Thursday, November 17, 2011

anOtherOne





Well the sounds to notation project has been evolving. I always seem to stray from direct representation. In my earlier post, the correlation was obvious. In the piece I just worked out for percussion trio, I followed my ear, which seems to have lead me away from direct representation to something I rather like.

Here a blurb that I wrote about it
The work is derived from several Grateful Dead concert recordings of The Other One, the central ones being the August 13, 1975 show at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco and the May 22, 1977 show at the Sportatorium in Pembroke Pines Florida. To produce the score, audio is selected and segmented. These clips are then translated into a list of frequencies and amplitudes through the use of a Fast Fourier transform. The resulting material is used as the basis for the score. The direct translation and interpolations between different sections pitch and rhythmic collections was assembled. This material has been manipulated with algorithms and by hand. The resulting score does not identifiable as derivative. Still the unique acoustic characteristics that define the performance, the acoustics of the venue and the recording serve to constrain the end result.
Just a black and white photograph captures light and form this work investigates the acoustic character of a place and a piece. Direct translation is of course a possible objective, yet it is not the goal of my work. anOtherOne exemplifies an exploration of the inherent transformation of data as it moves from one form to another. For example, the energy behind the strumming of an acoustic guitar is experienced very differently by a person hearing the resulting sound. anOtherOne uses digital transformation and the perspective of the listener turned composer to take this translation of energy one step further.

Here is a midi mock up. THe samples are decent, but it is still not ideal.
anOtherOne

2 Comments:

Anonymous tap music said...

nice one

12/01/2011 05:37:00 AM  
Blogger Nathan said...

very good. I attended the student composers recital at UWO last night. Thought of you. Guess who was there?

(my word verification for this comment was hanche, which is French for 'hip'. This is Blogger telling me that it thinks you are hip.)

12/04/2011 11:08:00 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home