Rob Godman
Halo (2005)
Approximately two thousand years ago, the Roman Architect Vitruvius published his ‘Ten Books on Architecture’. Amongst many other things he writes of his wok with acoustics in Roman Theatres:-
"....... let bronze vessels be made, proportionate to the size of the theatre, and let them be so fashioned that, when touched, they may produce with one another the notes of the fourth, the fifth, and so on up to the double octave.
"....... the voice, uttered from the stage as from a centre, and spreading and striking against the cavities of the different vessels, as it comes in contact with them, will be increased in clearness of sound, and will wake an harmonious note in unison with itself."
Vitruvius - The Ten Books on Architecture in translation by Morris Hicky Morgon
As the title suggests, Halo is indeed a duet between piano and responsive electronics! The vessels, as specified by Vitruvius, have been ‘replaced’ by digital rtechnology. To some extent, Vitruvius’ intentions have been kept…
Halo was written for a first performance by the composer and Philip Mead for a premiere at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge on 18th November 2005.
Rob Godman
TT (2006)
Table Tennis has been a hugely important part of my life...
As a composer, I have always found the sound of people playing the game to be appealing. Huge amounts of information can be deduced from the sound of ball on rubber - how much spin, how fast, what type of rubber. But; we have to listen carefully…
Table Tennis is now so fast that it is impossible to experience as a viewer with any true meaning. In terms of time and space, we need to be able to zoom in close!
TT was first presented as a 4.1 installation version. Written for Empirical Soundings, it received its first performances in Bendigo, Australia during the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games.
Music by Rob Godman Poem by Fiona Owen
The Dress
(for Mishelle Entwistle) (2005)
The Dress is a response to a life-changing event affecting, most directly, my partner Mishelle but also others around her. We are immensely grateful to Fiona Owen for the poem written for Mishelle in 2003, which provides the fulcrum for this work.
Thursday Morning
you
are held
in crystal light
the shards of quartz
testimony
to the earth
rock beneath you
sky above
and mystery
of being
and not being
between
Fiona Owen 2003