We are sitting in a room
By Alvin Lucier (adapted by Kat Macdonald)
Written for the London Community Laptop Orchestra
Duration: ~15 minutes
Accessibility - Easy
We are sitting in a room is an adaptation of Alvin Lucier’s I am sitting in a room (1969) for groups. Here is a link to the original score. I have matched the original layout in honour of this.
Necessary Equipment Per Performer:
1 External Microphone & 1 Laptop (With Speakers)
Choose a room the musical qualities of which you would like to evoke.
Use the following text or any other text of any length:
“We are sitting in a room different from the one you are in now. We are recording the sound of our speaking voice and we are going to play it back into the room again and again until the resonant frequencies of the room reinforce themselves so that any sem- blance of our speech, with perhaps the exception of rhythm, is destroyed. What you will hear, then, are the natural resonant frequencies of the room articulated by speech. We regard this activity not so much as a demonstration of a physi- cal fact, but more as a way to smooth out any irregularities our speech might have.”
Each player Record their voice through the microphone attached to their laptop capturing through a software of their choice.
Save your recording on desktop.
Open the file with your choice of software (I use Quicktime or VLC).
Prepare another recording.
Play the first recording only back into the room through the laptop speaker and record the playback the original recorded statement through the microphone.
Continue this process through many generations. Each time only using the newest recording.
All the generations spliced together in chronological order make a composition the length of which is determined by the length of original statement and the number of generations recorded.
The versions in which one recorded statement is recycled through many rooms.
Make versions using one or more speakers of different languages and in different rooms.
Make versions in which, for each generation, the microphone is moved to different parts of the room or rooms.
Make versions where you record other peoples recordings
Make versions that can be performed in real time.