Andi Spicer

Andrew John Preston "Andi" Spicer (born 1959 in Birmingham, U.K.), is a British electroacoustic classical music composer who uses electronics (see Electronic Music (classical)) in his compositions.

The composer is also a writer and journalist. He has contributed to The Wall Street Journal [http://online.wsj.com/article/PA2VJBNA4R/SB114014658976576708-search.html] [http://online.wsj.com/article/PA2VJBNA4R/SB116673909806557115-search.html] and The Gramophone as a reviewer [http://www.ecmrecords.com/Press_Reactions/New_Series/1900/Pressreactions_1967.php] and has written for many international newspapers, magazines and news agencies, including Dow Jones Newswires and The Associated Press.

History and influences

He studied economics at Aston University in Birmingham and pursued a career in journalism, while composing and performing free form improvised music (see free improvisation). He lived in Johannesburg, South Africa between 1996 and 2003, after which he moved back to England. Since then he has been a member of the New Music Brighton [http://www.newmusicbrighton.co.uk] and London Forum [http://www.forumcomposers.org.uk/] collectives of composers in the UK. His compositions have been featured at the Brighton Festival, Soundwaves Festival [http://www.soundwaves-festival.org.uk/programme/event03.php] , Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Royal College of Music in London, London COMA Summer School, [http://www.coma.org/summerschool/index.html] [http://www.coma.org/] Bille en Tête Festival (Musique En Roue Libre) in Arras, France [http://www.billeentete.org/resources/depliant2rectoverso.pdf] [http://www.billeentete.org/2.html] and at the All Ears Contemporary Music Festival [http://at.orpheusweb.co.uk/forum/concrt.htm] in London, as well as at the Grahamstown Festival in South Africa and performed elsewhere in France, Mexico and the U.S. He is largely self-taught, although he took private lessons in composition and music theory with South African composer Martin Watt at the University of the Witwatersrand and composition workshops with British composer Michael Finnissy. His music uses serialist techniques (see serialism), improvisation, graphic notation, electronics (see electronic art music) and emphasizes surface textures, but is also influenced by southern African and Asian world music.

He is associated with the Gallery III [http://www.111.co.za] group of artists, musicians and multi-media artists in Johannesburg, South Africa. Spicer is among a new generation of composers in post-apartheid (see apartheid) South Africa. Other examples are Dimitri Voudouris, Jürgen Bräninger, [http://www.otoplasma.com/bio.html Cobi van Tonder] , Hannes Taljaard, [http://sacomposers.up.ac.za/t_Taljaard_Hannes.html] Michael Blake (see Michael Blake - Composer) [http://sacomposers.up.ac.za/b_Blake_Michael.html] Robert Fokkens and Spicer's teacher Martin Watt.

Compositions

In "Anglo Boer War" (1999) he explored cluster note (see tone clusters) and microtonal techniques. The piece is a strident anti-war composition written for the hundredth anniversary of the Anglo Boer War (see Second Boer War) and was a collaboration with the artist James de Villiers.

His "63 Moons" (2003) composition was heavily influenced by Javanese gamelan music, Shona mbira music (see Shona music) and contemporary minimalist (see minimalist music) composers.

"Click Language" (2004) continued Spicer's African themes and uses sampled words from southern African click languages such as Xhosa (see Xhosa language), Zulu (see Zulu language) and Khoisan languages as a sound patina for four percussionists, comprising vibraphone, marimba, waterphone and other hand-held instruments. "Baobab" (2003) employs polyrhythms inspired by southern African drumming and features the vibraphone and marimba. There is a version of Baobab for harpsichord (2006), written for Polish harpsichordist Kasia Tomczak-Feltrin. [http://www.harpsichord.org.uk/guests/kasiatomczak.htm] . He is presently writing an opera for video based on Arno Schmidt's novel "The Egghead Republic" ("Die Gelehrtenrepublik").

Recent works have explored live electronics and acoustic instrument blends, [http://www.coteo.com/opalenews/index.php?search=&index=&lg=1&id_bouton=6&fiche=14087&page] including midi instruments. Since the beginning of 2006, he has worked closely with French woodwind and electronic music soloist Julien Feltrin. [http://www.julienfeltrin.blogspot.com/] Spicer has also worked with London-based percussion ensemble Brake Drum Assembly. [http://www.brakedrumassembly.co.uk/] He formed the ensemble Caos Harmonia [http://www.111.co.za/Archive/Multimedia_files/Caos%20Web/caos_harmonia_and_111_production.htm] to perform his music in 1997.

Film and video

Austrian video artist Peter Gold [http://www.cinematography.at] produced a short film for three movements of "Anglo Boer War" for the 2006 All Ears Contemporary Music Festival in London. Antarctica (1995-1996) is an early work for electronics written for an unreleased video of Antarctic (see Antarctica) landscapes.

Art installations

Spicer collaborated with performance artist [http://www.usodimare.com Paolo Giudici] in the installation "Thesis" at the Hockney Gallery at the Royal College of Art in London in 2006. Painter/multimedia artist James de Villiers worked with Spicer in "The Architecture of Air", [http://www.111.co.za/Archive/ArchivePage/arc1.jpg] which toured the US, Mexico and South Africa in 2001-2003 with "Transformations", [http://www.111.co.za/Architecture%20of%20Air/transmigrations_at_pretoria_art_.htm] an exhibition of South African art. "Inside, Outside" (2001) is an electronic piece for a James de Villiers' installation of the same title shown at Carfax [http://www.carfax.co.za/] in Johannesburg.

Selected Works

*"Antarctica" (1995-6) - for electronics, video
*"Virtually Ambient Shostakovich" (1997) - for voices, sampler and keyboards
*"Anglo Boer War" (1999) – for voices, strings and electronic manipulation
*"String Quartet Four" (2000) – for string quartet
*"Sequenzas" (2000) – for piano
*"Auto da Fe" (2002) – for orchestra
*"In Memoriam Valdemar Rodriquez" (2002) - for orchestra
*"63 Moons" (2003) – variations for world music instruments, percussion and synthesizers
*"Bigga Digga" (2004) - for voices
*"Shakespeare Whispers" (2004) - for voices
*"Baobab" (2004) – for percussion quartet
*"Click Language" (2005) – for percussion quartet and electronics
*"pHyTHoN" (2005) - for French horn & piano
*"Four Pieces" (2005) - for brass quintet
*"Bird" (2006) – for vibraphone and electronics
*"Euclid Alone" (2006) – for Paetzold Great Bass, tenor recorders & electronics, French horn and percussion quartet
*"The Anthropic Principle" (2006) – for midi wind controller and laptop
*"Polonnaruwa" (2006) – for laptop electronics
*"Baobab" (2004) – revised for harpsichord (2006)
*"Haut Voltage" (2006) - improvisation for midi wind controller, clarinet and laptop electronics
*"The Giraffe Sleeper" (2007) - for chamber orchestra, piano and laptop electronics
*"Cold, Cold" (2007) - for laptop electronics and manipulated voice, words by Chris Edwards
*"For Dimitri Voudouris" (2007) - for laptop electronics, electronically manipulated alto saxophone and French horn
*"The Ankithera Mechanism" (2008) - for natural horn & electronics
*"Nazca" (2008) - for chamber orchestra & latop electronics
*"Hydrogen" (2008) - for flute & laptop electronics

External links

* [http://andispicercomposer.moonfruit.com/ Andi Spicer's Official website]
* [http://www.gaudeamus.nl/ The Gaudemus Foundation]
* [http://www.soundwaves-festival.org.uk/welcome.php Soundwaves Festival, Brighton]
* [http://www.ircam.fr/ IRCAM ]
* [http://www.steim.org/steim/ Steim]
* [http://www.hcmf.co.uk/index.asp Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival]
* [http://www.nafest.co.za/about_history.htm Grahamstown Festival ]
* [http://www.brightonfestivalfringe.org.uk/ Brighton Festival Fringe]
* [http://www.billeentete.org/2.html Bille en Tete Festival]
* [http://sacomposers.up.ac.za/index.html#a African Composers]
* [http://www.newmusicsa.org.za/indaba2003/ElectronicMusicGallery.pdf Electronic Music Gallery - Grahamstown Festival Indaba 2003]
* [http://www.newmusicsa.org.za/ New Music South Africa]
* [http://www.brakedrumassembly.co.uk Brake Drum Assembly]
* [http://www.julienfeltrin.blogspot.com/ Julien Feltrin]
* [http://www.vonhuene.com/paetzold_square.cfm Paetzold Recorders]
* [http://www.makingmusic.org.uk/MM/html/pdfs/CPN0809/CPN_Scott_Cok_0809.pdf Anneke Scott]
* [http://www.epidemic.net/geogb/art/artzoyd/prj/vasseur.html Pierre Vasseur]
* [http://www.111.co.za James de Villiers]
* [http://www.cinematography.at/ Peter Gold]
* [http://www.usodimare.com Paolo Giudici]
* [http://andispicer.blogspot.com/ Andi Spicer's blog]
* [http://www.harpsichord.org.uk/guests/kasiatomczak.htm/ Kasia Tomczak]
* [http://www.ecmrecords.com/Press_Reactions/New_Series/1900/Pressreactions_1967.php Gramophone review]
* [http://www.gramophone.co.uk/ The Gramophone]
* [http://netnewmusic.net/ NetNewMusic]
* [http://www.sequenza21.com/ Sequenza21]