Scott A. Wyatt
Composition Archive of Selected Works for Listening and/or Downloading
Scott A. Wyatt (b. 1951, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is Professor Emeritus of Music Composition, and has actively served as a faculty member of the University of Illinois School of Music teaching music composition, music theory, and electroacoustic music, as well as serving as director of the University of Illinois Experimental Music Studios for 40 years. As a composer of concert art music, he has composed works for theatre, voice, acoustic instruments, small and large ensembles, orchestra, electroacoustic music, and music for a variety of media including modern dance, documentary film, radio, television, and large scale laser presentations.
Wyatt studied classical piano as a child, though in high school began “living a double life of playing keyboards and bass in rock bands,” learning to build his own amplifiers and speaker cabinets as his family did not have the money to afford them. While an avid enthusiast of both technology and music, he was only vaguely aware of synthesizers through their occasional appearance in the commercial music industry. As a freshman studying music education and piano performance at West Chester University in 1970, Wyatt was presented with the opportunity to work with a new Moog Series 900 synthesizer, though the user documentation from Moog Music was not in a user-friendly form.
Due to his experience with building his own electronic music equipment and performing in bands, Wyatt was able to fully explore the capabilities of the instrument and write a manual for West Chester faculty and students to use. It was during this time that Wyatt came to know the music of composers such as Milton Babbitt, John Cage, Edgard Varèse, and Iannis Xenakis, and was immediately drawn to it. This led him to seek composition lessons under John Melby and Larry Nelson.
After graduating from West Chester University, Wyatt was admitted to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1974 as a graduate student, reuniting with and once again studying under John Melby (who had joined the university’s composition division faculty the previous year). Wyatt was also a student of Herbert Brün, Ben Johnston, Salvatore Martirano, and Paul Zonn. Wyatt was quickly hired on as a lecturer the following year, teaching music theory, aural skills, and an electronic music course. He also served that year as co-director of the Experimental Music Studios alongside faculty member James Beauchamp, assuming sole directorship in 1976. Wyatt would continue to direct the Experimental Music Studios until 2016.
In addition to his duties at the University of Illinois, Wyatt has been an active figure in the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS), serving as its President from 1989 through 1996 and on its Board of Directors until 2016.
Wyatt has been the recipient of many awards and honors throughout his career. He was one of the winning participants of the 1978 International Society for Contemporary Music National Composers Competition, the 1979 National Flute Association Composition Competition, and the 1979 Concorso Internazionale Luigi Russolo Composition Competition. He won the International Confederation of Electro-Acoustic Music GRAND PRIZE in the 1984 International Electro-Acoustic Music Competition in Bourges, France, and emerged as a finalist in the 1989 Bourges Competition.
Wyatt has also received recognition and funding for advancements in the field of electroacoustic music composition, including an Arnold Beckman Research Award in 1990 for the development of digital timescaling applications, and various grants from 1996 through 2011 for the development of a eight-channel sound diffusion methodology.
In 2008, he was awarded a Fine and Applied Arts Creative Research Award for the production of Risky Business: a tribute to Nikola Tesla, a composition featuring two 900,000-volt Tesla Coils. He has also successfully pursued many university grants for digital image processing, a 1994 Educational Technologies Assistance Grant, and several university-sponsored special projects grants for course development. On 7 December 2017, SEAMUS announced that Scott Wyatt will be honored with the 2018 SEAMUS Award, an accolade that “acknowledges the important contributions of its recipients to the field of electro-acoustic music.”
Click on one of the three categories below to listen or download any of the compositions, performance files, program notes and/or bio. information.
ELECTROACOUSTIC MUSIC COMPOSITIONS
ELECTROACOUSTIC MUSIC WITH VIDEO AND VIDEO OF LIVE PERFORMANCES
COMPOSITIONS FOR INSTRUMENTS WITH ELECTROACOUSTIC ACCOMPANIMENT
ELECTROACOUSTIC MUSIC
COMPOSITIONS
all sink (2012) [7:13]
electroacoustic music designed for eight-channel performance (stereo version available)
All material for the piece was derived from sounds recorded in and around the sink. All sounds were recorded at home, followed by processing and assembly into an eight-channel performance environment within the University of Illinois Experimental Music Studios.
all sink
Use the buttons below to access or download the files.
…and nature is alone (2005, revised 2015) [10:51]
in memory of the victims of the Chernobyl accident on the 30th anniversary of the disaster. electroacoustic music designed for eight-channel performance (stereo version available)
This piece is dedicated to the memory of those who experienced the horror of the world’s worst nuclear accident – Chernobyl, and to the living who continue to experience the ramifications of such a disaster. Elena Filatova, who actually takes rides into the “dead zone”, wrote the text presented in this composition.
...and nature is alone
Use the buttons below to access or download the files.
Recorded on Music from SEAMUS volume 26. SEAMUS Records EAM-2017 includes Scott A. Wyatt …and nature is alone
Circulation (1986) [10:06]
electroacoustic music designed for stereo performance
Circulation was composed and realized in 1986 offering the listener a three-section work around the primal elements of Water, Air, and Fire.
Circulation
Use the buttons below to access or download the files.
Recorded on Beyond the Lines, crossings without drums by Scott A. Wyatt. OFFICE Records FIL-300. Includes Scott A. Wyatt: Circulation
ComLinks (2010) [8:20]
electroacoustic music designed for eight-channel performance (5 channel and sterio versions available)
ComLinks is a setting of associated sounds and activities depicting our incessant pursuit of instant communication. Three-dimensional techniques were employed to position sounds and activities within the audience listening area.
ComLinks
Use the buttons below to access or download the files.
Recorded on Music from SEAMUS volume 21. SEAMUS Records EAM-2010, includes Scott A. Wyatt: Comlinks
In the Arms of Peril (2001, revised 2011) [10:00]
On the occasion of the 10th anniversary, this work was revised and remastered, and is now dedicated to the memory of the victims of the 9/11 attacks.
electroacoustic music designed for eight-channel performance (stereo version available)
As we proceed with our lives, hopes and dreams, and the daily ventures of life, we are at times exposed to increasingly dangerous provocations, threats, and serious challenges. For some, the real issue is survival. In this work, through the use of sonic environments and events, such confrontations are relived with the persistent search for threads of relief, from the shadow of being in the arms of peril. In the Arms of Peril was originally completed just two months prior to September 11, 2001.
Unique miking and channel distribution techniques, along with three-dimensional encoding techniques were incorporated to enhance the spatialization and sonic imaging for the piece.
In the Arms of Peril
Use the buttons below to access or download the files.
Recorded on Music from SEAMUS volume 11. SEAMUS Records EAM-2002. includes Scott A. Wyatt: In the Arms of Peril.
Inquiry (1986) [1:38]
electroacoustic music designed for sterio performance
Inquiry was realized as a brief soundscape exercise using SoundDesigner II and HyperPrism software at the University of Illinois Experimental Music Studios.
Inquiry
Use the buttons below to access or download the files.
Recorded on Beyond the Lines, crossings without drums by Scott A. Wyatt. OFFICE Records FIL-300. includes Scott A. Wyatt: Inquiry.
Mask (1986) [6:46]
electroacoustic music designed for stereo performance
Mask was the creative result of digital timescaling research and experiments with the then newly acquired Studer Editech Dyaxis digital audio workstation within the University of Illinois Experimental Music Studios. The Studer Editech Dyaxis system had one of the early time compression/expansion algorithms that actually permitted extensive timescaling application. Mask consists of numerous layers of timescaling of a single note that is exposed both at the very beginning, as well as the end.
Mask
Use the buttons below to access or download the files.
Night Visitors (2002) [8:48]
electroacoustic music designed for eight-channel performance (sterio version available)
Night Visitors loosely reflects a few of the sometimes startling events initiated by my wife’s cats in the middle of too many sleepless nights. On more than one occasion, this composer has been jolted out of a deep sleep, to the crash of…
Unique miking and channel distribution techniques were incorporated to enhance the spatialization and sonic imaging for the piece.
Night Visitors
Use the buttons below to access or download the files.
Recorded on Music from SEAMUS volume 12. SEAMUS Records EAM-2003, includes Scott A. Wyatt: Night Visitors
On a Roll (2004) [8:31]
electroacoustic music designed for eight-channel performance (5 channel and stereo versions available)
On a Roll is a work designed specifically for, and recorded in an eight-channel environment and was realized within the University of Illinois Experimental Music Studios. Unique miking and channel distribution techniques, along with three-dimensional encoding techniques were incorporated to enhance the spatialization and sonic imaging for the piece. Sonically, the obvious is not what it seems. As a challenge to myself with regard to sound design, the art of Foley was used to create illusions of rolling objects (sonic icons) that you may recognize; hence there are no recordings of actual rolling objects until the last few seconds of the piece.
On a Roll
Use the buttons below to access or download the files.
Poems (1986) [12:34]
electroacoustic music designed for dance performance in five movements
- Genesis II. Luna III. Quarks IV. Destiny V. Starfolk
Poems was requested and composed for the University of Illinois Department of Dance for performance at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts in 1986. The performance was under the direction of choreographer and Professor Patricia Knowles.
Poems
Use the buttons below to access or download the files.
Use the buttons below to access the individual movements from Poems.
Recorded on Beyond the Lines, crossings without drums by Scott A. Wyatt. OFFICE Records FIL-300. includes Scott A. Wyatt: Poems.
Still Hidden Laughs (1988) [7:40]
electroacoustic music designed for stereo performance
Still Hidden Laughs is a tribute to composer, colleague, and friend – Herbert Brün on the occasion of his 70th birthday. It utilizes shaped sound mass parameters and combinations rather than specific pitch material and draws attention to the importance of subtle and sometimes even sensual musical “gestures” while attempting to avoid the commercial and decorative compositional traps. These gestures can be heard as both single events and as composite phrases creating a dialogue within and among the multiple layers of sound.
Still Hidden Laughs
Use the buttons below to access or download the files.
Recorded on CDCM Computer Music Series volume 3. CENTAUR Records CRC-2045. includes Scott A. Wyatt: Still Hidden Laughs.
ELECTROACOUSTIC MUSIC WITH VIDEO AND VIDEO OF LIVE PERFORMANCES
All At Risk (2004) [8:57]
video presentation with electroacoustic music designed for 8-channel performance.
All At Risk attempts to share some of the feelings I had when recently reading email messages from a news correspondent friend who had been sent to Iraq to cover ongoing events there. The email was sent to his family who, in-turn, shared it with me. I have left out the much more graphic moments as I feel the excess gore, pain and suffering would detract from the basic message of this piece. The stress and overall sense of helplessness I felt when reading his email, along with a better sense of the amount of danger that those in Iraq face on a minute-by-minute basis, is what motivated the creation of this work. I wish to express my appreciation to ABC News correspondent Brian Rooney and his family for sharing his email, and to John Ritz for his help with video editing.
Risky Business: a tribute to Nikola Tesla (2008) [9:12]
composition for electroacoustic music with live Continuum performance and two Tesla Coils composed by Mark Smart and Scott A. Wyatt.
- Continuum performer, Mark Smart
- Live mixing, Scott A. Wyatt
- Tesla Coil control hardware and software design, Steve Ward
- Technical assistance and Tesla Coil expertise, Terry Blake and Jeff Larson
- Continuum design, Lippold Haken
This piece begins with the brief comment from NY City’s Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia’s reading of the Eulogy to Nikola Tesla on January 10, 1943. Risky Business is a blend of studio realized electroacoustic music, live continuum performance, and live audio generated from the Tesla Coils both receiving a combination of audio and MIDI signals – combining the talents of the team.
Time Mark (1983, revised 2000) [8:43]
composition for solo percussion with electroacoustic accompaniment
Within Time Mark (commissioned by percussionist Kathleen Kastner), are specific considerations including a continuum of timbre – thus providing for an integration of electroacoustic and live sounds without the loss of individuality, and spatial disposition – wherein the location from which sounds emanate within the host performance space is also a parameter for composition. Originally realized in 1983 with concrete and modular voltage-controlled synthesis techniques (including much analog tape editing), the electroacoustic portion of the composition was reworked to reduce the inherent analog tape hiss and was then digitally re-recorded in 2000.
Victor Pons, percussionist
Chrystal Chiu, percussionist