TO DO
Links
NON:op
Auris
Kristina Isabel Dance
Chicago Robotic Theater
Wandering Ear
Borderbend Arts Collective
World Listening Project
Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology
American Society for Acoustic Ecology
Eric Leonardson
Julia Miller
DONE
More Done -->
Selected Compositions
chamber
The Four Attic Windows (2008)
piano solo
Conversations (1993)
violin, cello, piano
Time and Again (1991)
french horn and piano
Book of Days (1986)
piano solo
acousmatic/electroacoustic
Light through Darkness (in progress)
vocalizing pianist, amplified piano, fixed media
Stroke by Stroke (forthcoming)
vocalizing string quartet, fixed media
BLOW (2011)
vocalizing flute, fixed media
POP:weasel (2010)
vocalizing flute, fixed media
FL05 (2010)
Cantos of War and Peace (forthcoming)
vocalizing chamber ensemble and two 5.1 playback systems
HARDCORE (2007)
vocalizing cello and fixed media
Insensitive Songs (2006)
Three Haiku (2005)
graphic scores
Ekphrasis I (2010)
Ekphrasis II (2011)
Ekphrasis III (2011)
Four Twos for Three (2010)
Three Improvisations (2009)
New Music Plus Painting (2008)
Point | Line => Space: Sticks and Stones (2008)
installation
Silo Music (2012)
Tweet Sheets (2012)
it all comes back (2011)
Whence (2011)
Podstallation (2011)
mixed media
Night and Fog (2008)
...in the pursuit of happiness (1992)
experimental opera/theater
Thunder, Perfect Mind (2015)
Pales Real (2012)
Whence (2011)
Y (2011)
The Waking Room (2009)
Knot of Life (1993)
Enigmatic Game (1990)
Bull (1989)
sound tracks/design, dance
it all comes back (2011)
Y (2011)
More Than Clouds in the Sky (2010)
The Waking Room (2009)
Lamia (2007)
No Sexit (2004)
Charles (1998)
from beginningless time (1996)
Chamber
The Four Attic Windows (2008)
piano solo
Conversations (1993)
violin, cello, piano
Time and Again (1991)
french horn and piano
Book of Days (1986)
piano solo
Acousmatic/Electro-Acoustic
Light through Darkness (in progress)
vocalizing pianist, amplified piano, fixed media
Stroke by Stroke (forthcoming)
vocalizing string quartet, fixed media
BLOW (2011)
vocalizing flute, fixed media
POP:weasel (2010)
vocalizing flute, fixed media
FL05 (2010)
Cantos of War and Peace (forthcoming)
vocalizing chamber ensemble and two 5.1 playback systems
HARDCORE (2007)
vocalizing cello and fixed media
Insensitive Songs (2006)
Three Haiku (2005)
Mixed Media
Graphic Scores
Ekphrasis I (2010)
Ekphrasis II (2011)
Ekphrasis III (2011)
Four Twos for Three (2010)
Three Improvisations (2009)
NMPP (2008)
Point | Line => Space: Sticks and Stones (2008)
Experimental Opera/Theater
Pales Real (2012)
Whence (2011)
Thunder, Perfect Mind
Y
Knot of Life
Enigmatic Game
Bull
Sound Tracks/Design
Whence (2011)
it all comes back (2011)
Y (2011)
More Than Clouds in the Sky (2010)
Auris 1
Auris 1
Collaborative Projects
Thunder, Perfect Mind (2015)
Pales (2012)
Whence (2011)
It All Comes Back (2011)
Y (2011)
More Than Clouds in the Sky (2010)
The Waking Room (2009)
New Music PLUS Painting (2008)
Musicircus 2007
Lamia (2007)
Musicircus 2005
NoSexit (2004)
Charles (1999)
from beginningless time (1996)
Knot of Life (1993)
Susurrus (1991)
Toilet (1990)
Enigmatic Game (1990)
Departure and Arrival (1989)
Out of the Air (1989)
Stuff I Made
Tweet Sheets (2012)
FACEMASK, 8th Annual National Self Portrait Exhibition, Zhou B Art Center, Chicago
Silo Music (2012)
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts
Pod-Stallation (2011)
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts
Composer
Composer, improviser, and collaborator, Christopher Preissing earned DMA and MM degrees from the University of Illinois in Urbana where he studied with Herbert Brün, Salvatore Martirano, and William Brooks. Composer-in-residence at Beloit College, Guest Composer at The Latin American Music Center (Indiana University), Artist-in-Residence at the Ragdale Foundation, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, and twice Associate Artist in Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts (Yuji Takahashi and John Zorn), Christopher has received awards and commissions from the Jerome Foundation, Meet the Composer, Illinois Arts Council, Arts Midwest, American Composers Forum, Ruthmere Foundation, and Chicago Composers Forum. As president and executive director of Chicago Composers Forum he produced numerous concerts and programs including two major productions of John Cage’s Musicircus. In 2009 he received a travel grant from Partners of the Americas, to present his music in São Paulo, Brazil.
His recent eight-channel, evening-length score and performance for The Waking Room was called “an overwhelming, layered barrage of found and manipulated sounds” (Laura Molzahn, See Chicago Dance), and a “brilliant… sound-crazy score… that might best be described as John Cage on steroids.” (Sid Smith, Chicago Tribune) Current and upcoming projects include Cantos of War and Peace, for vocalizing chamber ensemble and two 5.1 audio systems (part of a series of compositions for vocalizing instrumentalists and electronics); it all comes back, an installation by the collective Chicago Robotic Theater, to be installed in IIT’s Crown Hall (Mies van der Rohe) in June 2011; Y, a collaboration with Jonathan Meyer of Khecari for solo dancer, six-channel fixed media, and 8-10 person vocalizing ensemble; and a chamber opera, Thunder, Perfect Mind, for soprano, six female voices, and six male percussionists to be premiered at Luther College in 2015.
The Four Attic Windows
Before he died, my uncle, George Steffen, gave me a set of four faded black and white maps of various regions of the United States. These maps, dating from the 1860s, held a mystery, he said. “They are probably worth a lot of money,” he chuckled. With that he said it was up to me to figure out the mystery, and true to his word he took the “secret” with him when he passed away a few years later. On the two envelopes taped onto the black cardboard that protected the maps were written “The Four Attic Window’s” and “First Fort” with a simple line depiction of Fort Argyle. After storing the maps for several years, I hit upon a solution to the puzzle. Each would be used compositionally--as a "window"--for a single movement of this piano piece. The maps in order are as follows:
I. Virginiae Item et Floridae Americae Provinciarum, nova Descriptio
II. La Luisiana Cedida al Rei N.S. Por S.M. Christianisima, con la Nueva Orleans, e Isla en que se halla esta Ciudad
III. Plano del Puerto de Panzacola Cituado En Latitud de 30. grs. 14. mints. Meridia De Thenerifez
IV. Plano del Puerto de San Francisco
download pdf
Conversations
Time and Again
Book of Days
Light Through Darkness
Stroke by Stroke
BLOW
round and round the mulberry bush,
the monkey chased the weasel...
With references to pawning (pop) Sunday coats (weasel) and drinking at a local London establishment (the Eagle), the Cockney rhyming slang of Pop Goes the Weasel dates to the mid-1800s.
FL05
Cantos of War and Peace
H A R D C O R E is the first of several works in which the closed presentation of a fixed media performance is combined with the floating, open presentation of the human performer. Indeed within the ‘cello part the performer is faced with both fixed and floating materials. This dichotomy, described by Eco in The Role of the Reader, satisfies my private desires to control the details of invention, as well as the spectator’s need to publicly experience a dangerous and unique act. The work consists of four continuous sections followed by an epilogue of sorts.
download pdf
Insensitive Songs
Three Haiku
Night and Fog
...in the pursuit of happiness
Four Twos for Three: Cantos 1–4
Three Improvisations
New Music PLUS Painting
Point | Line => Space: Sticks and Stones
Four Twos for Three is a series of visual arrangements of two groups of lines. The title both refers to the process of creating the images and to the process of interpretation. In the former, each Canto is a set of four graphics created from the intermingling of two groups of lines (Four 2s); while for Three indicates that the resulting images are to be interpreted and performed by a trio.
download pdf
Improviser
Auris
exploring electroacoustic sound as an organic art of time and space
LULA
WareHouse
Chicago Scratch Orchestra
The Chicago Scratch Orchestra is a dynamic ensemble of musicians that evolved as part of a rich tradition of scratch orchestras. The first Scratch Orchestra was founded by the British composer Cornelius Cardew in 1968. The Chicago Scratch Orchestra was founded in 2010.
Collaborator
Over the years... (20+ yikes!) I've collaborated with choreographers, filmmakers, visual artists, playwrights and directors, and just about anyone who will have me. Some of these activities, projects, events, and happenings are listed below. I realize collaboration can mean a lot of things to different people, from hierarchical processes, i.e., directing others or receiving direction from others, to non-hierarchical projects, such as those prescribed by John Cage, i.e., Musicircus, those to which all collaborators obey an outside set of rules, to anarchiac events and happenings. When working with others, my preference is to approach each set of circumstances with an open mind, to select collaborators and materials honestly, to communicate from the heart, and to appreciate the unknown and synchronistic occurrence when it presents itself, and by incorporating it into the work, acknowleding it as a gift.
More Than Clouds in the Sky
play More Than Clouds in the Sky (excerpt)
> When Friedrich sees more than clouds in the sky he attempts to convince the townspeople of his discovery by collecting data to support his claim. The townspeople, who have been programmed by The Knower to believe otherwise, are not moved. Loosely based on the life of Galileo, Chicago Robotic Theater’s production of More Than Clouds in the Sky is an allegory on truth, belief, and the courage to know the difference. When fact challenges belief, truth is often the first casualty.
> More Than Clouds in the Sky, is Chicago Robotic Theater’s first major production and a finalist in Make Believe: Reactivating Vacant Spaces in Wicker Park Bucktown. It was installed in a storefront at 1271 North Milwaukee, on July 15, 2010 and ran through the end of October, 2010.
> Chicago Robotic Theater is: Christopher Furman, robotics; Patrick Reynolds, writer; Christopher Preissing, sound; Cameron Brand, programming; Liviu Pasare, video; Audrey Peiper
Maker
As it's more in my nature to find things that exist, figure out how they are supposed to work, and then make them do something that they were never intended to do, I've only recently begun to make my own things. I guess we are all making things as we go along though. Excluding scores or electro-acoustic works, some of the things I have made include a couple of stations for Chicago Robotic Theater's multi-station It All Comes Back. These were "Conflict" and "Death". The metal sheets from "Conflict" were repurposed and others found/added to form the structure and sound generators for the second section of Whence, my recent collaboration with Jonathan Meyer.
During my 2011 residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts I built an outdoor installation in the woods surrounding the grounds. Constructed from tree pods and fishing wire, the goal was to create something that fits into the natural environment and is activated without external assistance. This year I plan to return to the VCCA where I will create another outdoor installation. I am also planning to use the six metal sheets from Whence with a text by Andrew Royal in a piece that will be installed in the Zhou B Art Center in the summer.
Pod-Stallation (rollover thumbnails to view images)
> Nearly everyone who sees these pictures asks, "What does it sound like?" or "Did you get a good recording of it?" My answers are that it sounds like the woods, and no, I did not get a recording of it.
> Pod-Stallation was created in the woods at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, though I did not go to there to make an installation. I was inspired by the environment and by the many creative artists with whom I was fortunate to share some special moments. My goal was to leave something behind that others could discover and enjoy. While walking through the woods one comes upon objects that seem to stand just a little in front of, or to the side of, their surroundings. Are these magical pieces part of the landscape or were they left behind, waiting for discovery by artists walking the trails?
> That was my goal. To leave something that fit the environment so well that one might pass it by. Of nature, it stands apart, yet points to the magic of nature. Naturally I wanted the object to make sound, and without mechanical intervention. Both the sound and visual would have to fit, to harmonize with the environment, not to detract from it. And of course, I had to concede that over time, the installation will change, decay, and return to nature.
Gigs
Sounds
Images
Bio
Composer, improviser, and collaborator, Christopher Preissing earned DMA and MM degrees from the University of Illinois in Urbana where he studied with Herbert Brün, Salvatore Martirano, and William Brooks. Composer-in-residence at Beloit College, Guest Composer at The Latin American Music Center (Indiana University), Artist-in-Residence at the Ragdale Foundation, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, and twice Associate Artist in Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts (Yuji Takahashi and John Zorn), Christopher has received awards and commissions from the Jerome Foundation, Meet the Composer, Illinois Arts Council, Arts Midwest, American Composers Forum, Ruthmere Foundation, and Chicago Composers Forum. As president and executive director of Chicago Composers Forum he produced numerous concerts and programs including two major productions of John Cage’s Musicircus. In 2009 he received a travel grant from Partners of the Americas, to present his music in São Paulo, Brazil.
His recent eight-channel, evening-length score and performance for The Waking Room was called “an overwhelming, layered barrage of found and manipulated sounds” (Laura Molzahn, See Chicago Dance), and a “brilliant… sound-crazy score… that might best be described as John Cage on steroids.” (Sid Smith, Chicago Tribune) Current and upcoming projects include Cantos of War and Peace, for vocalizing chamber ensemble and two 5.1 audio systems (part of a series of compositions for vocalizing instrumentalists and electronics); HOME, an installation by the collective Chicago Robotic Theater, to be installed in IIT’s Crown Hall (Mies van der Rohe) in June 2011; Y, a collaboration with Jonathan Meyer of Khecari for solo dancer, six-channel fixed media, and 8-10 person vocalizing ensemble; and a chamber opera, Thunder, Perfect Mind, for soprano, six female voices, and six male percussionists to be premiered at Luther College in 2013.
Links
Contact
chris [at] christopherpreissing [dot] com