Winter Leaves

Winter Leaves is an investigation into the relationships between harmony and timbre.

The basic technique is to build sounds whose spectra have a harmonic value. One of the ways to achieve this is to create sounds whose spectral components have chordal relationships.
In fact, Winter Leaves is based on 3 sounds, each made up of 5 sinusoids whose frequencies have a fixed musical interval between them. All sounds are built on the same root (47.5 Hz, about G). The other 4 components have ratios of 2 (8ve) in the first sound, of 2.24 (major 9th) in the second and 2.8856 (non-tempered interval corresponding to an increasing 11th) in the third.
The 3 basic sounds, therefore, have the following sinusoidal components:

  • Ratio 2 -> 47.5, 95, 190, 380, 760 (overlapped 8ve)
  • Ratio 2.24 -> 47.5, 106.4, 238.3, 533.9, 1195.9 (overlapped 9th)
  • Ratio 2.8856 -> 47.5, 137.1, 395.5, 1141.3, 3293.4 (overlapped 11th+).

Of course spectra like this have both a tonal and a harmonic value. In the first spectrum the sound is a perfect consonance, in the second is a temperated dissonance and in the third with a non-tempered sound.

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Wires

wires sonogram

The Wires basic idea is working with large sound masses evolving and changing through the time like a complex flux. Each mass is composed by a great number of single sounds (from 10 to 300, average is 50 to 100) that can seldom be perceived as “notes”.
So the way the mass “sounds” depends on parameters like frequency range, density, durations, attack time and spectra of composing sounds in a sort of granular micro-polyphony.
I composed Wires defining the masses evolution at high level by means of tendency masks, using the first version of my computer assisted composition system, called ALGEN to generate the low level instructions controlling the single sounds that has been synthesized by a simple FM algorithm.
Wires was realized at the “Centro di Sonologia Computazionale” (CSC – University of Padova) using the MUSIC360 software for digital sound synthesis.

V’ger

Click here to listen.
Note: This is a compressed stereo reduction from original quad – MP3 256 bps – Dur 7’30”


This piece was composed for the International Year of Astronomy (2009) and for the “Music and Astronomy” conference organized by the Bonporti Conservatory of Trento and Riva del Garda.

In the first Star Trek movie, V’ger (pron. Vyger) is the name given by the Borg to a fictional Voyager 6 intelligent probe, launched from Earth and recovered by them while wandering in outer space. The real Voyager 1 and 2 probes, was launched in the late 70s and destined to get lost in interstellar space, after passing around the outer planets from which they sent us images, but also sounds.

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Bbeeetthhooovveeenn

In 2002, the Scandinavian composer Leif Inge took Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and stretched it out to 24 hours without distortion or pitch variations. The 9th Symphony’s standard duration is around 67 minutes (but it depends on the director: it can also exceed 70′ and reach up to 77’16 “in the Kubelik version of ’74), it is an expansion of about 21.5 times.

The title of this expanded version is 9 Beet Stretch. It sounds like a slow-moving sound continuum, but not so slow that it does not allow you to perceive changes in a reasonable time (a few minutes, but generally shorter). Obviously, with these times, the melody is completely lost and everything turns into a sequence of chords, but the dramatic sense of harmony remains.

All note’s entries are very gradual because it is not  a simple metro slow-down but an audio signal stretched, so any attack that in the original file lasts 1/10 second, becomes 2.15 seconds in the expanded version. The audio file is a Naxos recording directed by Béla Drahos with Nicolaus Esterházy Symphony and Choir (Naxos 8.553478).

The stream can be listened on the internet from the 9 Beet Stretch site (click the player at the top right of the page). It’s an ongoing 24/7 stream of 9 Beet Stretch, starting at the time of sunset, Wien, march 26th, the date Ludwig van Beethoven died, so the four movements start at:

  • CET 18:16 movement 1 – duration 5½ hours
  • CET 23:43 movement 2 – duration 5 hours
  • CET 04:48 movement 3 – duration 5 hours
  • CET 09:24 movement 4 – duration 8½ hours

Note: CET = central Europe time.

In daylight saving time add one hour.

Link: the 9 Beet Stretch site

Suguru Goto in Tokyo 2016

An excerpt from the Suguru Goto’s Japanese tour of 2016. The video, from Tokyo concert, is a collage of three songs with music by Suguru Goto and graphics by three different artists Patrick Defasten, Lucio Arese and Antoine Schmitt .

The songs are:

Body Jack, Suguru Goto music, Patrick Defasten graphics
CsO, Suguru Goto music, Antoine Schmitt graphics
Continuum, Suguru Goto music, Lucio Arese graphics

There is no detailed info, but I guess that all the songs could be generated with one of the classic audio and video software, such as Max/Jitter or PD/GEM or, at least, Max/PD exchanging data with Processing.

In the first two tracks the graphic part is completely generated by the computer. The second one is based on the particles most likely by Jitter.

The former exhibits a considerable amount of objects assembled in a toroidal configuration, which then explode into other forms. Rotations are not a problem because they are not the objects to move, but the virtual camera (the “viewpoint”). But the amount of objects and their arrangement suggests some kind of specialized software.

In the third, however, there are almost organic shapes that resemble jellyfish, and it is more difficult to understand if we have to deal with a totally computerized graphic or with a few shots.

Show on Vimeo

Suguru Goto on wikipedia

Hello

Hello, by Alexander Schubert
(2014) For {any number of} instruments, live-electronics and video

Excerpts from composer’s notes:

The piece is audio-visual. It’s basically a video that is accompanied by the instruments. The video consists of video recordings of the composer performing certain actions / gestures. These gestures are notated in the score as well and need to be interpreted by the musicians (as musical events – not as theatrical actions / physical movement – the idea is to find corresponding or contrasting music events for the given gestures).

The piece is really based on the video and the electronics in the tape, meaning that in the rehearsal progress, rather use the video as an orientation and not the only the score. The score is a tool to make it easier to play along with the video, but eventually the video is the real score.

The piece can be played more or less by any combination of instruments. It is advised to have at least four players, one of which is a piano/guitar/accordion or similar to play chords. Also a percussionist should be included. For combinations that do not fall into this description please contact the composer to check.

You are invited to use other small instruments or props other than those found in your ensemble. For example toy instruments, everyday household tools or found objects. Chose these instruments in order to fit a given video gesture you want to accompany.

More info here and here.

 

Dispacci dal fronte interno

Dispacci dal fronte interno [Dispatches from the homefront] is a work by Andrea Valle for feedback system including ad libitum strings, printer and live electronics.

Audio from strings, printers and environment is not only manipulated live, but some features are extracted and used to control not only the same sound processing but also the real-time generation and print on the fly of musical notation to be performed by the player.

In short, the performer receives “dispatches” which content depends on what s/he is playing.

From SONIC SCREENS, an event by U.S.O. Project (Matteo Milani, Federico Placidi) in collaboration with O’ and Die Schachtel
Milan, 01/12/2012

An excerpt from the premiere by:
Èdua Amarilla Zádory – Violin
Ana Topalovic – Violoncello

Video courtesy Gianmarco Del Re

Dispacci dal fronte interno from Andrea Valle on Vimeo.

Anthèmes

Anthèmes refers to two related compositions for violin by French composer Pierre Boulez: Anthèmes I and Anthèmes II.

Anthèmes I is a short piece (c. 9 minutes) for solo violin, commissioned by the 1991 Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition, and dedicated to Universal Edition’s director Alfred Schlee for his 90th birthday. In 1994, Boulez revised and expanded Anthèmes I into a version for violin and live electronics at IRCAM, resulting in Anthèmes II (c. 18 minutes duration), produced in 1997. (Expansion and revision of earlier works is common in Boulez’s compositional process; see also Structures.)

The title is a hybrid of the French “thèmes” (themes) and the English “anthem”. It is also a play on words with ‘anti-thematicism ‘: “Anthèmes” reunites the “anti” with the “thematic”, and demonstrates Boulez’s re-acceptance of (loose) thematicism following a long period of staunch opposition to it (Goldman 2001, 116–17).

Anthèmes I owes its structure to inspiration Boulez drew from childhood memories of Lent-time Catholic church services, in which the (acrostic) verses of the Jeremiah Lamentations were intoned: Hebrew letters enumerating the verses, and the verses themselves in Latin. Boulez creates two similarly distinct sonic worlds in the work: the Hebrew enumerations become long static or gliding harmonic tones, and the Latin verses become sections that are contrasting action-packed and articulated (though Boulez says that the piece bears no reference to the content of the verses, and takes as its basis solely the idea of two contrasting sonic language-worlds) (Goldman 2001, 119). The piece begins with a seven-tone motive, and trill on the note D: these are the fundamental motives used in its composition. It is also in seven sections: a short introduction, followed by six “verses”, each “verse” preceded by a harmonic-tone “enumeration”. The last section is the longest, culminating in a dialogue between four distinct “characters”, and the piece closes with the two “languages” gradually melding into one as the intervals finally center around the note D and close into a trill, and then a single harmonic. A final “col legno battuto” ends the piece in Boulez’s characteristic witty humour, a gesture of “That’s enough for now! See you later!” (Goldman 2001, 83, 118). [from wikipedia]

See also: Goldman, Jonathan. “Analyzing Pierre Boulez’s Anthèmes: ‘Creating a Labyrinth out of Another Labyrinth’“. Unpublished essay. [Montréal]: Université de Montréal, 2001. OCLC: 48831192.

Andrew Gerzso has for many years been the composer’s chief collaborator on works involving live electronics and the two men regularly discuss their work together. He describes the way in which all the nuances in this nucleus of works were examined in the studio in order to find out which elements could be electronically processed and differentiated. As a result, the process of expanding these works is based not only on abstract structural considerations (such as the questions as to how it may be possible to use electronic procedures to spatialize and to merge or separate specific complexes of sound),but also on concrete considerations bound up with performing practice: in a word, on the way in which the instrument’s technical possibilities may be developed along figurative lines.

IMHO, it is quite clear that the electroacoustic is limited to “dress” the instrumental part, albeit with effects well made. Anthème II is not a real electroacoustic composition and even a revision of the original. But it’s really helpful to students. See also this good page  from IRCAM and this one with Max patches.

From You Tube, Anthèmes before and after

Petite symphonie intuitive pour une paysage de printemps

Luc Ferrari – Petite symphonie intuitive pour une paysage de printemps (1973-74)

A review by Blue Gene Tyranny

A lovely work of electro-acoustic music by one of the French pioneers of musique concrète, “Petite Symphonie Intuitive Pour un Paysage de Printemps” (“Little Intuitive Symphony for a Spring Landscape”) recreates the composer’s experiences during a climb toward sunset on the Causse Méjean, a high plateau in the Massif Central, including his recollection of a shepherd’s flute and its reverberations across the landscape. The flute sounds and multiple echoes continue in changing musical modes throughout the piece (the tonic redefined by electronic drones), blending together with sounds of the countryside and conversational fragments from the human presence to create a beautiful sonic landscape of 25 minutes duration.

Nabaz’mob

In this post, the story of Nabaztag is taken from Wikipedia, with some notes by myself.

The word Nabaztag (“նապաստակ” which in Armenian language means rabbit) indicates the wifi rabbit conceived by Rafi Haladjian and Olivier Mével and produced in 2005 by the French company Violet.

The object, sold from June 2005, by the end of October 2006 had reached 35,000 copies in France alone. At the end of 2006 a more advanced model was introduced, the Nabaztag: tag that supports mp3 streaming via the internet, has a microphone to receive voice commands and an RFID reader with personalized tags to receive commands. This model also has PULL technology, which means it can query the server on its own initiative. As of September 2007, there are more than 180,000 Nabaztags around the world.

On October 20, 2009, Violet, struggling for insane management, is bought by the well-known software publisher Mindscape which puts on the market an even more advanced model called Karotz with webcam and greater memory capacity. Soon, however, even the latter entered into crisis. On July 29, 2011 Mindscape announced the shutdown of Nabaztag’s management servers, creating 180,000 orphans in one go, but made public the code for managing multimedia “bunnies”, making it possible for different user communities to create new servers. However, the various user communities have favored alternative solutions, based on the Opensource OpenJabNab, Nabizdead and OpenNag projects, simpler to implement than the original server (called “burrow”, referring to wild rabbit burrows) Violet / Mindscape but without support for older first generation Nabaztag units. The user communities born in the immediate closure of the “official” server support only Nabaztag: tags.

Later Mindscape is acquired by Aldebaran Robotics, a company specializing in toy and amateur robots, which sells Karotz’s stocks without developing the product, despite the fact that it had incorporated and clearly visible hooks for accessories and extensions. Finally, with a shocking announcement from its CEO, it communicates the shutdown of the Karotz servers for February 18, 2015, thus marking the end of the project whose existence remains entrusted to amateur servers.

Since the creation of Nabaztag, Antoine Schmitt is its behavioral designer and Jean-Jacques Birgé its sound designer. Together, they also composed the Opera Nabaz’mob for 100 communicating rabbits, which won the Prix Ars Electronica Award of Distinction Digital Musics 2009 and an excerpt of which can be seen in this video.

The video on this page is a shorter excerpt, but the audio is better.