David Heuser
Instrumentation: two channel tape
Year Composed: 1992
Duration: 5 minutes
How to get it: Contact David Heuser directly
Program Notes:
Home Life was completed in February of 1992 and is five minutes long. All of the sound material in Home Life comes from a single source: an AM radio talk show. The three elements I used were the opening and closing musical theme of the show, the host's voice and the ever-present static one hears on AM radio (especially if you are taping from a basement apartment onto a poor quality cassette tape as I was). Everything you hear is some variation on these three sounds.
There is a gradual (but not steady) growth in volume and density over the course of most of the piece. Additionally the comprehensibility of the words and sound sources decreases as the work progresses. "Thematic" unity is achieved both through the common source of the material as well as through traditional variation, repetition and development.
Home Life was composed entirely on the Sound Designer program. Special thanks goes to David Rogers for bringing "Home Life" to my attention.