Document Type

Creative Work

Publication Details

Burt, W. A. (2006). Poems of Rewi Alley. Sonic Gallery, CD :Move Records Studio, Melbourne Australia Asia Foundation.

Digital file not available. For access to the CD (audio files), please contact Michael Organ, Manager Repository Services: morgan@uow.edu.au.

Poems of Rewi Alley cd website with further information and composer's notes available here: home.vicnet.net.au/~aaf/rewicd.

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RESEARCH IMPACT STATEMENT

Research Background
This work, created for radio and also to be realised as a sound recording, is based on a selection of nineteen poems of Rewi Alley, a New Zealand poet, utilising a grant from Arts Victoria. The poems were read by an actor and then processed through a computer program which created harmonies in selected microtonal scales based on the voice harmonics.

Research Contribution
The works present a breakthrough in the field of text-setting. Using tunable resonating filters in the program AudioMulch enabled me to have the voice trigger off very specific chords in many microtonal scales. Most of the 19 poems are set in equal-tempered scales different from the normal 12-tone tuning. Each scale is carefully selected for its emotional qualities and enhancement of the poem being read. The emotional qualities of equal tempered scales was put to the test. The piece represents significant extensions of research in the fields of interactive composition, compositional linguistics , microtonal research and extraction of harmonic fields from the spectra of the voice itself.

Research Significance
The work represents part of the ongoing re-evaluation of Rewi Alley as a poet. Largely scorned by the literary world, he has been embraced by a number of Antipodean composers including myself. The work itself was published on the website of the Australia-Asia Foundation, who also obtained a grant from the Australia Council to publish the work. The CD is now available. The work has been broadcast on numerous overseas radio stations, fulfilling its original intention.

ANZSRC / FoR Code

1904 PERFORMING ARTS AND CREATIVE WRITING

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