Rainforest IV by David Tudor, realized by EARS (2017)
Originally conceived by sound artist and renowned avant-garde pianist David Tudor in 1973, Rainforest IV is a sonic environment made of sculptural objects suspended in space and fitted with transducers (devices that convert electrical signals into sound), turning them into resonant sound objects. The version of Rainforest IV presented at the Memorial Art Gallery was constructed by the Eastman Audio Research Studio (EARS)
under the direction of Oliver Schneller.
Tudor developed the initial composition in 1968 to accompany a dance by choreographer Merce Cunningham called RainForest. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the composer rethought the piece three times. The fourth version (presented here) emerged from a workshop that Tudor ran at the New Music in New Hampshire Festival in 1973. Created collectively by the workshop’s participants (including musicians, composers and visual artists John Driscoll, Phil Edelstein, Bill Viola, among others), Rainforest IV envisions Tudor’s piece as an immersive installation, an ecology of sounds. The basic premise, outlined in the diagram above, remains the same: a variety of recorded and composed sounds (some of which might be reminiscent of the natural environment) are played through the sculptural objects. In addition to these sounds, the listener hears the vibrations of the sculptural objects themselves, which are picked up by a series of microphones placed on their surfaces.
EARS has updated Rainforest IV with newer technologies, while also paying homage to the composition’s origin as an accompaniment to a dance. Some of the objects are fitted with distance-, movement-, and motion-tracking IR-sensors. On opening night, Missy Pfohl-Smith, Director of the UofR’s Dance and Movement Program, and a small ensemble of dancers improvise a performance to which the objects will sonically respond, controlled by the creator-performers, each “playing” the objects they built. The resulting piece (in part, “composed” by the choreography and the creator-performers) will be recorded and played back through the objects over the course of the weekend.
Visitors are welcome to walk around the objects, approach them, and listen closely. However, we ask that you be careful as you look and listen, and do not touch.
