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The concept for Orion’s Nebula was inspired by the phenomenon of star nebulas. These bright,
colorful areas of outer space are brimming with activity, as nebulas are both the birthplace as well as
the deathbed of stars. Because of all the stellar processes taking place there, nebulas are not only
made up of stars but also interspersed with cosmic dust, free gases, and plasma. These loose
materials will often travel at amazing speeds and will fluoresce amazing colors. The Orion Nebula
(which can be seen with the naked eye; it is the middle “star” in the belt of the Orion constellation) is
pictured on the cover.
The instrumentation for Orion’s Nebula is as follows:
Flute (doubling Alto Flute) – with microphone
Clarinet in Bb- with microphone
Percussion
(Bass Drum, Suspended Cymbal, Vibraphone with bow, Glockenspiel, Triangle, Claves,
Toms [2])
Piano – with microphone
Violin
Viola
Cello
Double Bass
Laptop running MAX/MSP and receiving live input from the 3 microphones
The role of the laptop is to primarily add “cosmic space dust” to the timbres of the mic’d
instruments. The laptop primarily uses ring modulators to add extra harmonic and non-harmonic
overtones to the inputted sound; often the instruments a more “metallic” or “fluorescent” quality in
real time. The laptop player triggers each cue number to when it is reached in his/her part, and
adjusts the main volume of the laptop output in accordance with its dynamic marking (a marking of
forte should be interpreted by the audience as sounding like sonically “augmented” live
instruments…fortissimo markings should be boosted to point where the laptop is louder than the
instruments it is processing). All notes in the laptop part are not played. Instead, they are the “cues”
from the instruments that receive live processing. During the coda (m. 162, laptop cue #35) the
laptop performer is asked to improvise modulation frequencies using knobs set up in the MAX/MSP
patch until the end.
The sound system should be brought in close to the ensemble as possible, in order to achieve the
effect of “augmented” live instruments.
The duration is about 10’00”.