On December 22 at Carnegie Hall, the New Jersey Composer's Guild will
present "Answer to Job, An Alternative Holiday Concert". Frank
Brickle (AB2KT) is the secretary of the Composer's Guild of New Jersey.
He has composed an opera which will be performed during this concert:
http://www.williamanderson.us/index_body.html
Frank's opera is a Townley Mystery Play. Mystery plays or miracle plays
are medieval religious dramas based on stories from the Bible. Mystery
plays were performed around the time of church festivals, reaching their
height in Europe during the 15th and 16th Centuries. A whole cycle
running from the Creation to the Last Judgment was performed in separate
scenes on mobile wagons by various town guilds. Four English cycles
survive: Coventry, Wakefield (or Townley), Chester and York. They
were intended for the common person. In many cases, it was the only
way people could hear the stories of the Bible in their common tongue,
rather than in Latin. Frank's composition, "The Creation of the World"
will be performed during this concert.
The tickets are not yet on sale, but you may visit the Carnegie site and
soon enough the "Buy Tickets" button will open.
http://www.carnegiehall.org/article/box_office/events/evt_7356.html?selecteddate=12222005
Frank is a member of the American Radio Relay League SDR Working Group,
a GnuRadio enthusiast, contributor to the ARRL/HSMM/SDRWG OFDM modem
project, AMSAT member and a member of the Eagle/Phase 3 Express
Software Defined Transponder and CC Rider Team for Eagle, coauthor of
the DttSP Software Defined Radio package (the SDR core for the Flex
Radio SDR-1000), and recently retired from IDA's Center for
Communications Research in Princeton, NJ. He did not stop working on
technical problems to return exclusively to music as he is a regular
consultant to Isigtech, Inc., has recently consulted for CNS Systems,
Inc., and has consulted for many large firms including Agilent. The
work he did for IDA CCR earned him a very prestigious award from the
U.S. government (the Anne Z. Caracristi award) in 2000. He has
consulted with many other firms in matters related to signal processing
problems which need statistical detection or classification algorithms.
Frank has demonstrated a flair and genius for this type of signal
processing problem. Frank is the author of an interesting article in
QEX Nov/Dec. 2003, "Automatic Signal Classification for Software Defined
Radios". This was the first article published in the growing area of
cognitively defined radio with a view to amateur radio applications but
not limited to amateur radio. A Princeton University alumnus, he
studied under one of the most influential American composer's: Milton
Babbitt. Under Babbitt's tutelage, he earned his Ph. D in musical
composition. Frank was recently an organizer of a festival of music
celebrating the life and work of the composer George Antheil:
http://www.paristransatlantic.com/festival/index.html
As an interesting aside, Antheil and actress Hedy Lamarr are credited
with creating frequency hopping spread spectrum for use in torpedo
guidance systems during world war II and were granted a patent. One
could easily understand why Frank would find a kindred spirit in Antheil.
To listen to some of Frank's compositions, one need only use Google. I
suggest you search for "Brickle Merlin". You will find an mp3 of one of
his compositions that will stream.
The best word I can think of to describe Frank without listing more
achievements or writing an unauthorized biography is polymath.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymath
It seems appropriate as you can see from this list of recent
achievements,interests, and his educational achievements. The word is
inadequate, but is a useful beginning place to explore this talented and
complex man. It is the best my limited command of language will allow me
here.
Please join me in celebrating my best friend's achievement and I hope
you will enjoy the NJ Composer's Guild offering in Carnegie Hall in
December. Bravo Frank!
Cheers!
Bob McGwier
N4HY
--
Laziness is the number one inspiration for ingenuity. Guilty as charged!
_______________________________________________
Discuss-gnuradio mailing list
Discuss-gnuradio@gnu.org
http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss-gnuradio
