B-bouncing is a work I composed for my own performance in late 1984/early 1985. The first public performance of the work was given by Roger Heaton and his ensemble for an SPNM event in London in 1986.  At the time of composing the work in 1984 I had been studying the Sequenza works of Luciano Berio for my PhD at the University of Queensland. B-bouncing was one of the works I wrote for the composition folio that was a part of the submission.  This was probably the first time that a PhD in Australia was awarded for a submission including both composition and thesis, although it has since become quite common.

The tone of B-bouncing is quite witty and rhythmic but the influence of Berio can be seen in my use of extended techniques such as key clicks, tapping and the use of vocalizations. Everything in this five minute piece comes from the vocal sound “B” – hence the title B-bouncing as I was following the idea of extrapolating everything from a single sound, in homage to B-Berio!

© Andrew Schultz, 2016