.

ed. BROADSTOCK, B., (1995). Shanahans Manifesto in Sound Ideas: Australian Composers
Born Since 1950, A Guide to Their Music and Ideals, pp.325-327. This statement establishes
Shanahans ideology and modernism as a complex composer. He deploys highly abstract
mathematical discourses; chaos theory is particularly relevant to the whole of Lines of Light.

COOK, N., (1990). Music Imagination and Culture, pp.13-23, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Regarding p.13: Anti-intellectualism towards contemporary music in general is fuelled by the
opinions of non-specialists and laypersons. Academic aloofism from composers who speak
about such music may be off-putting to non-specialists. Lines of Lights cutting edge
modernism is also subject to such opinions from non-educated musicians and laypersons. In
relation to p.23, the synthesis of successive lines in Lines of Lights first section creates the
impression of musical lines formed by the differing interaction of the entire ensemble, which
are akin to Gestalt principles.

COOK, N., (2001). Between Process and Product: Music and/as Performance in MTO Volume
7, No 2, April 2007, (20/12/2013), http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.01.7.2/mto.01.7.2cook
html. The improvisatory nature of the opening section of Lines of Light uses referential

~ 23 ~
material in the score in all parts; in the recorded performances, the recorder part acts akin to
Cooks notion of script rather than text, being governed by the actuality and moment of live
improvisation throughout the entire ensemble.

HEATON, R., (2012). Music Performance Research Paper, Contemporary Performance and
Tradition, Royal Northern College of Music, Vol. 5, including CMPCP/PSN Special Issue
pp.96-104, ISSM 1755-2219. Complex music such as Lines of Light requires a precision and
clarity of execution, though lack of personal expression through complexity in notational style
is overcome by the improvisatory interaction and responses from the ensemble throughout
the recordings.

LEECH-W ILKINSON, D., (2009). The Changing Sound of Music: Approaches to Studying
Recorded Musical Performances, accessed 16/1/2014 www.charm.kcl.ac.uk/studies/
chapters/intro.html. Leech-Wilkinsons approach to analysing recordings and musical
performance in which performances can take a new direction away from the notated text and
towards perception is highly applicable to Lines of Lights referential score, in which
Shanahans interpretative recorder improvisatory performances seem to bear little relationship
to the score, continually in a state of flux throughout all the recordings.

LINDE, H-M., (1991). The Recorder in the Twentieth Century in The Recorder Players
Handbook, pp.98-99, Schott. Less accomplished recorder experimental composers fail to
specify the exact fingering patterns for multiphonics, or for alternative fingerings; they also
write music that is non-idiomatic for the recorder. Linde acknowledges this fact.

LOCHEAD, J., (1992). Paper, Performance Practice: A Manifestation of Our Time. Lochead
emphasizes a geometric anti-emotional approach to performance practice; cf Stravinskys
avoidance of Romantic traits, and other 20th-century composers opinions, playing exactly
what is written and nothing else. However, in Lines of Light, improvisatory aleatoric elements,
i.e., randomization of rubric cells and articulation in the recorder part (both in recordings and
score) and a highly fluid textural musical interface accompaniment quickly dispels Locheads
opinions.

RINK, J., (2002). Musical Performance: A Guide to Understanding, pp.34-55, Cambridge

University Press. Spectral graphical analysis using Sonic Visualizer of Lines of Light was
used akin to Rink in order to represent the overall contours and inflections of the recorder part

~ 24 ~
and accompaniment in the four recordings, comparing and contrasting the effect that timbral
differences had upon dynamic intensities, (attack, durations), registral contrast, and overall
structural dimensions in terms interactions of the ensemble.

ROSE, P., (1992). Avant-Garde Recorder Music: An Evolutionary View, Developments from
1950 through 1990 in Europe, the USA and Elsewhere, in American Recorder Magazine,
September, pp.19-22. This article examines all of the major repertoire for solo alto recorder.
Although contemporary techniques such as multiphonics, microtones, and quartertones are
deployed in some of these works, such techniques do not equal the complexity of Shanahans
usage in terms of amplified multiphonics in combination with other extended techniques, nor
to the non-standard instrumental set up of Lines of Light.

SCHOENBERG, A., (1999). Fundamentals of Musical Composition, p.93, Faber and Faber.
Lines of Light throughout the recordings and in the score is structurally defined by its
accompaniment, the recorder part also being important in unifying the first improvisation with
its variation form in the recordings and the score. Schoenbergs principles of the
accompaniment structurally defining the overall form of a work are equally applicable to Lines
of Light.

SHANAHAN, I., (2013). Questionnaire 23/09/13, question 24, Appendix Two. Baur, Vetter, and
Berio, all pivotal post-1960 recorder composers, highly influenced many recorder players and
composers post-1960; Shanahan was also clearly influenced by them in his recorder-playing
and as a composer. Many avant-garde recorder techniques used in Lines of Light stem from
this period.

SHANAHAN, I., (2013). Questionnaire 23/09/13, question 10, Appendix Two. Graphical solo
recorder scores by Vetter, Bussotti, and Andriessen, put all of the creative burden upon the
performer, acting as a visual stimulus for improvisation; this is highly relevant to the recorder
score and recordings of Lines of Light in which referential material in the recorder score acts
as a means for expressive improvisation.

SHANAHAN, I., (2013). Questionnaire 23/09/13, question 28, Appendix Two. In an attempt to
bridge the modernist and postmodernist divide, Lines of Light presents a challenge
technically, with its complex use of amplified multiphonics and variegated articulatory
techniques. In Australia, a strong body of professional-standard recorder players who are

~ 25 ~
passionate about new music such as Shanahans have ample opportunity to perform and
record such music, as evinced by the work of the Australian Music Centre.

SHANAHAN, I., (2013). Questionnaire 23/09/13, question 20, Appendix Two. Despite anti-
intellectualism generally in Australia, Shanahans music is typically un-Australian according to
the composer. However pro-intellectualism also occurs, as declared in the previous questions
remarks; this questionnaire also gives background to Ian Shanahans work in general.

SHANAHAN, I., (2013). Questionnaire 23/09/13, question 17, Appendix Two. This compares
Vetters recorder treatise Il Flauto Dolce Ed Acerbo with Shanahans development of recorder
multiphonics, Shanahans approach being far more detailed, his multiphonics being used in
combination with other extended techniques, amplification, and his intervallic movement
occurring microtonally and quartertonally, as opposed to Vetters semitonal resolution.

SHANAHAN, I., (2013). Questionnaire 23/09/13, question 30, Appendix Two. Lines of Light aptly
represents how Shanahan collaborates with all his fellow musicians as to the technical
capabilities and timbral-palette limits and instrumental cartography of all of the instrumental
forces he deploys in his work; this is exemplified by the detailed forty-eight page Performance
Notes and Performance Directives proffered to performers which accompany the score of
Lines of Light.

SHANAHAN, I., (1993). Internal Hierarchy: Timbral Implications in Section 2.1.3. p.37, of
Recorder Unlimited: A Preliminary Study of the Alto Recorders Multiphonic Resources (Ph.D
(Prelim)). Timbrally as an acoustic parameter, in the recordings and in the score, the
recorders contour and shapes of melodic inflections are governed by registral extremities of
upwardly spiralling essential multiphonics in the first improvisation of Lines of Light; all of the
ornaments and articulation are integral to these essential multiphonics.

SHANAHAN, I., (1993). Performance Notes, Lines of Light, Section 2, The Amplified Recorders
Details, p.5. Shanahan is meta-specific in his requirements of multiphonics, including
microtonal and quartertonal inflections, in Lines of Light: all fingerings must be strictly obeyed
to produce such sonorities; notes may crack upwards or downwards emphasizing the volatility
of this first improvisation.

SHANAHAN, I., (1993). Timbral characteristics in Section 2.1.3. p.24, of Recorder Unlimited: A

~ 26 ~
Preliminary Study of the Alto Recorders Multiphonic Resources (Ph.D (Prelim)). Multiphonics
upon the recorder greatly expand the expressivity of the instrument. In the recorder
performance recordings and in the score of Lines of Light, these are timbrally defined as an
acoustic parameter by amplification, differing attack, differing nuances and dynamic
intensities using an armoury of articulatory devices which also influence the overall contours
and inflections of the recorder part in the score and in the recordings.

SHANAHAN, I., (1993). Books and Monographs, Section 1.3.2 B. p.9, from Recorder Unlimited,
A Preliminary Study of the Alto Recorders Multiphonic Resources (Ph.D (Prelim)). Amplified
multiphonics, extended techniques and articulatory devices, in the opening section of Lines of
Light, and throughout this work as a whole, extend the expressive qualities of the recorder, far
surpassing the expanding post-1960 avant-garde techniques, with greater dynamic
expressivity created through the use of amplification in the recorder part.

STUCKENSCHMIDT, H. H., (1969). Twentieth Century Music, pp.178-179, McGraw Hill Books
Co. An anti-emotional approach to performance, and clinical lack of personal expression in
the recorder part may be reinforced by the overwhelming specific and meta-specific
performance notes/directives that Shanahan provides for Lines of Light. However, in the
recorder part throughout the recordings and in the score, the referential randomized
improvisatory rubric cells and articulations, enable all members of the ensemble creatively to
interact and exchange musical material, creatively fused in an improvisatory moment, all
guided by a highly precise visual score.

VETTER, M., (1974). Il Flauto Dolce Ed Acerbo Celle Moeck. This book was used as the basis
of all post-1960 avant-garde recorder composition. In Lines of Light, Shanahans amplified
recorder multiphonics, extended techniques, inharmonic microtonal and quartertonal spectra,
an armoury of articulatory devices, expressively far exceed Vetters semitonal intervallic
resolution of multiphonics, amplification, and articulatory devices.

WALTERS, M., (2004). M.A. Submission, Crossing the Modernist-Postmodernist Divide:

Performance Challenges in Late Twentieth Century Australian Flute Music, p.4, Adelaide
University. Postmodernist composers prefer traditional playing techniques, playability, often
sharing anti-modern views towards complexity. Generally a culture of anti-intellectualism
occurs in Australia, as stated by Shanahan in the questionnaire dated 23/9/13; this is also

~ 27 ~
apparent towards complex musical modernism such as Shanahans.

WISHART, T., (2005). Sound Symbols and Landscapes in Analytical Methods of

Electroacoustic Music, pp 45-46, ed. Mary Simoni, Routledge Taylor and Francis Group. The
interplay of sounds in Lines of Light is highly akin to Wisharts definition of an illusory spatial
soundscape.

Discography.

Lines of Light live world premiere recording at the Sydney Conservatorium (1993). Kindly
provided by Ian Shanahan. Ian Shanahan (recorders), Roger Dean (Yamaha DX7
synthesizers), Daryl Pratt (metallic percussion instruments).

Lines of Light studio recording (1993), the University of Western Sydney Studios. Kindly
provided by Ian Shanahan. Ian Shanahan (recorders), Roger Dean (Yamaha DX7
synthesizers), Daryl Pratt (metallic percussion instruments).

Lines of Light live recording (1999) Sydney Opera House, also featured on the Harmonia CD
recording (2001). Ian Shanahan (recorders), Roger Dean (Yamaha DX7 synthesizers), Daryl
Pratt (metallic percussion instruments).

Harmonia (2004), Australian Music Featuring Recorders including Lines of Light, recorded
2001, with music by Robert Allworth, Colin Bright, Bruce Cale, Eric Gross, Michael Lonsdale,
Ian Shanahan, and Jane Stanley, in memory of Peter Platt. Ian Shanahan performs upon
recorders in this recording. Made in Australia by Mad CDs, Sidereal Records SRCD01.

Appendix One.

Specifics Recorder

The first improvisation in the recorder part is marked: A volcanic yet ephemeral texture:
glittering unceasingly, with great luminosity and searing heat (bubbling lava, solar flares, core
of the sun...). Maintain intensity of activity throughout, Breathe furtively: minimize caesurae
(except where indicated). (See the Recorder part, p.1.)

Randomized parameters within the Amplified Recorders part, Section 1: Randomize: (the
(s)pacing of events (ie their speed and density), breath trills, alternations between flutter-

~ 28 ~
tonguing and tongue-tremolo; normal articulations (eg. staccato, portato, legato), air flow such
that the indicated tones may sound (so that specific multiphonics in combination with
microtonal and quartertonal intervals may sound). (Performance Notes, p.7 refers.)

Grace-note groups all lie outside time locally independent of the time-space paradigm and
any other durational mechanisms. In general, they should be played quite rapidly or even as
fast as possible (i.e. as [very] short indeterminate durations, left to the discretion of the
player) although tenuto markings may be used to suggest a more leisurely approach.
Indeed, nuances in horizontal spacing amongst grace-notes propound a correspondingly
delicate rhythmic interpretation that is, notwithstanding, left to the discretion of the executant
to some extent. Furthermore, despite their autonomous unfurling, grace-notes ought not to be
thought of as mere ornaments, of secondary architectonic status, to the main notes: all
sonorities in Lines of Light are equally important!. (Performance Notes p.3 refers).

Amplification of the Recorders In order for the recorders to achieve adequate acoustical
projection and a proper balance with the other instruments in Lines of Light: Seven
Improvisations on , some discreet sound-reinforcement of the recorders (with a
high-quality cardioid or omnidirectional air microphone) will be necessary in concert i.e. all
recorders must be amplified! However, the level of amplification ought to be kept to a
minimum, so that the recorders natural timbres will be heard as clearly as possible: so,
excessive sound-reinforcement is to be avoided. Optimally, the loudspeaker(s) for the
recorders should be positioned near the recorder-player, so as to create the impression of a
single sound-source for these instruments, thereby maintaining the integrity of the spatial
distribution of sound as it corresponds to the placement of each performer on stage.

Preparation of the amplified alto recorder ... On the prepared alto recorder (which is
employed only within sections 1 and 2 of Lines of Light: Seven Improvisations on
), it is imperative that the bores endpoint, at the footjoints endhole, be closed absolutely
airtight. I recommend the adhesion of a flat lozenge of Blutac, Bostik, Plasticine, or some
other malleable gummy substance to the bell, covering over the endhole completely. Such a
preparation modifies the timbral, dynamic, and intonational response of the instrument;
pitches somewhat below the alto recorders regular gamut can be generated as well.
(Performance Notes p.5 refers.)

~ 29 ~
Meta-specifics Recorder

The prepared alto recorders multiphonic pitches, and microtonal and quartertonal inflections:
Fingering patterns must be strictly obeyed with no break in between successive multiphonics.
Shanahans Performance Notes state: For each of the prepared alto recorders fractalous
sonorities in sections 1 and 2, all pitches between a pair of bold orthogonal brackets [ ]
manifest themselves as distinct vibrational modes of a single fingering: hence, no finger-
movement whatsoever should take place prior to progressing on to the next sonority!
However, as a direct outcome of engaging the randomized parameters given within these
sections, compel these orthogonally-bracketed pitches to crack upwards or downwards,
flickering chaotically between and through several vibrational modes and multiphonic
component tones. The overall impression of these complex coruscative objects should
therefore be one of volatile instability a locally unpredictable acoustic fractal.
(Performance Notes p.5 refers.)

Octave multiphonics, split octaves, and multiphonic spectra portamento also occur. Breath-
trills pitch-oscillations and -fluctuations generated by breath- and throat-control also
manifest themselves. Breath portamento should contain no alteration of fingering.
(Performance Notes p.7 refers.)

Other specifics and meta-specifics of accompaniment please refer to Programme

Performance Notes. (Performance Notes pp 8 28 refers).

Appendix Two.

Dear Ian Shanahan,

Please find below the questions that I mentioned to you in my previous correspondence. This
information will be used for a postgraduate essay, and PhD submission for my course at Bath
Spa University, Bath, England. I request permission from your good self to use this
information on this basis only. If any subsequent publication arises, I will also in the first
instance contact you to obtain any prior permissions relating to copyright. Please let me
express how much of a great honour it is to correspond with you. Thank you for your time;
your response has been highly valued and appreciated God bless you.

All permission granted!

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 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. With specific reference to the works Zodiac for amplified recorder and other
instruments, Lines of Light for recorder, synthesizer and percussion, and Helical
Ribbon, what were your intentions when writing these pieces?

My intention, as always, was simply to create the best possible pieces I was capable of
composing, within each pieces commission constraints! Helical Ribbon was supposed to fit
onto a single score-page, the manuscript itself being a prize in the 1990 Sounds Australian
Award. (It is also part of a set of five etudes, each focussing on a particular aspect of recorder
technique in this case, multiphonics and is intended for somewhat advanced students.)
The other two pieces were both commissioned by the new-music group austraLYSIS, whose
repertoire at the time showcased music with embedded improvisational elements, i.e.
compositions for improvisers comprovisations. Hence they both include carefully
prescribed parameters within which the performers may spontaneously extemporize on the
provided material.

2. What were your influences musically or otherwise when writing these pieces?

For Zodiac, no specific musical influences were consciously drawn upon, although I was well
aware of precursors that engaged the systematic permutational technique which governs its
pitch organization. Its main paramusical impetus was astronomical phenomena celestial
cyclicity. As for Lines of Light, it too is informed by astronomy and physics (solar spectra:
Fraunhofer lines relative wavelengths determine its proportional structure, in combination
with the abovementioned permutational technique, this time applied to duration across at
least two architectonic levels). Helical Ribbon deliberately alludes to the genre of funk in
general, and is a more specific nod of respect towards my dear friend and colleague Michael
Smetanin. Indeed, one bar of Helical Ribbon quotes a rhythm from Michaels composition
Ladder of Escape (for bass and contrabass clarinets). My Programme Notes provide more
expansive answers!

3. What type of harmonic/melodic language do you use in these works?

My own! Notice that one thing which features in each piece is the use of microtones.

4. In terms of performance practice, how much freedom do you give performers to

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express their intentions in these works? What are the defined parameters in these
works?

In Helical Ribbon, very little. (I would always trust that a performers intention was to
transparently articulate that of the composer as embodied by the musics score and
associated artefacts, without any distortion or suppression being wrought by their own ego.)
The other works both feature improvisation within carefully defined limits. (Consult their
scores, and the relevant subsections [1.2.7 & 1.2.8] from Chapter 1 of my PhD.) In Lines of
Light, the degree of freedom is itself a discrete compositional parameter that proceeds along
a trajectory from considerable licence at the start to none whatsoever in its final section.

5. To what extent is indeterminacy or aleatoricism present in any of these works?

See my answer to Question 4.

6. What type of instructions/introductory exposition do you give to explain your music

in these pieces? Does verbal instruction also come into the equation or collaboration
with the performer?

In order to make my composerly intentions as clear and unambiguous as possible, I am in the

habit of providing extremely detailed technical prefaces, as well as programme annotations, to
each of my scores. Verbal instructions and performer collaboration are integral to my
compositional modus operandi. (My PhD includes a subsection [1.2.6] devoted to verbal
instructions!)

7. How rhythmically complex are these pieces?

In Zodiac, rhythm as such is not indicated at all! Lines of Light is notated mostly in time-space
notation (after its first two sections): it isnt particularly complex at the foreground level, but
beyond that, proportional self-similarity and systematic permutations are applied
architectonically to durations. Helical Ribbons rhythmic language pretty much matches that
found within the funk genre, wherein syncopation is quite sophisticated by comparison with
other vernacular musics (besides jazz).

8. How much internal processing is required by the performer in these works, and do
you feel that your music makes your musical intentions clear?

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Certainly in the two pieces written for austraLYSIS, much of the performers internal
processing is geared towards spontaneous invention stemming from the notated material. As
for the second part of your question, I surely hope that my musical intentions are always
crystal clear! I definitely go to considerable trouble in this regard by including programme
annotations and technical prefaces in the front of every one of my scores, as well as providing
much specificity in the musical notation itself (to the extent that I feel its needed).

9. Does spatalization play a part in any of these works? To what extent is this apparent
in Zodiac and Lines of Light in particular?

Not particularly although Lines of Light does include a diagram showing the instrumental
layout, including the placement of loudspeakers.

10. Are you aware of any graphical scores for solo recorder works (unaccompanied, or
accompanied). What issues do such scores bring to the actual realization of music and
particularly performance practice?

Yes: Louis Andriessens Paintings; various pieces by Michael Vetter; and Sylvano Bussottis
RARA (dolce) do spring to mind. Such so-called scores put all of the creative burden upon
the performer, so I do not regard them as compositions per se, rather as visual stimuli for
improvisation.

11. In relation to question 10 what issues do over-prescriptive notational styles, and

even minimalist scores produce in terms of performance practice?

I am unsure how to answer this question. Personally, I dont believe that there is any such
thing as an over-prescriptive notational style. In new music, there is no real common
performance practice any more: it has fragmented to the atomic level of the individual
composer, even from one piece to the next! This accounts for the high level of notational and
verbal detail in some scores, which thereby define their own performance practice.

12. Do any of the extended techniques, or specific fingering patterns you use in the
works listed at question 1 come from your theses The Avant-Garde Recorder: A
Preliminary Study of Some Developments in Alto Recorder Playing Techniques and
Their Notation or Recorder Unlimited A Preliminary Study of Alto Recorders
Multiphonic Resources?

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I didnt have these texts readily to hand while composing those compositions. There may well
be some overlap between them and the examples in these, but if so, its unpremeditated...

13. What are your primary intentions with the two theses listed in question 12?

Simply to educate recorder players and composers in regard to the vast technical and timbral
possibilities the recorder embodies, with the hope of creating significant new repertoire that
exploits the instruments hitherto neglected resources.

14. On which academic websites may these two theses be examined or purchased?

None that I know of although the website of the Australian composer Derek Strahan does
include some text from The Avant-Garde Recorder. I shall be making these two tomes
indeed, all of my intellectual property freely available to download from the Google Drive
and Scribd websites.

15. To what extent do you think you have advanced the expressive qualities and
technical resources of the recorder in terms of extended techniques from these two
major works?

I think that question should be left for others, as well as posterity, to judge.

16. To what extent have these two volumes served as inspiration for the composition
of new contemporary solo recorder works in general (both unaccompanied and
accompanied solo works)?

Its difficult for me to say. Over the years, I have made copies of them for various composers
and recorder players who presumably have made use of them e.g. Chris Dench
(composer); Genevieve Lacey (recorder player).

17. Is there any overlap between your work in The Avant-Garde Recorder: A
Preliminary Study of Some Developments in Alto Recorder Playing Techniques and
Their Notation or Recorder Unlimited and A Preliminary Study of Alto Recorders
Multiphonic Resources? with Michael Vetters Flauto Dolce Ed Acerbo, and how similar
or dissimilar are these works?

Very little overlap indeed! My own work is far more detailed and, unlike that of Vetter, does

~ 34 ~
not resolve the pitches of multiphonic components to the nearest semitone. The Avant-
Garde Recorder, in its opening chapters, provides a detailed comparison between itself and
Vetters seminal work. Recorder Unlimited investigates the subject of recorder multiphonics in
much greater depth, including combinations of multiphonics with other recorder techniques.

18. How important is the aesthetic look of your scores, and does it play a part in the
functionality of actual performance?

It is quite important! I normally prefer to write my scores by hand because it gives them a
unique, personal look; in any case, many of them are probably beyond the capabilities of
engraving software like Finale or Sibelius. There is a practical dimension to this too: often, my
scores include a considerable amount of notational detail, so I carefully plan their layout and
execute their copying as neatly as possible in order to minimize extra-musical difficulties for
the performers.

19. What value judgement do you place on highly complex music or even simplistic
music in terms of performance practice and musical expression?

As a composer, performer or audient, I have no time or regard whatsoever for simplistic music
(as distinct from simple music). Rather, I highly value musical richness, intelligence and
complexity, which thereby totally precludes any engagement on my part with contemporary
pop and rock musics, minimalism of any kind, or the so-called new simplicity.

20. Does your work conform to any type of national identity? Is there a nationalistic
type of Australian recorder music?

National identity? No! Indeed, since anti-intellectualism is a great Australian sport, I would
say that my work is decidedly un-Australian! As for Australian recorder music in particular, I
do not detect any distinctive nationalistic type.

21. What are the technical challenges of performing Zodiac for amplified recorder and
other instruments, Lines of Light for recorder, synthesizer and percussion, and Helical
Ribbon, and how can this be overcome in performance?

The former pair require improvisational skills, as well as more than a passing familiarity with
post-1960 recorder techniques. They also demand careful listening by all players as well as

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sensitivity to cueing and coordination. Helical Ribbon calls for a good feel for funk, fingering
dexterity, and competence in playing multiphonics. All of these challenges may be overcome
through practice and critical listening.

22. How much expressivity do you feel these works and your other solo recorder works
place upon the recorder as a musical instrument?

Quite a lot, I think.

23. How do you rate other Australian recorder composers? Are there any notable
composers for solo unaccompanied and accompanied recorder works?

To be honest, I rarely think about other Australian recorder composers (apart from those who
have written for me!). One Australian whose work in this field I think is important is Benjamin
Thorn, himself a fine recorder player.

24. What are your favourite contemporary solo recorder works (unaccompanied and
accompanied) since 1960 until the present, and how aware are you of other national
schools of composers in terms of contemporary repertoire for solo recorder?

I dont really have any favourite works, but there are many that I do consider to be historically
pivotal milestones those by Baur, Vetter, Berio, Shinohara, etc.

25. What aspects of performance practice and tradition are most important in your
works for solo recorder?

I tend to compose in somewhat of an historical vacuum (while acknowledging that this is

impossible to achieve in practice), treating the instrument as a tabula rasa although I am
never unaware of the recorders heavy repertorial burden and iconography. I should add that
my research into post-1960 recorder techniques and into extended techniques in general!
was initially inspired by my listening to the Japanese shakuhachi for the first time (in 1981,
as I recall): this experience was a world-shaking epiphany that impelled me to search for
technical and musical analogies between the recorder and the shakuhachi.

26. Are you aware of how many, roughly speaking, solo recorder works
(unaccompanied, or accompanied) there are in Australian recorder music? (Currently,

~ 36 ~
less than twenty solo alto unaccompanied works are listed on the Australian Music
Centre Website). Could access to this information be provided elsewhere in your
expert opinion?

In 1985, I made a catalogue of such works. Of course, it is now well and truly out-of-date!
Otherwise, I rely upon the Australian Music Centre [AMC]. There are now, thankfully, several
Australian recorder players commissioning pieces from local composers, the most active at
present being Genevieve Lacey and Alicia Crossley (a bass recorder specialist). Such
recorder players may well be able to augment the AMCs catalogue of such recorder works.

27. Is there a national recorder magazine, journal or periodical that discuss solo
unaccompanied and accompanied recorder works?

None that I am aware of at present. In the past, the Victorian Recorder Guild published a
substantial journal (the name of which eludes me, alas).

28. As part of the modernist and the postmodernist divide, what have been the
implications for solo contemporary recorder music (accompanied and unaccompanied)
upon performance practice, tradition and musical styles and genres in Australia since
1960?

Considering the ever-fracturing evolutionary paths of Western art-music over the past 50
years or so, I can discern no specific feature that distinguishes Australian recorder music from
the general directions of those paths apart from the observation that during that period, a
growing corpus of professional-standard recorder players who are passionate about new
music has emerged in this country.

29. What is the defining feature of your neo-tonal landscapes for any of your solo
recorder works?

My music does not embrace any neo-tonal landscapes, as far as I am aware with the
deliberate exception of my little study Cathys Song, which engages a set of interlocking
modes the tonicality of which shifts with each mode. Stylistically, it deliberately references the
music of Ross Edwards, as its programme annotation elucidates.

30. What compositional processes do you go through to create such innovative and

~ 37 ~
highly original music as your own?

The minutiae of my compositional praxis vary from one piece to the next; however, some
general observations can be made. Once my instrumentation has been decided upon, usually
after much deliberation, I immerse myself into dedicated research often in conjunction with
my performers regarding each instruments technical capabilities, in order to establish their
timbral palettes limits and cartography. This often results in a compendious accumulation of
technical charts as part of my sketch material. Such research may even include
consideration of an instruments semiology and iconography (very pertinent in the case of the
recorder)!

Moreover, my music is often underpinned and motivated by a complex network of extra-

musical concepts which become the musics very entelechy or DNA: I fabricate structures
wherein these ideas resonate literally throughout all morphological strata. For instance, the
entelechy of my alto flute solo Dimensiones Paradisi is a mandala characterising the ground-
plan of Heaven (according to John Michells fascinating book The Dimensions of Paradise),
for which the geometric relationships between its polygonal and circular constituents act as
structural determinants. Similarly, Lines of Lights structural force-field is based upon the
relative wavelengths of the Fraunhofer lines literally, lines of (non)light within our Suns
observable spectrum. My training in higher mathematics has definitely proven beneficial in
giving me the ability to construct isomorphic correspondences between physical or abstract
phenomena and my music.

31. Is it possible to establish any stylistic precedents in any contemporary solo

Australian recorder works since 1960? Could these in any way be related to
performance practice?

Very little, if any, such music has been created within a cultural vacuum, so that stylistic
precedents should not be too difficult to detect. The performance practices of such
precedents I imagine would map quite easily onto their Australian offshoots.

32. How do you feel the problems of rhythmic complexity and harmonic density can be
overcome in graphical notation, or even in your own work for solo recorder? What are
the possible implications upon performance practice?

~ 38 ~
Aside from the pictorial representation of pre-recorded electroacoustic material (in order to
assist the performer with coordination), graphic notation is, in my opinion, a compositional
cop-out that overcomes absolutely nothing. It is merely a visual stimulus for improvisation. In
my own work, I notate my music in the optimal way so as to articulate my (often intellectually
byzantine) compositional intent. In this regard, I never see rhythmic complexity and harmonic
density as a problem; instead, it is usually a virtue!

33. Are you aware of any other treatise, or PhD Research material, that deals with
multiphonics, extended techniques, or contemporary performance practice in relation
to solo recorder music?

These are matters with which I frankly have not kept myself up-to-date over the last 20 years
or so, but my three theses bibliographies do include many such documents.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you for your time and expert knowledge. Roger Smith Bath Spa University.
23/9/2013.

~ 39 ~
Appendix Three Score from Lines of Light by Ian Shanahan (1993), Improvisation One.

Recorder

~ 40 ~
Yamaha DX7s

~ 41 ~
Metallic percussion instruments

~ 42 ~
Filename: Roger Smith - Timbre as Acoustic Parameter in the Recorder
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