The Music of Tim Thompson

Autograph	(3:06)	INFO
Fluence	(1:29)	INFO
Friendly Phases	(5:58)	INFO
Group Effort	(2:06)	INFO
Lineage	(1:52)	INFO
Shadow Suite	(6:31)	INFO
Shameless Boogie	(3:28)	INFO
State Machine	(3:16)	INFO
Stock Answer #1	(3:38)	INFO
Stock Answer #3	(4:43)	INFO
Twinkle Tune	(4:24)	INFO
All compositions are Copyright 1996 by Tim Thompson, All Rights Reserved.

Click on INFO to see the liner notes that describe the compositional techniques as well as the instrumentation used on my "Prototypical" album. Click on the title to get the General MIDI file for a piece. The KeyKit software was used to record (and in some cases, algorithmically generate) these pieces . My home page includes some web-based algorithmic music toys that you can play with.

Autograph (3:06)
This piece is done entirely with a single Yamaha TX81Z, using only the 8-note polyphony of that instrument. The solo at the end is algorithmically generated.
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Fluence (1:29)
Inspired by the chords of early Chicago tunes. Uses a Peavey V3, Waldorf Microwave, Korg EX8000, and Roland SC7.
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Friendly Phases (5:58)
Just before I left New Jersey, I met a lot of new friends. This was composed for the fifth MMML tape - Tape95. It is a General MIDI piece, recorded with the Roland SC7 and some extra reverb.
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Group Effort (2:06)
This was done as part of the the "MIDI Playgroup" project organized by Matt Blais in 1992. Several dozen people contributed small snippets of MIDI music, usually only a measure or two, and the collection was distributed to the group. The goal was then for everyone to create music using the snippets in any way they wanted. This piece was my result, created by using the then-newly-written multi-window interface of Keynote (now KeyKit) to manipulate the snippets. I used the mouse exclusively - I never touched a musical keyboard when creating this piece.
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Lineage (1:52)
This was the intro to a long improvisation done for my father when he visited me in New Jersey. Uses the Kurzweill 1000PX.
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Shadow Suite (6:31)
Composed long long ago. Toward the end is one of my favorite melodies. A General MIDI piece, it uses the Roland SC7.
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Shameless Boogie (3:28)
This is the riff I always improvise to when relaxing at the keyboard. The improvisations here were done a few measures at a time. Uses the Kurzweil 1000PX.
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State Machine (3:16)
Recorded using the Roland SC-7 and a little extra reverb. This is a very "old" song - I have arranged and recorded it 3 different times. This is a General MIDI composition, so the MIDI file for this one should sound pretty good on any General MIDI synth.
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Stock Answer #1 (3:38)
On the MMML, I proposed a game in which everyone would take a single musical phrase and compose music based on it. The phrase I chose was generated from the letters of the word "Weinstock" - hence the name of the game was "The Weinstock Variations". The game kind of fizzled (only one other person besides me finished anything), but I got two pieces out of it, so for me it was a smashing success. This one used a background ostinato that was algorithmically generated from the letters in "Weinstock", and the sequence of transpositions over the length of the piece was also based on the letters. I improvised and algorithmically manipulated the melodies. This is a General MIDI piece, and uses the Roland SC7.
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Stock Answer #3 (4:43)
This was my second piece for "The Weinstock Variations". It is unique in that it is completely algorithmically generated from a Keynote program. (Well, okay, I manually removed a few of the less interesting measures to tighten it up, but I didn't modify any of the notes.) The overall heuristic of the program was to generate a lot of echoes and then arpeggiate the results. This same algorithmic technique is the basis of "Algorithm B" on the Muse-O-Matic toy you can find on my web site. This recording uses the Kurzweil 1000PX and Roland SC7.
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Twinkle Tune (4:24)
Composed for the first MMML (Mostly MIDI Mailing List) tape, I recorded this with the first realtime (but no graphics) version of KeyKit. This rendition adds some new wrinkles, and uses General MIDI. This recording uses a Roland SC7 and some extra reverb.
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Music ©1996 Tim Thompson Artwork©1997 Bruce Satinover Design©1996-98 MIDIWORLD