Jon Scoville

Kami to Mai

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Jon Scoville

Jon Scoville is an accomplished composer and dance accompanist, he has toured worldwide and accompanied many dancers. Scoville is the house composer for Tandy Beal & Company, which is run by his collaborator, muse, and spouse Tandy Beal.
Jon Scoville was, for 40 years, the music director of the Modern Dance program at the University of Utah. Additionally, he taught and accompanied in the U.S., Europe, South America, and Asia. His scores have been commissioned by Alwin Nikolais, Murray Louis, Tran Chan of Brazil, Laura Dean, the Oakland Ballet, the Pickle Family Circus, the Høvik Ballet of Norway, Compagnie Hors Taxes of Paris, the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, and various faculty in the dance program.
Jon is a recipient of a California Arts Council Composer’s Fellowship and grants from the Salt Lake Arts Commission and Santa Cruz Arts Council.
He is a co-author of Sound Designs, a book about the design and construction of musical instruments.

Liner Notes

Side A:

KAMI TO MAI 15:50

I lived in Kyoto, Japan for 5 months in 1985 on Tandy's grant from the Japan/U.S. Friendship Committee, I spent many days wandering through neighborhoods recording sounds (and some sights) of such a remarkable city, attempting to catch the prevailing mixed tempo of that era of Japan: the sense of haste felt in the crowded streets and subways and the sense of calm serenity in the ancient temples like Tofuku-ji or the magical rock gardens in Roan-ji.

Equipment used: We lived in a very small typical apartment place in Kyoto --. Bathing was only available at a traditional sento i(bathhouse) in the neighborhood. So, living small persuaded me to create a very modest studio. I think I had a tiny Casio 101 and my Roland Space Echo. When we returned to California I developed, on my Buchla, the little music motif which holds the piece together.

Side B:

THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS (Ponte Dei Sospiri): 13:56

The view from the Bridge of Sighs was the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment. The bridge's English name was bequeathed by the poet Lord Byron in the 19th century as a translation from the Italian "Ponte dei sospiri", from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice through the window before being taken down to their cells.

This piece came out of spending time in 1984 with gifted choreographer Carolyn Carlson, and her composer René Aubry, who were living and working in Venice -- an utterly magical city, sliced into numerous canals, over 100 small islands, and 400 bridges. I indiscriminately collected sounds while wandering through the maze of back alleys and canals early in the morning as the general population headed off to work.

When I returned to our home in California, I developed a short motif on my Buchla 200, mixed in sounds of Venice which I had gathered on my early-morning walks, and came up with a favorite among my pieces, which Tandy has used frequently as a "curtain warmer", playing it in the concert hall as the audience arrived. This helps "center" an audience before the beginning of the concert.

INSIDE OUT: 8:06

Inside Out is one of a number of ambient studies which I made in the 1980's when Tandy and I were traveling globally. I've always had a fondness for train rides, train stations, and trains of thought. It's a much more integrated and humane method of travel than is possible by either plane or automobile. Expeditions, voyages, journeys -- all contain elements of the mythic, the best way to move from place to place.

When Tandy started touring extensively in the 1980's I purchased a versatile Walkman portable cassette recorder, which did an adequate job of recording my transportative environment. And then later I replaced it with an Olympus LS-10 digital recorder, a singularly deft device in its ability to bring to life the expectant murmurings of passengers about to board, the coin slot sounds of subways, and the special mix of human voices and diesel engines forever suggestive of adventure.