Robert Scott Thompson Robert Scott Thompson trained as a composer of instrumental and acousmatic music earning the B.Mus. degree (’81) from the University of Oregon and M.A (’84) and Ph.D. degrees (’90) from the University of California at San Diego. He is currently a professor of music composition at Georgia State University in Atlanta. He has created work in a wide variety of forms ranging from chamber and orchestral music to works for the virtuoso soloist, computer music and video and performance art. Over the past decade, he has become increasingly well known internationally for his instrumental and computer music works and also for his many recordings which have been broadcast worldwide. For more information please visit: www.aucourantrecords.com. Eclipse (2002) moonlight glint, nightfall, a halo shines lucent bright, nearing the eclipse Eclipse has no elaborate scientific or technical agenda and seeks only to express a poetry of sound. Specifically realized for 5.1 surround presentation, Eclipse uses as source sounds various recordings ranging from crotales, tam-tams and other metallics, to flute passages, vocal sounds and violoncello samples. All of the sound materials were composed and recorded specifically for this work. Many of the materials heard are processed using spectral techniques. A key idea in this work has to do with the elaboration of formal design and development informed by spectral morphology. Formal design is articulate, in the sense of creating an evolving musical pitch space through the interrelationship of sound materials whose temporal and formal organization is based on an enhanced view of chromaticism. Materials are not related simply by pitch but are also connected by affinities of spectral content. Fire Gazing shadow of hot flame, faint voices of the ancient, heard in the fire light Fire Gazing is a companion to an earlier work of computer music called Shadow Gazing (from the CD Shadow Gazing, Aucourant Records, 1994). Fire Gazing alludes to the technique of fortune telling, clairvoyance (clairaudience) and psychic prognostication which involves viewing the glowing embers of a dying fire in order to glimpse into the Otherworld. Various types of acoustic sounds are used in this piece and include percussion, flute and vocal recordings. Percussion materials were performed by Stuart Gerber. The crackling and dripping sounds at the opening are from a particularly resonant shower drain in a Rome hotel room. Many of the sound sources are used as inputs to feedback delay networks of various designs and also to banks of resonators. One important strategy for sound development in the piece is the “bowing” articulation of the resonator banks. Other techniques used include analysis/resynthesis and algorithmic editorial procedures.