Mist
(1995/97) double bass and computer-generated sound
The title and sound imagery of my composition Mist are a response to an untitled poem by Mansei:
This world of ours,
To what shall I compare it?
To the white wake of a boat
That rows away in early dawn.
— Shami Mansei (early eighth century)
translation by Kenneth Rexroth
Mansei’s verse suggested a dream-like world, and the surprising but convincing connections sometimes present in dreams led me to conceive of a piece in which the performer would improvise in styles related to jazz, responding to the tape as if the events were part of a dream. There is an element of fantasy (and staging) in this conception because the performer’s
improvisation is not a response to other musicians, and must therefore take place as if in a dream emanating from the tape. The score is in most places not strictly notated, and the variation in each performance and from one performer’s improvisational approach to another is an essential element of the piece.
—Robert Gibson
duration: ca. 7:30