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Sonance for the Precession

by Neil Leonard

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    Excerpts from a sound installation based on alto saxophone recordings, electronic sound, and live quadraphonic spatialization by Neil Leonard.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Sonance for the Precession via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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about

“Mr. Leonard creates a haunting, rhythmic, chantlike score, secular spiritual music for a New World. After leaving the gallery I kept hearing it, with delight, in my head, on the street, all afternoon.” Holland Cotter (The New York Times)

The electroacoustic composition Sonance for the Precession was commissioned by Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA). The piece furthers Leonard's practice in large scale sound installation, with recent commissions by documenta, Venice Biennale, and Fujiko Nakaya of Experiments in Art at Technology.

The original composition, created for the quad adjacent to WCMA, played from the dome of the historic Hopkins Observatory, the oldest working astronomical observatory in the United States. The durational work explored ancient ideas connecting the precession, or movement, of the equinox with the harmonic series. Each day, the music began just a minute or two earlier than the previous day—mirroring the disappearing sunlight as day turned to night and autumn shifted to winter. 30 minutes of the composition played daily. The composition provided a context to reflect on how Hindu and Greek theories of astronomy and acoustics developed through intercultural exchange as far back as prehistoric times.

Working closely with WCMA and producer/engineer Joe Branciforte, Leonard remixed Sonance for the Precession specially for LP and stereo listening. The result is a stunning long form composition that brings the sense of contemplation, cosmic motion and intimate timbral nuance of the installation to your living room, headphones and/or car stereo.

LINER NOTES

In the early days of fall when the air was warm and the Williams campus was abuzz with activity, an other-worldly sound could be heard mixing with the cacophony of students hanging out nearby, trucks rumbling along Massachusetts Route 2, the constant reverberations from a facilities power plant to the south, and the daily ringing of belIs at Thompson Memorial Chapel to the north. Sonance for the Precession, an electroacoustic composition created by Neil Leonard specifically for the quad adjacent to the Williams College Museum of Art, played for 30 minutes each day half an hour before sunset from September to December 2019. The installation highlighted the historic Hopkins Observatory, the oldest extant astronomical observatory in the United States, constructed by Williams Professor Albert Hopkins and his students from 1636-8.

The durational work explored ancient ideas connecting the precession, or movement, of the equinox with the harmonic series. Each day the music began just a minute or two earlier than the previous day, mirroring the disappearing sunlight as day turned to night and autumn shifted to winter. It began in September with the final 30 minutes of the hour-long composition and ended in December with the first 30 minutes. Over the course of 12 weeks, each 30 minute increment shifted 20 seconds earlier in the composition­ just as the sun set incrementally earlier-allowing for 20 seconds of new material to be heard each day. The entire 60 minute piece could only be heard over all 84 daily listenings. The composition, remixed here in two sections of 19 minutes each, provides a context to reflect on how Hindu and Greek theories of astronomy and acoustics developed

through intercultural exchange as far back as prehistoric times. Leonard was originally invited in 2018 to Williams College to participate with musician Miguel Nunez and artist Nestor Sire in the annual Plonkser Family Lecture, which celebrated its 25th anniversary that year with a performance program and conversation about artistic practice inside and outside of Cuba. Leonard's visit rekindled a longtime friendship with composer and Williams professor of music, Ileana Perez Velazquez, and sparked plans for future collaborations. He returned to Williams a year later as the Arthur Levitt, Jr. '52 Artist-in-Residence, an annual fellowship that promotes new perspectives and cooperative endeavors among the arts. He and Velazquez co-taught a course on electronic music. Their curriculum focused on sharing the breadth of electronic music as a means of articulating narratives from various cultures; bridging artistic mediums, such as music, dance, video and installation art; and pointing to new artistic modes of practice for the 21st century. The residency also occasioned the commission of Sonance for the Precession.

As the project came into being, Jay Pasachoff, Field Memorial Professor of Astronomy and Director of the Hopkins Observatory, advised on the placement of the speakers on the landmark observatory building. He brought his Astronomy 101 students to experience the installation, and invited Leonard to the class where together they discussed precession with the students. In his textbook, The Cosmos: Astronomy in the New Millennium, Pasachoff describes precession as a result of the Earth's spinning like a top, with a wobble that has a period of 26,000 years. The Earth's axis now points close to a middling-bright star, Polaris
(actually almost a degree away), but in ten thousand years or so it will be pointing to Vega. In about 26,000 years, it will be back to pointing near Polaris again. In reflecting on the project, Pasachoff said, "Every day, the orientation of the sky overhead is slightly different, one of the things Leonard celebrates in his installation. His timing also notes that the Earth's view of the stars is from a slightly different viewpoint every day, as the Earth orbits the Sun in 365 ¼ days, meaning that the same stars rise about 4 minutes earlier every day;'

Whether they sought it out, happened upon it, or were subjected to ii, music, science, and art students, those who lived in the adjacent dorms, and those who simply traversed the quad on the way to the dining hall, as well as museum visitors and community passersby of all ages, brought their own stories and embodied experiences to the work. The din of everyday life blended with the sonic intervention, creating a wholly new acoustic experience with each encounter. As the work drew to a close, students vacated campus for the winter holiday and darkness began falling as early as 3:50 pm. Snow blanketed the ground and hushed much of the external noise, allowing Leonard's ethereal com position to linger heavy in the air. Sound washed over any intrepid, hopefully well-bundled, listener who was willing to brave the elements for a half hour trip from Williamstown to Polaris and from 2019 back to the time of Pythagoras. As this record comes out, a year after the installation, the world has changed. While we adjust to living, learning, teaching, and experiencing art at a distance, this recording both documents the original work and provides an entirely different kind of encounter, one well-suited to this moment of separation and solitude: defined by the intimacy of listening from home, the physicality of slipping the vinyl from its cardboard sleeve, placing it on the turntable, and being transported to wherever and whenever the music takes you.

Lisa Dorin, Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs, Williams College Museum of Art

credits

released July 3, 2021

Original sound installation recorded and mixed by Neil Leonard. Audio for LP produced and mixed by Leonard and Joseph Branciforte. Mastered by Branciforte and Scott Hull.

Composed and performed by Neil Leonard, Arcadio Music (ASCAP).

artmuseum.williams.edu
neilleonard.com
akoh.art
experimentalintermedia.org

Design by Christopher Swift
Cover photo credit:
ESA/Hubble & Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble)
Released 2021

Special thanks to Marylin and Arthur Levitt, Jr. '52, Jay Pasachoff, Ed Gollin, Ileana Perez Velazquez, John Burrow, Brian Repetto, Nina Pelaez, Adi Nachman, Christopher Swift, Terry Waryjasz, Irene Barrett, Pamela Franks and, of course, Neil Leonard.

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Neil Leonard Boston, Massachusetts

Neil Leonard is a sound artist, saxophonist and composer. He performs his compositions with a mix of contemporary musicians and folkloric ensembles. Recent sound installations explore how global marketing impacts our listening, and were made in collaboration with bartenders, biologists, street criers and dock workers. ... more

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