Wave Edge Barry D. Truax

Wave Edge is a synthesized soundscape in the manner of my earlier “spatial environments,” Sonic Landscape No. 3 (1975) and Androgyny (1978). Like its mate, Solar Ellipse (1984-85), it is based on a particular type of spatial trajectory and related image. In Wave Edge the pattern is that of a wave breaking on the shore. The title refers to the crest of the wave which appears to move along the shore (in this piece, from right to left), yet the sound of the water remains fixed in direction. It is with this environmental image that we begin, and with each repetition we are drawn closer into and perhaps under this crest. A new sonic world unfolds and towards the end we “surface” to rediscover the waves, now surrounded by darting sound objects in a large reverberant space. In the distance a foghorn. Wave Edge is inspired by the I Ching hexagram number 4, Youthful Folly, comprised of the trigrams for water and mountain, which portrays a spring bubbling up at the foot of a mountain.

  • Year of composition: 1983
  • Genre: Electroacoustics
  • Format: Fixed media
  • Instrumentation: 4 computer-synthesized soundtracks
  • Software used: PODX system for sound synthesis and composition.
  • Duration of the submitted work: 9:15
  • Publisher: Cambridge Street Publishing
  • Production: Sonic Research Studio, Simon Fraser University (Burnaby, British Columbia)
  • Premiere: December 15, 1983, Musica Verticale (Rome, Italie)
  • Disc publication: Wave Edge is available on the Cambridge Street Records and Wergo CD Digital Soundscapes, CSR-CD 8701, as well as the Cambridge Street Records album Sequence of Earlier Heaven.

Linked project

  • CAP
    Allik, Austin, Bach, Bouchard, Calder, Crossman, Cumbo, Dal Farra, de Chevigny, Frenette…
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