Go to the download page for a soundfile for The Voice of the Phoenix (1).

Program note

The Voice of the Phoenix (1) is a tape piece created by digital synthesis, using a chaotic process; this process is derived from a system of differential equations used to model the sun's magnetic field (the sunspot cycle). The piece consists of the output of 13 chaotic oscillators, being driven for the most part by parameters that take them to the edge of instability. (The French fast breeder nuclear reactor was called Phénix.)

One can perhaps imagine a creature living in the turbulent atmosphere of the sun.

The synthesis program for the chaotic process was written by the composer in the language C++. The piece was realised for the most part on a Sun workstation belonging to the School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sydney.

The oscillators in this piece were subsequently used for the companion piece The Voice of the Phoenix (2).

Performances, etc

• "Pure Sound" concert (organised by ACMA and the Contemporary Performers' and Composers' Fellowship), Old Darlington School, University of Sydney, 19 October 1996;
• National radio broadcast (Australian Broadcasting Corporation FM network), 30th October 1996;
• "Watt's this" concert by watt, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, 24 February 1997;
• Interface 97 Computer Music Conference and Concerts, School of Music, University of Auckland, New Zealand, 11 July 1997;
• Broadcast on the "ELECTROMUSICA" program, Municipal Radio Station, Buenos Aires, Argentina, April 1998;
• Concert at the Logos Tetraëder (Tetrahedron concert hall), Ghent, Belgium, 20 August 1998;
• The "Beaming the Theremin" concert, Grainger Museum, University of Melbourne, 10 October 1998;
• "Beckonings 1999" listening forum, CCRMA, Stanford University, July 1999;
• Broadcast on CKCU-FM 93.1, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, June 2003;
• Streamed by Location 1, New York, June 2003;
• "Disorientation" series (curated by Shannon O'Neill, University of Technology, Sydney), Lanfranchi's, Chippendale, Sydney, 8 April 2004.
   
  
• The Voice of the Phoenix (1) is on the CD "Cocks Crow, Dogs Bark", which is the companion CD to Volume 7 (1997) of the Leonardo Music Journal.

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© Gordon Monro 2001-7.       Last modified: January 22, 2007.
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