Allen Strange knows the score

Published 7:00 pm Wednesday, March 8, 2006

And the score, in turn, looks strange.

The way island composer Allen Strange manipulates sounds in his computer is much like a graphic artist tweaking an image into something new, or juxtaposing bits of one over another.

“Once you get a sound in the computer you can do a lot, so it’s very much like sculpting,” said Strange, explaining how he changes pitch, duration, volume and timbre, or even morphing two sounds, say a wolf howl and a soprano’s voice into one.

“I’m having fun,” he said. “I hope the audience is. There’s nothing intellectual about the experience.”

Strange is quick to say that his music, using a combination of computer-generated sound and live instrumentals, is not everyone’s cup of tea. Still, he encourages those who come to the performance of his music at 4 p.m. March 12 at the Island Music Guild Hall, to first “take it all in.” Sponsored by the Bainbridge Island Arts and Humanities Council, admission is free.

“I think my music is orderly, but not in the same way as Mozart,” Strange said. “Similar to Jackson Pollock, interesting in shape and color. You have to take it all in and then start looking at the details.”

One piece, “Goddess” for electric violin and computer – which at times takes in the instrument’s sounds and changes them before they are heard by the audience – sounds like a “cat fight,” by Strange’s description; it is an apt one.

The scores look more like a Kandinsky painting or doodling than the usual neat staffs of musical notes.

In “Points of Departure,” which juxtaposes saxophone playing a piece based on “Harlem Nocturne” and the flugelhorn part riffing off “After Midnight,” there’s a more recognizable nightclub-like sound. But rather than “notes,” visual representations of the sounds guide the player.

A swooping line indicates a slide in pitch downward and petal-like lines, the movement of sound.

Modern compositions with computers also depart from the usual metronomic count of two, four or six beats to a measure. Instead, the duration of “notes” is measured by clock-timed seconds to ensure the human performers stay in sync with the computer’s part,

Strange’s wife, violinist Pat Strange, said playing with a computer was like learning a new genre of music, like jazz for a classical musician.

“You have to get the emotion across, but within this very structured instrument you’re playing,” she said. “I don’t think it’s any different from playing Mozart. It’s an extension of what the violin can do. It’s new sounds, but it’s still a violin and music still has ups and downs, climaxes and releases.

“All the thinks that make up an interesting aural experience.”

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Strange music

“With a Little Help From My Friends,” a concert with computers, with works by Allen Strange is 4 p.m. March 12 at the Island Music Guild Hall in Rolling Bay, 10598 Valley Road. Admission is free. Musicians are Pat Strange, violin, William Trimble, saxophone, Stephen Ruppenthal, trumpet and David Bristow, keyboard.