PROJECT | (ATCOE) A Treasured Collection of Eddies
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(ATCOE) A Treasured Collection of Eddies (1992)  
(Premiered in 1992 with the New York New Music Ensemble)
(six movements played without pause)                                   
                                                     
I. Fast Eddie (Furioso)    

II. Easy Ed (Mechanical)

III. Eddie Eight (Hard Edged Jazz)

IV. Little Eddie (Like a Fox)

V. Moon Eddie (Like a Wave)

VI. Final Eddies (Mean and Mechanical)

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Program Note:

Energy vs. loss of energy,  spontaneity vs. strict control,  questions of identity and culture,  the persistence of folly and the ecstasy of error:  These are a few of the ideas that contributed to the making of ATCOE.

A study of several home-made, free improvisations led to the design of numerous "models.".  I found ways to use these models in music software originally designed for other purposes.  My unconventional and rather creative use of certain commercial programs opened the way for an imitation of the spontaneity found in the original improvisations with the difference that I could maintain total control over the compositional material.

The computer software provided the architectural scaffold which housed the improvisations.  Thus ensnared by technology, the free-wheeling music is policed and ordered, at times, rendered  static, Byzantine, and iconic. 

                                                                                          E.J.C.

ATCOE was my dissertation composition at Columbia University.  It includes a large written analysis entitled AA-AAA-A-AA (Addressing 'ATCOE': An Artistic Apology and Ancillary Analysis) or Eight "A's".  This was back in the days when there was such a thing as a card catalog in libraries.  In New York City, if you open the book that once was called the Yellow Pages, you might find page after page of taxi and other service companyg names like AAAAAAA or AAAAAAAAAAA.  The reason for the company name was to get placed on the first page of the book!   By naming my dissertation AA-AAA-A-AA I was hoping it might become the first card in the vast card catalog of the Library of Congress.  Indeed, the dissertation is in the Library of Congress under call number 51 C156 At2 (UMI: 9333736).  Unfortunately, the days of the card catalog are gone.

Selected Performance History for ATCOE:

1992?          
ATCOE was premiered by the New York New Music Ensemble.

1995         
ATCOE
, Dinosaur Annex, Boston, John Harbison conducting