Strange, to see Wendy Carols's rig, with its triple-tier keys and sheet music balanced in front: That's exactly how mine looks. My current gf calls me a mad scientist as well -- that seems to be a common keyboardist moniker.
Right now, I've got a sheet of half-filled manuscript paper and the Dover edition of Three Song Cycles by Mahler resting on the keys of the top keyboard (I've yet to find a practical music stand -- music falls periodically as I play). Ovid's Metamorphoses is braced next to the music -- I don't know why.
I've always considered Timesteps to be one of WC's best compositions, whether or not so-called real (non-pitched) electronic composers like Morton Subotnik felt her orchestrations were glorified organ reductions. Have I mentioned that I really dislike Subotniks music? I once attended a concert of his at Reed College and could barely suppress the urge to leave. I'm a fan of linear dissonant counterpoint and I've never heard evidence that Subotnick knew how to write it. In the music of most competent electronic (non-minimalist composers) of Subotnick's vintage, the counterpoint's there -- or at least some semblance of linear musical thought, some graphic outline of form that lets you know the train's in motion. Ambient music can be beautiful in a tinted glass sort of way (nearly inaudible tinges of citron yellow, chartreuse, California skyscraper pink, amber or tamarind). But I find no beauty in Subotnik's kind of stasis.
Lastly:
To be honest, I didn't care for WC's musical contribution to Woundings. I've been wondering what else she's written in the past twenty years. She's still active, like Artemyev, Tarkovsky's soundtrack composer, but we never get to hear what either composer's has written.
