A unique work for accordion and electronics that straddles the line between solo and chamber music with both the acoustic and electronic sounds generated by the soloist.
Shadowbox (1986), a work by David Jaeger for concert accordion and live performing signal processing equipment, was a successful live electronic showpiece for virtuoso accordionist. It was performed widely in its day, and recorded for the Centrediscs label by Joseph Petric. Requiring the now-obsolete DeltaLabs Effectron, a digital delay that was further modified for performance of the piece, the work has become difficult to perform in recent years. This new realization is performed with digital emulations of the hardware, through the use of Max MSP, a graphic programming language, and MIDI controllers enabling precise communication between the live instrument and computers. This allows for today’s performers to easily learn, perform and disseminate this piece.
The new realization of the work was made possible through a project of the U of T TaPIR Lab. It is performed by accordionist Matti Pulkki. Recorded by Tim Roth and David Jaeger as part of the Centre BPMC Residency, Faculty of Music, University of Toronto.