Night of Fire

Both pieces on this CD were originally composed for my pre-MIDI computer music system. They were later transcribed for my first MIDI system, and these are the versions heard on this recording.

Night of Fire (electric oboes, synthesizer and percussion) began with a visit to the African wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. While sitting in front of a wooden sculptured face of a woman from Cameroon, I began to hear the woman, whose mouth was open, calling, chanting and singing to me in a distant yet distinct single tone. This was astonishing. Inspired, I walked home to my apartment on East 65th Street, and used the woman’s tone as the basis for a new composition. I began the piece with shimmering percussion, leading to a driving, complex skin drum entrance. After this, the woman’s tone enters, followed by a low bass voice. Finally the tension is relieved with the entrance of a through-composed melodic voice using a whole-tone scale, and a simpler, earthy percussion part. This sequence of entrances occurs three time during the piece, and end with a fading of the shimmering percussion entering for the fourth time. Night of Fire was begun the same evening I was inspired by the sculpture, and I completed the composition and subsequent programming around 4 or 5 in the morning. Listening to the brand new piece in the darkness was frightening and mysterious. It surely has a life of it’s own. To this day, I wonder what story the African woman was communicating.

Charcoal Notes (acoustic guitars) is music which came to me while riding one afternoon on the Long Island Railroad from Manhattan As soon as the musical phrased crystallized, I was at a loss without any pen or pencil. Looking down at the floor, I noticed a book of used matches and some paper. I made the fortunate discovery that I could write down the musical ideas using the charcoal of the burnt matches!

- Michael Robinson, Lahaina, December 2000

© 2000 Michael Robinson All rights reserved