Tidal Resonance at 45’N 64’W
1st performance: Brunton Auditorium, Mount Allison University, Sackville, N.B., 1980
Data from tidal measurements in the Bay of Fundy is used to control settings (voltage controlled oscillators, filters, wave shape, ADSR, ring modulation, etc.) on a Putney VCS3 synthesizer. The resulting sound patterns are recorded on tape, in three movements (approximately 12 minutes total). The graphic quality of these sound patterns (the rise and fall of pitches and their rhythmic articulations) subjectively represent the ebb and flow of the Bay of Fundy tides. This piece was presented on concert programs and in ‘listening rooms’ in the context of other ‘tape music’. It was played for three hours on a beach at South Bauline, Newfoundland as part of the 1983 Sound Symposium, and on the beach at Ijmuiden, The Netherlands, as part of the 1985 Holland Festival. Bringing the tape back to the beach transformed the piece from being a concert tape piece to a sound installation.
©Gordon Monahan 1979
