Since that first contact, Stamps has organized a couple of shows for Pelon, albeit in quirky contexts like Ana de Portela's art party in the Tower of the Americas. On Halloween, however, the Recital Hall at UTSA, where Stamps is a composition student, will host a recital of his "electro-acoustic works," including a new string quartet, and two shorter pieces for solo instrument and tape. The main performance will be by the Tosca String Quartet, for whom the piece was written.
Accompanying the four Austin-based women will be male and female computer voices generated by the increasingly retro-popular Macintosh system's speech function. Stamps adds, "The score calls for a shot of tequila to be administered between the first two movements," but he is flexible enough to have allowed Maker's Mark at the Austin premiere. "The Tosca girls are amazing people. Great to make music with. Great to hang out and have a drink with. It seems fitting that a piece written with them in mind would have to attempt a combination of the two."
I should let the composer's e-mailed notes finish. You'll know why in the end: "Rock Music for Vibes and Electronic Media has three movements, each based on a kind of rock music. Glam, grunge, and surf. The first movement's tape accompaniment consists solely of a nice quadraphonic recording I did of my toilet, electronically altered. My toilet is so very beautiful and in sonata form also."
Jack Stamps
with the Tosca String Quartet
5pm
Thursday, October 31
Free
Recital Hall
University of Texas at San Antonio
6900 N. Loop 1604