Trapped in Convert is a "Sonic Mobile." In it, colorful "sound objects" are blown about. As the piece unfolds, these "objects" evolve, grow, transform, and combine to evoke magical images and haunting soundscapes which flash into view and quickly dissolve away. Since its premiere at MIT's Kresge Auditorium in 1979, "Trapped" has received many concert and radio performances. Perhaps, the most notable performance was in 1982 at the Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall.
Trapped in Convert (1979 rev. 1986, 1989, 1996) was composed on a DEC pdp11-55 computer at the MIT Experimental Music Studio in the summer of 1979 using Barry Vercoe's music11 software synthesis language. In the summer of 1986, Vercoe rewrote his program in the "C" programming language and renamed it Csound. At that time, he invited me to redo my piece in his new language which was running on a VAX 11-780 computer at M.I.T.'s newly opened "Media Lab." The 1989 version represents a technological milestone. Whereas the previous versions of "Trapped" were created on huge and expensive mainframe computers, this version was recreated on a standard IBM AT personal computer using Micro Technology Unlimited's DIGISOUND-16 digital to analog converters. At the time The Micro Technology Unlimited system provided the free-lance sound designer and composer state of the art digital audio, and an incredibly comprehensive set of synthesis tools via their MS-DOS implementation of Barry Vercoe's Csound program - all for the price of a single professional quality commercial synthesizer. In 1996, "Trapped" was finally completed. These now classic instrument designs were explored in real-time using the DSP-based version of Csound which Vercoe had developed for Analog Devices, Inc. Not surprisingly, real-time access to all the instrument parameters revealed a new set of hidden colors and textures.
Two Movements in C (1981/1990) was the first piece produced at the University of California's Computer Audio Research Lab using Moore's CMUSIC software synthesis language. In 1986 the composition was revised in Vercoe's Csound at the M.I.T Media Lab. Recently, Vercoe's CSOUND has been ported to the IBM AT by Micro Technology Unlimited and the 1990 version was produced on that system. Movements in C explores the sonic variety of a single software instrument. The music is not actually in the key of C, but rather in the C programming language.