Composer, professor, publisher, and Chair of the UCLA Department of Music, Roger Bourland was commissioned by Palm to provide eight ringtones for its new handheld device, the Pre.

Bourland praised Palm for having the vision to commission “micro-compositions; not just phone emulations, or paid-for chunks of pre-existing songs.” Each ringtone is roughly 24 seconds long before it kicks into the message service.

Titles include “PRE”, “Flurry”, “Raindance”, “Scamper”, “Discreet”, “Triangle”, “Dulcimer”, and “Anticipation”.

The ringtones were composed using Apple’s LOGIC 8 software, and played-in in real time, so they have a “human” feel.” The instrumentation is international, and all virtual.

“I have to say” Bourland mused, “that knowing that my micro-compositions will be performed in men’s pockets and women’s pocketbooks all over the world, is quite an honor.”

Bourland is currently composing a new work for the Los Angeles women’s chorus, VOX FEMINA, setting texts by Los Angeles poet, Eloise Klein Healy, commissioned by the City of West Hollywood, California.

The Palm Pre is scheduled for release, June 6, 2009.

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PS: For the record, I have NOT entered into any agreement with Palm with regards to more ringtones. It was only a casual conversation about a possibility. I was in error claiming anything more.

[Photo: Daniel Shiplacoff. RB in front of Jackson Pollock's "Lavender Mist" which Bourland "set" in his "Seven Pollock Paintings" (1978).]