Isao Tomita 75 Firebird �CK

962	5equentiol Switch	4
950	Keyboord Controller	2
950-B	Scole Progrommer	1
956	Ribbon Controller	1
6401	Bodę Ring Modulotor	1
1630	Bodę Frequency Shifter	1
959	X-Y Controller	2
905	Reverberotion unit	1

Pose o riddle: Whot is the sound of musie? An enigmotic onswer: The musie of sound.

Strovinsky, os most composers, progrommed sound in dots ond directions on poper. His Computer—orms pulling horse hoir over strings. lungs forcing oir through ond over metol ond wooden tubes, fingers shortening ond length-enings strings. columns of metol and wood. honds with mollets hitting stretched skins. wooden bors, metol plotes—on orchestro of troined gymnosts! Superbly specialized. to be surę. Dut o hundred or so minds ond countless reflexes seeking to tronslote those dots ond directions into the sound thot will fulfill Strovinsky's program. And succeeding, they creote the musie.

Imogine how elegant, how sophisticoted. how uniquely contemporory to orgonize streoms of electrons to follow Stravinsky's score —by one mind ot whose order those super flecks of energy produce the complex signols thot ultimotely drive loudspeokers to the sound of his musie.

Tomitas musie of sound is produced by this dignified discipline. Yes, it's tedious: Asynergistic process of science ond musie is o loborotory exercise—onalyze. imogine, seorch, test, modify. evaluote—corried out in the some ombience os thot of the composers desk. Where does Tomita stort? A concept of the score—the musical messoge, the story linę: A foiry-tole formulo of o magie Firebird of brilliont plumoge who helps o deserving hunter break on evil spell ond win o lovely moiden imprisoned by the dreod Kostchei.

The sound begins with generoting o scored pitch by using on Oscillotor of the Moog Syn-thesizer. The durotion is reguloted by the Keyboard or Ribbon Controllers. Complexity or tonę color is creoted by Low- or Highposs

COMPONENT EOUIPMENT USED DY TOMITA FOR THIS ALDUM

MQ.QGSYNMESlgfi    OuontUy

914    Extended Rangę Fixed Filter Bank    2

904-A    Voltoge-Controlled Lowposs Filter    0

904-B    Voltoge-Controlled Highposs Filter    2

904-C    Filter Coupler    1

901    Voltoge-Ćontrolled Oscillotor    1

921    Voltoge-Controlled Oscillotor    1

901-A    Oscillotor Controller    0

921-A    Oscillotor Driver    2

901-B    Oscillotor    9

921-B    Oscillotor    6

903-A    Rondom Signol Generator    3

911    Envelope Generator    12

911-A    Duol Trigger Deloy    2

902    Voltoge-Controlled Amplifier    9

912    Envelope Follower    2

984    Four-Chonnel Mixer    1

960    Sequentiol Controller    3

961-CP    Interfoce    2

Filters ond dynomic voriotions by o Voltoge-Controlled Amplifier. Morę color is obtained by combining Oscillators. developing complex frequency spectrums by using the Dode Ring Modulotor ond Frequency Shifter. Portions of the durotion of o sound ore modified by non-tonol feotures using o Rondom Signol Generator. The loudness of the sound is governed by o mixer ond recorded on one track of the 16-track tope recorder. A phrose, o linę, perhops o meosure or two. is monophonicolly loid down on tope. Repeoted processes build up loyers of hormony, rhythm on successive tracks. Where 16 oren't enough, combinotions ore modę ond recorded bock on track one. Morę loyers, blending. mixing, modifying, ond there ore still morę possibilities. Reverberate, fold sound with Echo units or Phose Shifters. odd electro-ocous-tic sounds by the occessory units. Finolly. o complexity of color. emerging in brilliont plumoge os mixed together on the Compumix. ond o phrose or two of Strovinsky's 1910 score emerges. Perhops not in the tonol palette he envisioned but, nonetheless, in o sound of his musie creoted os directly os he wrote it.

And so it proceeds. phrose by phrose, doy by doy, until the orchitecture is built. A finol reduction to quodrophonic distribution ond onother to stereophonic completes the performance. Debussy's daydreaming foun ond Moussorgsky'sexotic fobric of a Witch.es' Sobboth receive the some reflection of their dots ond directions os from the eye of o drogon fly.

Conductors ond their musicions interpret the languoge of o score into the sound of the musie of Strovinsky, Debussy or Moussorgsky. Tomito corries interpretotion into new reolms—into the musie of his sound.

—John Pfeiffer

ACC.ES.5QRY

AKG DX20E Echo unit    1

Binson Echorec "2"    2

Roland Spocę Echo RE-201    1

Eventide Clockworks "Instant Phaser"    1

Moestro Phose Shifter    1

Rolond Phose Shifter    2

Fender "Dimention IV"    1

Moestro Sound System for Woodwinds    1

Moestro Rhythm n Sound for Guitor    1

Fender Electronic Piono    1

Hohner Clovinet C    1

Sitar (modę in Indio) with Borcus-Berry

contoct microphone    1

MIXER

Quod/Eight Compumix (24 ch) Sony MX-710 (8ch)

Sony MX-16 (8 ch)

Sony MX-12 (6ch)

FIREBIRD

Electronicolly creoted by

ISAO TOHITA

Produced by Plosmo Musie. Inc.

SIDE A

STRAVINSKY FIREBIRD SUITĘ

Introduction ond Donce of the Firebird Round of the Princesses (Khorovod) infernol Donce of King Kostchei Oerceuse ond Finole

(5:00.7:12. 5:21.8:00

SIDE B DEBUSSY

PRELUDE TO THE AFTERNOON OF A FAUN <10:10>

MOUSSORGSKY

A NIGHT ON BARĘ MOUNTAIN ;i245)

1	Ampex MM-1100 Ampex AG-440	16 Trocks 4 Trocks (1/2")	Tope Speed 76 cm/s 38 cm/s
2	Sony TC-9040	4 Trocks (1/4")	38 cm/s
3	TEAC A-3340S	4 Trocks (1/4")	38 cm/s
2	TEAC 7030GSL	2 Trocks	38 cm/s

OTHER RCA RECORDINGS BY ISAO TOMITA:

Moussorgsky: Piauros ot on Exhibition......ARD1/ARL1-0836*

Snowflokes Are Doneng —The Newesc Sound of Debussy.....ARD1/ARL1-0468*

•AlłO ovo<IObl« ort tope

BMG~P7y)\OT<. http://www.bmgjapan.com