Composing and Notating Complex Sonic Material
I devide the basic sound material into 8 groups.
The groups are:
group 1a: sounds extracted from any kind of sound source and not longer than 50 ms.
group 1a: sounds extracted from any kind of sound source with a length of 51 up to 200 ms
group 2: a sequence, a tune, a chord progression, any piece of more or less conventional music.
group 3: technical soundscapes
group 4: soundscapes from nature
group 5: human voice
group 6: synthesized single complex sounds containing changings of loudness and timbre
group 7: synthesized basic wave forms (sine, triangle, square, pulse and saw) without any structured or changing loudness or timbre
Additional parameters like i.e. grain length, density, speed and their changes may be added in writing.
I´m going to draw the material from these 8 groups into a three-dimensional scheme of coordinates with the x-axis representing time, the y-axis representing the perceived basic frequency and the z-axis representing the perceived spectral complexity.
I call the whole graph a “frame” and the arrangement of the graphical elements representing the sounds from the 8 groups a musical phrase. There may be more than than one musical phrase in a frame.
The shown precomposition 2 – I still call it only a precomposition – shall serve as a test and an example for the afore said.
The frame shall serve as a bigger structural unit.
the frame and the phrases may be repeated or transferred to musical variations:
inverted, shifted, made smaller or bigger
along each and every of the three axis (time, frequency or spectral complexity)
or filled with different content from the groups as long as the new content belongs to the same of the 8 groups as the replaced content. Otherwise it would get a different, a new phrase or, a different, a new frame.
I can even let the frame move around in the scheme of coordinates while it is playing its phrases.
… to be continued.
Have a great time and enjoy your day!
Rolf
Very interesting! How are you doing the interaction between the graphical representation and the audio? Is this Max/Msp?
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No, not yet. I´ve done it manually in this video, just for demonstration purposes. But I think in the end it´s going to be MAX - or Pure Data. I´m still trying out different things on that field. One matter, which I didn´t mention in the video, even if it is really important is the question of space for improvisations. I should explain this, I think. I´ve learned my "music handcraft" in a classical way: piano, then music theory, then studying classical composition, beginning with compositions for choir, then chamber sets and at least instrumentation and compositions for orchestra. In other words: it was alway: first write it down on paper, then listen to it, when someone is playing your composition. Then. later, influenced by musicians like the early Kraftwerk on one hand and Klauzs Schulze and Tangerine Dream on the other - and of course a (very) lot influenced by Blues musicians the třwo factors added to this "paper-approach" to composing: the aspect of the whole studio being an instrument and the aspect of improvisation. These aspect became more and more important over the time, and now, being old, I try to (re-)combine these two approaches with my froots of a composer, who writes first and plays afterwards. But the kind of music, of sonic compositions I prefer producing has not yet developed a useful way of "writing down" a composition. That´s the reason, the motivation of the things I talk about in the video. But I want the system of "notating" to have space for improvisations - not in the pure meaning of blues or jazz musicians, but more in the meaning of "using my studio in a very creatifve way during the process of producing the "written" composition. Have a wonderful time! R.
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I think I understand your idea. With your classical training and following the concept of composition it would be like conducting the studio as it was an orchestra with space for interpretation? But this would be more of a vague kind of composition. So the notation itself cannot be in the classical way. Then the question is how much space for improvisation can you grant before the composition dissolves...Have a good time too! :)
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Yes, exactly. You hit the nail on the head. That´s what I´m aiming at. And yes again, the problem with the space for improvisation is real. But I think it´s more a question of "what kind of improvisation?" than of "how much of it?" notating a certain spectral complexity at a certain time/period etc., but leaving open, what kind of (i. e. sampled or field-recorded) material fulfilling these conditions is to use allows a wide spedctrum of improvisation without destroying the composition. But, well, I told you last time: I´m still developing the system. R.
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