Canso (1981)
Canso is a trifle and a historical artifact. In grad school I was obsessed with medieval music, particularly the troubadours (canso is Provencal for song.) I was also making music on a computer for the first time, and passionately curious about the possibilities of polytempo music. So I wrote a couple of melodies in anachronistic imitation of a medieval villanelle, and placed them over a drumbeat of yet a third tempo, just to hear what it would sound like. The proportions work out with the wind instrument at a tempo of 100, the virtual lute at 91.5, and the drum at 128; I have not succeeded in figuring out what my original proportions were. The original tape didn't survive. It was on three channels, and only two recorded when I transferred it to cassette. So this is a much belated reconstruction. The piece is worth little, but within its primitive technology I recognize an early version of my melodic style, I've been humming the tunes for 44 years, and it marks my initial contact with some ideas that would become central to my music.
- Kyle Gann
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