9 Alerts
Preface to the score:
9 Alerts is a set of nine, three second long, compositions.
Although I didn’t write them specifically for the platform, they may be used as mobile (cell) phone ringtones. WAV versions are available on request from SOUNDkiosk (kiosk4sound@gmail.com) under a Creative Commons Share Alike licence.
In 1987/8 I defined the following forms with their corresponding durations:
3” – An Alert
30” – A Jingle
3′ – A Single
30′ – An Album (made up of 10 singles)
60′ – A Double Album
I created Alerts from that year but I didn’t fully compose (that is, notate) any until 2001.
From that period until 2001 I used the 30 second Jingle form to compose Jingles for People. The idea was to create advertising jingles for people rather than products and services. I wrote these for friends and celebrities (some of whom were both). *
* The creation of a Jingle involved a sitting at which I interviewed the person to find out more about them. I also asked about their musical and other cultural interests.
My 30 minute albums, comprising 10 singles, included some of my music for furniture exhibitions and several spoken word operas:
Traffic and Forest for Ikon Corporation.
Captain Lash, Cockahoop and A Complete Story of Numbers, operas.
I’ve only made one 60 minute double album; Oui/Non for Viaduct (Phillipe Starck retrospective). The two 30 minute albums were, however, played simultaneously in adjoining rooms.
I’ve since broken this formal set of structures, considering them to have served their purpose. I may sometimes nod in their direction or revisit them at some point in the future.
The instrumentation of the following 9 Alerts is free. There are up to three different pitched parts, with or without a drum (that is, unpitched percussion) part. All sounds are electronic and quantized. Different positions on the drum/percussion stave are different instruments. Also; same position, same instrument. Where indicated, pitch bend is free and may apply to one or all instruments in that Alert. All sounds used in my recording are Roland GM/GS sounds on a Roland PMA-5.
Jamie Crofts
Elm Tree Terrace, Lincoln.
2016
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