ISABELLA NICOLE NESS

Uncut

a postmodern duet
for mezzo soprano and
computer processing

2014

Copyright Isabella Nicole Ness & Trichord Publishing, 2016. All rights reserved.

ABOUT THE COMPOSER

Isabella Nicole Ness is a composer, vocalist,

and sound designerintent on exploring and
challenging the principles of narrative.
Part of a family of artists and readers,
Isabella was born in 1993 in Alexandria,
Virginia. Her sound aims to illustrate vivid
moments by coloring emotions, characters,
and scenes with purposeful orchestration
and evocative melody.
Isabella is a graduate ofTemple
Universitys Boyer College of Music and
Dance in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where
she earned a Bachelor of Music in composition in 2016. She has studied piano
and vocal pedagogy with Carol Hoppe Roberts and vocal performance under
Angela Winter. During her time at Temple, Isabellastudied composition and
computer music synthesis with Maurice Wright and Adam Vidiksis.
A founding member of the Boyer Electroacoustic Ensemble Project (BEEP), she
has also collaborated often with students of dance at the Boyer College and other
creators in the Philadelphia areanotably the performing arts association Lyric
Festcomposing pieces and soundscapes for performance ortechnology
integration.Alongside exploring the renaissance of traditional art song &opera,
she alsocraftsoriginal music,sound environments, and SFX assets for video
games and other interactive media. On the stage, she has appeared as Venus in
Maurice Wrights robotic opera,Galatea_RESET.

PROGRAM NOTE

The human voice is one of the most versatile instruments in existence. The multitude of
sounds, pitches, and percussives that can be created with the voice alone is astounding
and nearly unmatched in the musical world. However, with the emergence and
proliferation of computer music from the 20th into the 21st century, the voice finally has
a worthy rival.
The computer part in Uncut has been coded in Pure Data, an open-source visual
programming language for audio design developed in the 1990s by Miller Puckette as
an offshoot of the equally-utilized program called Max. Nearly anything is possible
with Pure Data, from the readout of the simplest sine wave to the coding of complete
virtual instruments.
I think the various strengths and beauties of the voice have been harnessed best in the
modal music of the Medieval and early Renaissance periods. In this way, the voice in
Uncut does not settle into any one key or mode but slinks through many tonal centers
until its close. The computer accompaniment matches this dance, rife with overtones
from sliding open fifths that support the singer with an archaic and yet wholly
millennial background.
Ultimately, Uncut is an exploration of my propensity to be alone. At the surface it is a
duet, but there is no deeper human connection between the singer and computer. When
all is said and sung, it remains a solo that declaims a sense of self that remains quite
unknown at best.

Uncut may also be performed with the soloist accompanied by a laptop ensemble in 3
parts, with any number of ensemble members divided between them. The ensemble
needs only to follow the numbers marked in the score along with the vocalist.
It is recommended that the ensemble be dispersed around the space in any array, such
that the sound can surround the audience.

Uncut
Isabella Nicole Ness (b. 1993)
I.
I am whiskey.
I bite, on the rocks,
So raw in this glass tumbler.
There is a sting I give
I give to your tongue
A fire on its tip
As you sip
And you sense
That I am wild.
Unrefined and un-similar,
Un-learned and un-taught,
Un-everything you thought I could be.
There is this absence
Of knowing
That makes me so amber
As I pour.
I pour
With meaning,
I pour with feeling,
With a blaze inside me
You can only hope to know.
Because I laugh
In the face of doubt.
I am your bottled courage;
What more
Do I need?

PERFORMANCE NOTE
Accidentals last through the measure.
Duration ca. 3:00

Using the Patch

1) Download and install Pd-extended (puredata.info/downloads)
2) Open Pd-extended.
3) Make sure the box labeled DSP in the upper-right corner of the main Pd window is
checked.
4) Assign the microphone source and the speakers you will be using:
A. In the Media dropdown menu, select Audio Settings.
B. Under Input device 1, select the microphone source you have plugged into your
machine (make sure the box next to the input selection is checked).
C. Under Output device 1, select the speakers you have plugged into your machine
(make sure the box next to the output selection is checked).
* The Channels boxes must always remain at 2 because the patch is coded for a 2-channel
stereo output.
D. Click Apply to save these settings for your performance, and then exit the settings
window with OK.
5) Open the patch (Uncut-CODE.pd)
6) In the main performance window, you will see:
- a set of level meters on the left (microphone levels)
- a set of level meters on the right (speaker levels)
- a purple volume gain slider at the top middle (the patch loads at the ideal level. This
should only be adjusted little by little if microphone levels are too softspeaker volume
should be adjusted on the physical speakers or the computer itself)
- a bright blue counter at the bottom middle
7) On the printed score, there are bolded Arial numbers above the vocal line. These numbers
correspond to the number the counter should be displaying in the performance window at
any given point in the piece. There are 10 of these. To progress through the piece, the
performer only needs to press the space bar on their keyboard. The Computer part written
into the score is a rough outline of the sounds you will hear coming from the patch.
8) In rehearsal, if the singer needs to jump to specific number, they may press the
corresponding number on the computers keyboard.
* Cueing 10 will not work, as the keystrokes are only recognized individually.
- Pressing 5 silences the drones if necessary.
- To quit the patch, simply close the window or close Pd-extended once the performance is
over.

Uncut
Isabella Nicole Ness (b. 1993)

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Copyright Trichord Press & Isabella Nicole Ness, ASCAP

All Rights Reserved
Isabella Nicole Ness, 2014. All rights reserved.

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