Double I: Vocalion

from regina by Nick Brooke

/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.
    Purchasable with gift card

      name your price

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

about

Double was originally written for Orchestra 2001 in Philadelphia, and premiered at Swarthmore and in downtown Philly. The commission was generously provided by Gil Stott in memory of Mary Stott. It was later reworked for sextet for Essential Music in Toronto, and premiered there, as well as at the I/O Festival at Williams College. Images accompanied the performance, created by Sue Rees and based on my father’s 19th-c. magic lantern shows and slides.

In 1860, the double magic lantern caught the public’s imagination by projecting hand-painted glass slides in churches and entertainment halls. Stacked lenses enabled it to crossfade between images, and cranks and levers made the circular slides oscillate on screen. The projections borrow these images, including a popular series about a shipwreck, used to accompany hymn singing, and the chromatropes, tank slide, and mechanical draftsman--all kaleidoscopic psychedelia of the time.

The music and visuals in Double works somewhat like these mechanisms. Musically, doublings abound, from the pairing of keyboards, to the alternations and crossfades of timbre and rhythm. Each of the two movements is based on a familiar song, but the tunes are fractured through elastic tempos and kaleidoscopic rotations. The movements are doppelgangers, sometimes morphing into each other, and finally into the main tune of this album.

Other 19th-century mechanisms inspire Double: The Vocalion was a foot-pumped organ used in churches; it was also the name of a brand of phonograph that you could “play” like an instrument, through a remote control. The American Regina was a music box with giant tin discs, whose popularity paved the way for the phonograph.

credits

from regina, released August 21, 2022
Joana Genova, violin; Nat Parke, ‘cello; Kamala Sankaram, harmonium;
Matthew Gold, woodblock and crotales; with Yamaha Disklavier grand, mechanical celesta, and built angklungs

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Nick Brooke Bennington, Vermont

Nick Brooke mixes musical sampling, lipsynching, and theater into a genre all its own. In his works, vocalists and actors are trained to mimic sampled collages of sound effects, pop songs, and musical ephemera, blurring the line between recording and live performance. His works have been performed at the Lincoln Center Festival, HERE, and Mass MoCA. ... more

contact / help

Contact Nick Brooke

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Report this track or account

If you like Nick Brooke, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Featured guests are the golden-voiced Baby Rose and psyche soulsters Brainstory.
listen now