Composition

Notes

Uncanny Affable Machines John Henry, the legendary steel-driving hero of the ballad, pits himself against a machine – and wins, at the cost of his life. I offer a less fraught scenario, with a non-tragic outcome, of human/machine interaction in Uncanny Affable Machines. To be sure, the fixed electroacoustic part begins with an uncanny rhythmic precision, but this is soon undercut by the nature of the manipulated sampled sounds, most of which have human-performed, bird- performed, or chaotic rhythms as part of their fabric. On the other side, the heroic human performer can be seen herself as a “soft machine,” to use William Burroughs’ phrase, wielding a low-tech but incredibly sophisticated, powerful machine. The relationship between human and machine, high-tech and low-tech, biology and silicon is a close and cordial one. In fact, performer and soundfile ultimately get crazy together...
Uncanny Affable Machines is dedicated to the virtuosic violist Jessica Meyer, who instigated it. Deep thanks to the Ucross Foundation for the residency where most of the piece was composed in fall 2014.