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This page contains postings on compositions, performances and press.


Soledad O'Brien 1998 MSNBC interview

In

This video begins with percussionist Andrew Schloss demonstrating the "Drum/Piano" hybrid instrument we developed for "The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World." It continues with discussions of the RadioDrum and its relative the "radio baton" with inventor Max Mathews (co-inventor: Bob Boie), and includes an interview with me (at time 4:00), as well as a description of the physical modeling techniques pioneered by Julius Smith and myself in such works as Silicon Valley Breakdown and further developed as part of the Stanford University Sondius program, and at Staccato Systems, Inc., the company I co-founded with Julius Smith and several others.

In 2012, Soledad O'Brien hosted one of the debates between Barak Obama and Mitt Romney.

Historical Reviews (U.S.)

In

Smithsonian, December 1994, "A composer whose computer music has a magical twist". [In Silicon Valley Breakdown, Jaffe] imagined a huge orchestra of plucked instruments, superguitars and harpsichords of every imaginable size: tiny sounds barely audible, huge tonal blobs that sound...like "a plucked Golden Gate Bridge," the music swooping here and there, dropping to Earth for a moment of hilarious honky-tonk almost-harpsichord, then taking off again on a star trail.

Newsweek, Aug. 2, 1982, "Breaking Sound Barriers." Silicon Valley Breakdown sounds like a high-tech hootenanny. It begins with a banjo-like E, speeds through some crazily fast picking, soars into a tinkling stratosphere and shoots with a dramatic glissandos down into earthshaking chords--the sort of sound that you'd get if you plucked the cables of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Computer Music Journal, Winter 1996, "XXIst Century Mandolin." Ellis Island Sonata is a virtuosic piece, both in the amazing performance ability demonstrated by Jaffe, and also in his compositional ability to weave a panoply of musical influences together into a compelling work. Silicon Valley Breakdown stands as one of the landmarks of computer music. [The CD "XXIst Century Mandolin" is] a wonderful collection of music by an innovative and thoughtful composer.

Audio Magazine, July 1997. "Classical Recordings." The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is wild stuff indeed. Its avant composition, unique solo instrument, and unusual orchestral backing route a procession of musical sounds through your speakers that they have probably never before reproduced. Sound: A+, Performance: A.

Keyboard Magazine, April, 1994. Jaffe offers American Minatures, in which samples of mandolin and voice are ingeniously manipulated on NeXT computer, and Silicon Valley Breakdown, whose synthesized plucked string sounds gleefully obliterate idiomatic preconceptions.

San Jose Mercury News, Jan. 13, 1984, "Funky electronic music that's calculated to please." David Jaffe's Silicon Valley Breakdown is puckish, funky, and at times jazzy-improvisatory; he has great fun with sudden shifts of the reference pitch, making his tunes wow giggly up and down the scale.

American Record Guide, April 1997. In ['The Statue of Zeus' from The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World], the interaction between the piano and other instruments, particularly the unpitched percussion, is truly exhilarating.

20th Century Music, February 1997, "Wonder" Full Music. Jaffe is a consummate artist.

Array (Computer Music Association), Spring 1997, "CD Reviews." [The CD of "The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World"] is superbly recorded and executed by the players and represents a major achievement by the composer... David Jaffe has a very distinctive and original musical style, and there can be no doubt as to the clarity and technical mastery with which he expresses his ideas.

The New York Times, May 24, 1981, "A Summer Camp Where Musicians Work Hard at Playing." David Jaffe, composer-in-residence [at the Composer's Forum of the East], prepared Dybbuk... The audience responded with wild clapping and cheering.

San Francisco Chronicle, California, July 29, 1991, "Cabrillo Music Festival Opens With a Real Bang." There's considerable hell-raising in Jaffe's [Whoop For Your Life!]. The audience gobbled it up.

Oakland Tribune, California, April 27, 1983, "New material gives 'Mostly Modern' a maverick touch" The audience loved it [Would You Just As Soon Sing As Make That Noise!?].

San Jose Mercury News, California, July 24, 1993, "Conducting electricity." Composer-conductor-performer David Jaffe was able to make the computer music follow him. In [Terra Non Firma], cello lines weaving up and down the register echoed the wavy earth movement... Meanwhile, the electronic orchestra produced the trills of "flutes," a "sax" solo and a sassy muted jazz "trumpet." [The result] was mesmerizing.

San Jose Mercury News, California, July 21, 1990, "The muse electronic." David Jaffe's Impossible Animals was a rare (and successful) venture into humor, with the computer supplying an ultra-high chorus of yips and yaps accompanying Jaffe's own "straight-man" violin playing. The piece was uncommonly sophisticated in the live-electronic interplay as well as in the "voices."

Minneapolis Star Tribune, Minnesota, September 24, 1988, "'Words in Motion' opens Composers Forum's study of new repertoire." In clever fasion, and using his own text, Jaffe represents the four seasons from a "bird's-eye" view, combining bird calls with elaborate vocal counterpoint [in Bird Seasons].

St. Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch, Minnesota, Sept. 25, 1988, "Forum takes on the task of wedding word and sound." David Jaffe, in his Bird Seasons...handled his four-voice texture expertly, and I heard echoes of the 16th century madrigal style. For its wit, the second section, "Circle Dance for Summer," was the winner; for poignancy, the final one, "Autumn Meditation," in which previously heard materials were ingeniously recalled.

San Francisco Chronicle, California, Jan. 12, 1987, "Chanticleer Chorus Keeps a Tradition Alive." David Jaffe, in The Fishing Trip, combined live voices and tape in a most satisfying and stimulating fashion.

Historical Reviews (International)

In

Olomoucky denik, Olomouc, CZECH REPUBLIC, May 3, 2011 Czech version (Translation) Karen Bentley Pollick presented her brilliant playing technique in the composition Cluck Old Hen Variations [by David A. Jaffe]. A nimble, all accoustic composition combines the traditional tune wtih a modern harmonic-melodic basis. The audience repaid a long applause for the performance.

Le Monde, Paris, FRANCE, Oct. 5, 1982, "Jouer de l'ordinateur--A La Biennale de Venise." Heuresment, une lumiere dansait dans Silicon Valley Breakdown, de David Jaffe... Travaillant dans un secteur étroit mais déjà prodigieusement complexe, il prouve que l'on peut maîtriser l'ordinateur et le forcer à entrer dans la musicque. Toute la pièce est fondée sur la synthèse d'un son de guitare, mais avec toutes ses qualités d'attaques et de résonances, qui va donner lieu à une vaste étude pleine de fantaisie et parfois assez saisissante, uniquement réalisée par la machine et témoignant d'un sens de la continuité et du développement, d'une intention rythmique et spaciale très rares à ce niveau de souplesse... Elle ouvre sans doute une brèche dans le dspotisme de l'ordinareur, un peu comme les premières oeuvres de Pierre Henry affirmaient la possibilite de jourer d'un musique nouvelle. Enfin quelqu'un qui joue!

Translation: "Playing the computer--The Venice Biennale". Happily, a light danced in Silicon Valley Breakdown, by David Jaffe...Working in a narrow field, but one that is already prodigiously complex, he proves that it is possible to master the computer and force it to enter into the realm of music. The entire piece is based on the synthesis of a note of the guitar, but with all its qualities of attack and resonances, giving way to a vast study, full of fantasy and sometimes quite moving, realized solely by computer and showing a sense of continuity and development, as well as a sense of rhythmic and spatial intention that is very rare at this level of flexibility... It opens, no doubt, a gap in the despotism of the computer, a bit as the first works of Pierre Henry affirmed the possibilities of playing a new music. Finally, someone who plays!

The Guardian, London and Manchester, ENGLAND, May 29, 1985, "Sounds Spectacular." Effective was a sort of double concerto [Bristlecone Concerto II] for violin, with orthodox ensemble and mandolin with computer-tape orchestra, the mandolin played by the composer, David Jaffe... The music for live instruments was eloquent and idiomatic, while the mandolin's interventions produced an interesting emotional effect, almost as though a being from another planet was earnestly trying to establish contact.

Giornale della Musica, ITALY, Dec. 1994, "Jaffe: mandolino americano moderno." In un percorso ideale che si snoda tra tradizione e modernità i brani del cd disegnano una, appa di tutte le possibili interpretazioni del mandolino...per un risultato suggestivo ed affascinante.

Translation: In an ideal course which winds between tradition and modernity, the pieces on the CD ["XXIst century mandolin"] describe a map of all the possible interpretations for the mandolin...for an evocative and fascinating result.

Array (Computer Music Association), SCOTLAND, Winter 1991, "ICMC 1990, Glasgow." Just as some composers may be thought of as derivative, others can be considered to have an original voice or approach. David Jaffe's Telegram to the President falls into the latter category. The piece stood out as an example of a personal musical language. [In his Impossible Animals], the electronic and acoustic voice sounds blend amazingly well to form a unified texture.

Polnische Musik, POLAND, Jan. 1988, "Warsaw Autumn '87." A pleasant impression was made by the American mandolinist David A. Jaffe [playing Ellis Island Sonata]. Shy and dreamy in appearance, he took up with gusto the musical ideas of Charles Ives and by means of a highly refined scordatura demonstrated what could be performed on the instrument.

Times Colonist, CANADA, April 15, 1995, "Exploring new worlds via computer." [The performance of 'The Temple of Artemis' from The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.] Hearing the torrential cascades of notes, and eerily beaustiful timbres, is an ear-opening experience... One of the most unusual, and rewarding, experiences of the season.

The Age, AUSTRALIA, June 13, 1995, "Digital music, maestro." [David Jaffe] is creating some weird and wonderful instruments -- inside a computer.

"High Tech Heros" TV Interview with Julius Smith and David A. Jaffe

Vintage technical/musical interview from the days when Julius and I were working with Steve Jobs at NeXT Computer (1987-1991). Discusses development of the extended Karplus-Strong-Jaffe-Smith plucked string physical modeling algorithm, as used in "Silicon Valley Breakdown;" human bird synthesis in "Impossible Anaimals;" as well as other techniques.