DESCRIPTION:
An electro-acoustic parody of the credit crisis using the prices from the UK FTSE-100 index to create a descending lament of notes and accompaniment.

Daily prices from the FTSE 100 stock index for 6 months from April 2008 to September 2008 were converted into note values that formed the melody. Only note lengths were changed and rests added. The mezzo soprano voice of Lore Lixenberg sang the original unrecorded live performance version. Here melody is using a sampled violin. Background audio was created by harmonic filtering of the vocal part.

This composition 'Credit Crunch' by Paul Ramshaw commissioned in May 2008 by the UK organization Sound and Music for the opening of Kings Place Gallery and Performing Arts Center in Kings Cross, performed on 5th October 2008 as part of Lore Lixenberg's 'Songs of Kings Cross' in which Lore sang the original narrative text parodying financial news headlines. This was an experimental music piece for voice and electronics - involving financial data, opera and electronics in which sequential price information for one year of the FTSE100 index dating from the beginning of the credit crunch is translated into consecutive notes using maxmsp and further processed with Ableton Live forming melodies for a narrative song text. This is then accompanied by an electronically processed audio part created with the same FTSE information that uses harmonic filters and granular delays.

The video was made by Paul Ramshaw using real-time stock market data