Polansky

This album exemplifies the depth to which Larry Polansky (b. 1954) explores and connects different musical ideas: In Three Pieces for Two Pianos and Old Paint, mathematical models and algorithmic processes are used to set folk songs; in k-toods, simple text scores outline complex musical processes that Polansky has theorized extensively; and the Dismissions are culminations of lifelong musicological investigations. His unique compositional style is unified through diversity and a constant reexamining, questioning, reformulating, and mixing of ideas.

Larry Polansky (b.1954) - The Theory of Impossible Melody (1989) {New World Records 80684-2 rel 2009}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 348 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 159 Mb | Artwork | 5% repair rar
© 1989, 2009 Artifact Recordings / New World Records | 80684-2
Classical / Modern Classical / Avant-Garde / Guitar / Computer / Process-Generated

Composed in 1989, this electro-acoustic composition contains fascinating formal (transformational) logic programs that generate electronic and acoustic pieces; all of these programs were developed using the HMSL (Hierarchical Music Specification Language) designed by composers Phil Burk, Larry Polansky, and David Rosenboom. This piece is imbued throughout with the feeling of mysteries in the Cabalistic tradition.

Larry Polansky - freeHorn (2017) {Cold Blue Music CB0049 Official Digital Download}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44kHz - Official Digital Download (qobuz.com) -> 113 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 77 Mb
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© 2017 Cold Blue Music | CB0049
Classical / Modern Classical / Process-Generated / Chamber Music

The Music of…Larry Polansky is a marvelous combination of the mathematical and the expressive. The blend is so seamless, in fact, that it serves to point out the absurdity of regarding those two strains as opposite or even especially different.'' (Joshua Kosman, SFGate) This album of chamber music offers three pieces: Polansky's drifting, shape-shifting freeHorn and his pulsing ii-v-i - each of which consists of a continuous modulation between the three different natural-just harmonic series - and minmaj, Polansky's unusual ''translation'' or Ruggles's Angels.

Larry Polansky - Change (2002) {Artifact Recordings ART 1023 Official Digital Download}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44kHz - Official Digital Download (bandcamp.com) -> 274 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 136 Mb | Cover | 5% repair rar
© 2002 Artifact Recordings | ART 1023
Classical / Modern Classical / Jazz / Experimental / Process-Generated

Polansky's 'morphing' pieces, for instruments and computers, are collected on his third solo CD on Artifact Recordings. These works explore musical change in diverse and strange ways. Several were written by computer, using formal, mathematical, and software morphing techniques.

Larry Polansky - The World's Longest Melody (2010) {New World Records 80700-2}
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© 2010 New World Records / Anthology Of Recorded Music | 80700-2
Classical / Contemporary Classical / Experimental / Electronic / Process-Generated

The World’s Longest Melody is a collection of experimental music written for the guitar by composer/guitarist Larry Polansky (b. 1954). The guitar has long been an important component in Polansky’s musical explorations, and this CD has grown from the enthusiasm for his work by the musicians of the Belgian electric guitar quartet ZWERM. The acoustic and electric guitar are featured both solo and in small and large combinations; a few pieces not originally conceived for the instrument are also presented here in guitar-oriented guise.

Larry Polansky (b.1954) - Three Pieces for Two Pianos (2016) {New World Records 80777-2 Official Digital Download}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44kHz - Official Digital Download (qobuz.com) -> 183 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 140 Mb | Artwork | 5% repair rar
© 2016 New World Records / Anthology of Recorded Music | 80777-2
Classical / Modern Classical / Chamber Music / Piano

The music of Bay Area composer Larry Polansky is a marvelous combination of the mathematical and the expressive. The blend is so seamless, in fact, that it serves to point out the absurdity of regarding those two strains as opposite, or even especially different. The works on this splendid release, mostly written for two pianos, are steeped in algorithmic processes — sometimes subtle, sometimes overt — that give the music an audible sense of structure.

Larry Polansky - Simple Harmonic Motion (1994) {Artifact Recordings ART 1011}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 164 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 138 Mb
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© 1994 Artifact Recordings | ART 1011
Classical / Jazz / Contemporary Classical / Experimental / Process-Generated

This CD presents four exquisite works for instruments in just intonation. Another You (1981), for solo harp in just intonation, is a set of 17 variations on a jazz standard that appears only briefly within the piece. The music, excellently realized by Alyssa Hess Reit, is delicate, spare, and filled with quiet emotion. The harp is played as if it were a large folk harp, thus, no pedals are used. Movement for Andréa Smith (My Funny Valentine for just string quartet) (1978), played by two violins and two violas using only the airy texture of natural harmonics, again varies a jazz standard.

Larry Polansky - Four-Voice Canons (2002) {Cold Blue Music CB0011 Digital Download}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44kHz - Official Digital Download (deezer.com) -> 241 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 148 Mb | Cover | 5% repair rar
© 2002 Cold Blue Music | CB0011
Classical / Modern Classical / Avant-Garde / Chamber Music / Process-Generated

A round or a canon is a musical form in which several voices or instruments perform the same material, but with staggered entries. For example, in a three-voice version of "Row, row, row your boat," some people don't get to sing the first line until others are singing "Gently down the stream," and others don't get to sing it until "Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily." The last group to sing the opening line is the last to sing "Life is but a dream," and they sing it all by themselves. In a so-called mensuration canon, all of the voices end at the same time, which means that the later you enter the canon, the faster you have to sing – or the more you have to compress - to reach the end at the same time as everybody else. One might predict that as the canon approaches its end, its density increases arithmetically. And it does – with vertigo-producing results.