[audio:https://www.markgustavson.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/sounding-11.mp3|titles=Sounding #11]

This is the opening of a piece I composed in 1981 titled A Ray of Rattle, performed by The Performer’s Workshop Ensemble. The piece explores transforming a simple and pure sound, the octave, into a complex sound. As the octaves reappear they diminish and music increases in complexity. The end of the piece, the final sound, is a unison Bb of flutter tongues and rapidly repeated notes—a Bronx Cheer of distortion in contrast to the beginning’s pure whiteness.

[audio:https://www.markgustavson.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/sounding-11a.mp3|titles=sounding #11a]