Folke Rabe
Folke Rabe (born
28 October 1935 in
Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish
composer. Works include the electronic
drone pieces
What?? (1968) and
Was?? (1968),
Basta for solo trombone,
Escalations for brass quintet (1988),
Concerto for trombone: "All the Lonely People" (1989) featuring quotes from
The Beatles' "
Eleanor Rigby", and
With Love No. 1 and 2 for piano (1988).
According to
Robert Erickson (1975, p.95)
Was?? contains "no obvious discrete changes" and "no sharply defined
sections". The piece uses several drone
pitches, though they are presented at a time scale where pitch change is "hardly noticed."
Interference beats are highlighted (as the only apparent
rhythm) and, as "an elegant touch," the
microtonal pitches that produce those beats "are worked into a larger pattern of
pitch relations". "All possible
timbral dimensions are manipulated:
spectral envelope, including
harmonic and
inharmonic partials; time envelope phenomena, such as beats and
tremolo; micropitch changes, both fast and slow. Transformations between pitch (with timbre) â†'
chord, chord â†' 'a
sound', 'a sound' â†' pitch (with timbre) abound."
What?? (1997, Dexter's Cigar 12). Reissued with an added half-speed version, formerly on Wergo.
*Erickson, Robert (1975).
Sound Structure in Music. University of California Press. ISBN 0520023765.
