We, real cool
for Soprano, Flute, Horn, Percussion, Viola, Contrabass & Live Electronics (ca.11 min)
commissioned by The Glenn Gould School New Music Ensemble
funded by SOCAN
Searching for an appropriate spoken material for this project in which I wanted to combine
instrumental and vocal sounds live with sampling technology, I bumped into an old recording of the American poet Gwendolyn Brooks where she was reading her poem "We, real Cool."
This short modest poem consists of 8 sentences describing about a group of young men hanging around in a Billiard club.Through various electronic modulations I tried to extract and to create a special instrumental Quality from the richness in color and structure of the spoken words by the poet .Except the Percussion, all other instruments and soprano are connected separately by a close microphone with their individual Live electronic set up to control and to play the prepared word samples.