Final Project!!

For my final I had to design sound for the show 'Legends'.
What made this specific project difficult was the fact that there was no initial script and the cast had to develop one within the rehearsal process.
After a few meetings it became clear that there were gonna be two definitive settings: an urban one and one that had to do with each specific legend. The director asked specifically for sounds that could help paint each setting as there were no major scenic shifts.
At this point we decided that each urban setting should have traffic and such city scape ambient sounds flowing through the scene. This was the easiest part to build.
When it came time to find an ambient sound for the legends, I went blank. But then i just started searching freesound and all those web sites for different tribal/ african sounds that I thought might lead me in a more narrow direction.
In these searches I came across the Kalimba and absolutely fell in love. The sound that this specific instrument made was perfect for transforming an audience into a fairytale type of place.
So having this specific sound in mind I then searched for songs for this instrument. I came across some, but not necessarily enough to be ambient for the seven legends.
It was in a youtube search that I actually found all the ambient tracks that were perfect for the legends. Some were made by the Kalimba and the others by similar instruments.
It is hard to explain how I chose each ambient track for the legends, but basically when I listened to the tracks I tuned into what emotions the music evoked from me and married that to the emotions we wanted each legend to evoke from the audience.
In the end i felt as though it was a great success as the actors as well as the audience felt completely transformed with the music and said it added a deeper dimension to the entire story.
I also felt that I gave the director what she wanted in terms of sound that reinforced the acting and that did not detract from the major action on stage.

Did Coldplay Plagiarize?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97973449

Shamar's Final Presentation

An Eaoh in the Fibonacci Sequence Starring Burroughs

Fibonacci sequence
A sequence of numbers, such as 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 ... , in which each successive number is equal to the sum of the two preceding numbers. Many shapes occurring in nature, such as certain spirals, have proportions that can be described in terms of the Fibonacci sequence.


Inspirations:

Iannis Xenakis - Metastasis, Mycenae Alpha

Xenakis pioneered electronic, computer music, the application of mathematics, statistics, and physics to music and music theory, and the integration of sound and architecture. He used techniques related to probability theory, stochastic processes, statistics, statistical mechanics, group theory, game theory, set theory, and other branches of mathematics and physics in his compositions. He integrated music with architecture, designing music for pre-existing spaces, and designing spaces to be integrated with specific music compositions and performances. He integrated both with political commentary. He viewed compositions as reification and formal structures of abstract ideas, not as ends, to be later incorporated into families of compositions, "a form of composition which is not the object in itself, but an idea in itself, that is to say, the beginnings of a family of compositions." - Wikipedia

"By 1979, he had devised a computer system called UPIC, which could translate graphical images into musical results, wrote Andrew Hugill in 2008.[16] "Xenakis had originally trained as an architect, so some of his drawings, which he called 'arborescences', resembled both organic forms and architectural structures." These drawings' various curves and lines that could be interpreted by UPIC as real time instructions for the sound synthesis process. The drawing is, thus, rendered into a composition. Mycenae-Alpha was the first of these pieces he created using UPIC as it was being perfected. - Wikipedia

Terry Riley - He said that music was a way for him to know more about himself in relation to the Universe. He saw music as a path for self realization.

Brian Eno - He noted that he was often lead to decisions that he wouldn't have permitted, decisions that would have been against good taste, had he not given himself a set of guidelines to follow.

"I look at the variety of the world of organisims and so on and instead of saying each one of these is an entirely separate phenomenon, I say that each one of these is the product of quite a small number of forces and constraints reconfiguring in different ways. So, the basic thought of how the Universe is made can run through into how I decide to make music."

William Burroughs - Cut-up technique - He cut up text and then re-arranged it to create new text.

DJ Spooky - Culture as a re-mix.

-----------

"A human-machine symbiosis."

"The technician and the programmer are the new artists in the age of technology."


Process

Set Parameters:

The composition will make use of the Fibonacci Sequence 1,1,2,3,5,8 and it's reverse 8,5,3,2,1,1. So the entire sequence will read 1,1,2,3,5,8,8,5,3,2,1,1. Before abstracting the piece, everthing will be based on this foundation.

Everthing except two sound files, that of Burroughs and the sped up version of the same, will be made out of only one sound that will be changed in a variety of ways - Eaoh.

Burroughs words will also be cut up based on the sequence.
1 word, 1 word, 2 words, 3 words, 5 words, 8 words etc... I, I, I think, I think the...

Once the foundation is established out of abstracted Eaoh files, begin abstracting the piece even further by moving different Fibonacci Sequences around, speeding them up, slowing them down.

My Final Project

This last project I made is great. I thought about what kind of music I want in my background if I were in a movie. I also included ambiance within this sound piece, in other sound pieces I have not included ambiance. And then I layered different sound pieces on top. One technique I used was taking the same wav file and then on the two different pieces I added different effects to the separate tracks, which completely changed them into different sounds. Then they would be going at the same BPM. I tried taking a track and making the BPM of the one track half of what the entire song was set at, 135, but it didn't work. I started with "Off with your head," because I'm obsessed with stupid sound bytes at the beginning of songs. I guess the intermission of the song is the Hindu chants. The progression goes from a modern Jazz feel which I wanted to go for by adding trumpets, and then it goes to hip hop beat.
Enjoy, Thanks for listening

CONTROLLING ABLETON WITH IPHONE

IS working and is very easy!

http://hexler.net/touchosc
here is the iphone Application - it cost about 5$ american.

Please explore the site. It can also be used to control pd/jitter
almost anything that you can think of.

I will give a demo of the application on monday!

Patrick

No Class today

Please use this time to work on projects
we will not meet today
WED 19th

pp

SAMPLES!!!

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Sound_samples

Google Trick for Samples!

?intitle:index.of? wav snare

Terry Riley - New York Times Nov. 9

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/arts/music/10bang.html?hp

November 10, 2008
Music Review Bang on a Can All-Stars
Strange Dreams, Channeled Into Music
By VIVIEN SCHWEITZER
Le Poisson Rouge, the West Village club that opened in the summer, has fast become one of the city’s main alternative spaces for classical music events, with many presented by the Wordless Music series, an inventive venture that programs rock, classical and indie music together.
On Saturday a well-attended concert there by the Bang on a Can All-Stars — the genre-blurring group that meshes elements of jazz, rock, classical and world music — fell into the classical camp. But were it not for the music on the musicians’ stands, you might at times have assumed it was an impromptu jam session by the sextet of clarinet, cello, keyboards, electric guitar, bass and percussion.
It was hard to believe, for example, that Lukas Ligeti’s “Glamour Girl” was a fully notated work (it is), with freewheeling clarinet riffs, electric guitar tunes, rock drumming and jazzy interludes. The work also reflects Mr. Ligeti’s interest in African drumming and minimalism.
“Give it up for Nancarrow,” Evan Ziporyn, the All-Stars’ clarinetist, said before the group performed his arrangement of four of Conlon Nancarrow’s early Studies for Player Piano, based on American idioms like jazz and boogie-woogie. Mr. Ziporyn’s effective arrangements mimicked Nancarrow’s overlapping rhythms, assigning different patterns to the various instruments.
The concert concluded with the premiere of Terry Riley’s “Autodreamographical Tales,” inspired by a dream diary Mr. Riley kept in 1987. He set those dreams to music with electronic noises, melodies and strange sounds that Bang on a Can recently commissioned him to orchestrate.
Mr. Riley was storyteller, pianist and singer in his work, which at almost an hour felt like an extremely long dream. He spoke about meeting a dwarf named Ping, arriving at a concert that never took place, experiencing a miracle while walking through an old church, watching a sari shop in India being transformed into a bar and asking a hippie in Asia to roll him a joint.
These dreamscapes were accompanied by a score that at times seemed like a jam session, with wailing guitar riffs, Mr. Ziporyn whistling, the pianist speaking in Chinese, jazzy interludes, Indian raga, bluesy keyboards solos, birds chirping and New Age music. “What a long, strange trip it’s been” would be an equally apt title for the work.

Chapter 13: The Musician as Thief: Digital Culture and Copyright Law

While reading this chapter, I imagined a digital pasture, which once existed unobstructed for all of us to roam and eat to our heart’s content. What began as a few harmless white picket fences surrounding the neighbors’ houses has since turned into 20ft high metal fences complete with barbed wire, locks and security guards. I can no longer take an apple from my neighbor’s tree. I never tried to take the entire tree, mind you, just one apple which would have rotted anyway!

This chapter makes me less eager to sample outside of the creative commons or public domain resources until I further understand the ins-and-outs of copyright law. Granted, to arrive at my fullest creative potential, being able to sample anything would be key. But why spend hours and hours creating a song, video piece etc., if in the end I cannot share it with others due to copyright restrictions?

However, though this chapter does make me a little more cautious because of the legal implications of sampling copyrighted material, it more so, makes me angry that so many rules are being put in place! All of the laws are like a noose being pulled tighter!

So, though I may be on the cautious end right now due to my lack of knowledge on the subject, the information in this chapter compels me to learn more and become aware of artists who are using samples to push the limits. Also, I’m curious to find out what groups are standing up to all of this.

And by the way, what is this about…?: (an excerpt from page 146) “a film teacher could violate the DMCA by making a montage of clips from movies on encrypted, copy-protected DVDs.”

And also, on page 146, it says, “Yet another law – as yet unenacted, but working its way through Congress- would compel manufacturers to make computers and other devices comply with technical measures for protecting copyright.” ------ So, has that passed yet?

Homework:

Download 5 plugins and put them on the blog

Mycenae-Alpha by Iannis Xenakis

"By 1979, he had devised a computer system called UPIC, which could translate graphical images into musical results, wrote Andrew Hugill in 2008.^[20] "Xenakis had originally trained as an architect, so some of his drawings, which he called 'arborescences', resembled both organic forms and architectural structures." These drawings' various curves and lines that could be interpreted by UPIC as real time instructions for the sound synthesis process. The drawing is, thus, rendered into a composition. Mycenae-Alpha was the first of these pieces he created using UPIC as it was being perfected.

MOOG and the Arp Synthesizer

After reading about Moog, I looked up some of the musicians he worked with on YouTube. I saw clips of them back in their glory days hammering away at keyboards and playing with electronic sounds. Reading about Moog actually helped lead me back through parts of electronic music history since I just started looking into these people he worked with. And now, we have the same sounds available at our hands, but on a portable laptop instead of a big piece of equipment like these Arp synthesizers. Moog said something like he is the toolmaker and artists use his tools. So, the convergence of these two types of creative minds has unleashed fantastic results. Moog created the tools and then artists like Zappa, Pink Floyd, Sun Ra, Parliament-Funkadelic etc. used these tools to create music that would have not come into existence without his “tools”. So, the computer is just a continuation of this process. It is a tool that can be used by artists to create new results. On one side, people are creating programs like Ableton Live, Cecilia, and PD and on the other, artists are now using these tools to create what would have been unimaginable before.

http://120years.net/machines/arp/index.html Arp synthesizers

Sound Pieces

I really enjoyed the way Brian’s piece developed throughout. He really kept changing it up by bringing in new sounds and changing speeds of different parts like when the voice began to quicken until it became basically an abstract sound. At one point, there was a loud sound which then merged into a new section of the piece. I liked this bridge.

I thought Mario’s piece came together quite well especially since he was actually altering the piece in real time. I liked the way the chanting was worked into the piece and the way he used voices at varying speeds to create a sense of urgency.

Matt’s piece projected a sense of eeriness. I definitely felt the spookiness and imagined witches and such. With more time, a little more mixing or altering of the sounds would make the piece even stronger.

Mike was off to a good start on using key kit and such. He had some interesting sounds forming. I am very curious to hear the sounds put together into a sound piece as there will no doubt be some unexpected and intriguing results.

I enjoyed the way Jerome’s piece developed. I felt as if I was really led by sound into another world. The sound of children laughing served as a fantastic bridge into the imagination. And, I’m not sure whether it was the underlying beats or rhythm or pitches, but overall, his piece put me into a small trance. I actually felt physically affected. The only thing I’d change is to make the beginning a bit shorter.

Sound Design Week 6

Sound Synthesis

When any mechanical collision occurs, such as a fork being dropped, sound is produced. The energy from the collision is transferred through the air and other mediums, and if heard, into your ears. On a small scale, the collision creates sine waves. When different sine waves with variations are added, or are existing in the same place at the same time, they produce more complex waves with a sine function derivation. The environment the collision is produced in modulates, or changes, the wave or "sound". The basic idea behind sound synthesis is to produce a sound wave with a machine that would have been naturally produced by a collision, and then manipulate it like the environment does.

Generally, a single "sound" will include a fundamental frequency, and any number of overtones. The frequencies of these overtones are either integer multiples of the fundamental frequency, or integer fractions thereof (subharmonics). This study of how complex waveforms can be alternately represented is covered in Laplace and Fourier transforms.

When natural tonal instruments' sounds are analyzed in the frequency domain (as on a spectrum analyzer), the spectra of their sounds will exhibit amplitude spikes at each of the fundamental tone's harmonics. Some harmonics may have higher amplitudes than others. The specific set of harmonic-vs-amplitude pairs is known as a sound's harmonic content.

When analyzed in the time domain, a sound does not necessarily have the same harmonic content throughout the duration of the sound. Typically, high-frequency harmonics will die out more quickly than the lower harmonics. For a synthesized sound to "sound" right, it requires accurate reproduction of the original sound in both the frequency domain and the time domain.

Percussion instruments and rasps have very low harmonic content, and exhibit spectra that are comprised mainly of noise shaped by the resonant frequencies of the structures that produce the sounds. However, the resonant properties of the instruments (the spectral peaks of which are also referred to as formants) also shape an instrument's spectrum (esp. in string, wind, voice and other natural instruments).

In most conventional synthesizers, for purposes of re-synthesis, recordings of real instruments are composed of several components.

These component sounds represent the acoustic responses of different parts of the instrument, the sounds produced by the instrument during different parts of a performance, or the behavior of the instrument under different playing conditions (pitch, intensity of playing, fingering, etc.) The distinctive timbre, intonation and attack of a real instrument can therefore be created by mixing together these components in such a way as resembles the natural behavior of the real instrument. Nomenclature varies by synthesizer methodology and manufacturer, but the components are often referred to as oscillators or partials. A higher fidelity reproduction of a natural instrument can typically be achieved using more oscillators, but increased computational power and human programming is required, and most synthesizers use between one and four oscillators by default.



Schematic of ADSR


Schematic of ADSR


One of the most important parts of any sound is its amplitude envelope. This envelope determines whether the sound is percussive, like a snare drum, or persistent, like a violin string. Most often, this shaping of the sound's amplitude profile is realized with an "ADSR" (Attack Decay Sustain Release) envelope model applied to control oscillator volumes. Apart from Sustain, each of these stages is modeled by a change in volume (typically exponential). Although the oscillations in real instruments also change frequency, most instruments can be modeled well without this refinement. This refinement is necessary to generate a vibrato.


Additive Synthesis

Additive synthesis is a technique of audio synthesis which creates musical timbre.

The timbre of an instrument is composed of multiple harmonics or partials, in different quantities, that change over time. Additive synthesis emulates such timbres by combining numerous waveforms pitched to different harmonics, with a different amplitude envelope on each, along with inharmonic artifacts. Usually, this involves a bank of oscillators tuned to multiples of the base frequency. Often, each oscillator has its own customizable volume envelope, creating a realistic, dynamic sound that changes over time.


Frequency Modulation Synthesis


In audio and music frequency modulation synthesis (or FM synthesis) is a form of audio synthesis where the timbre of a simple waveform is changed by frequency modulating it with a modulating frequency that is also in the audio range, resulting in a more complex waveform and a different-sounding tone. The frequency of an oscillator is altered or distorted, "in accordance with the amplitude of a modulating signal. For synthesizing harmonic sounds, the modulating signal must have a harmonic relationship to the original carrier signal. As the amount of frequency modulation increases, the sound grows progressively more complex. Through the use of modulators with frequencies that are non-integer multiples of the carrier signal (i.e., non harmonic), bell-like dissonant and percussive sounds can easily be created.


Robert Moog

Robert Arthur Moog was an American pioneer of electronic music, best known as the inventor of the Moog synthesizer. Moog is the most influencial person in the history of electronic music.

Glitch

Glitch originated in Germany with the musical work and labels of Achim Szepanski[4], who later gained popularity through the collaboration with Sebastian Meissner under the moniker "Random Inc.". While the movement initially slowly gained members (including bands like Oval), the techniques of Glitch later quickly spread around the world as many artists — including bands such as Kid 606 and Autechre — followed suit. Yasunao Tone used damaged CDs in his Techno Eden performance in 1985. Trumpeter Jon Hassell's 1994 album Dressing For Pleasure — a dense mesh of funky trip hop and jazz — features several songs with the sound of skipping CDs layered into the mix.

Oval's Wohnton, produced in 1993, helped define the genre by adding ambient aesthetics to it. Though the music of Markus Popp's band (Oval) may be the first in which the techniques of Musique Concrete were applied to the subtleties of Ambient, glitch is also informed by techno and industrial music. Turntablist Christian Marclay had been incorporating the use of scratched or otherwise damaged vinyl records into his sets since the 1970s; it is the rapid advance in technology and expansion of thought behind music that has allowed glitch to adopt this "broken" sound and use it as a stylistic marker.

Phase Vocoder

At the heart of the phase vocoder is the STFT (short-time Fourier transform), typically coded using fast Fourier transforms. The STFT converts a time domain representation of sound into a time-frequency representation (the "analysis" phase), allowing modifications to the amplitudes or phases of specific frequency components of the sound, before resynthesis of the frequency domain representation into the time domain by the inverse STFT. The time scale of the resynthesis does not have to be the same as the time scale of the analysis, allowing for high-quality time-scale modification of the original sound file.

Xenakis

Xenakis pioneered electronic, computer music, the application of mathematics, statistics, and physics to music and music theory, and the integration of sound and architecture. He used techniques related to probability theory, stochastic processes, statistics, statistical mechanics, group theory, game theory, set theory, and other branches of mathematics and physics in his compositions. He integrated music with architecture, designing music for pre-existing spaces, and designing spaces to be integrated with specific music compositions and performances. He integrated both with political commentary. He viewed compositions as reification and formal structures of abstract ideas, not as ends, to be later incorporated into families of compositions, "a form of composition which is not the object in itself, but an idea in itself, that is to say, the beginnings of a family of compositions."

People's Pieces

Granted I'm working from some hazy memory while I write this so it will pretty much be very general recollections.

I unfortunately got to class late and came in during the end of Shamar's piece. I was actually kind of disappointed because what I heard really intrigued me with the layering of live recorded sound and the mixed loops. I wanted to hear the piece from the beginnig to listen to the progression of layering. Mario's piece immediately said 'dance' to me,or maybe my pre-knowledge of him being a dancer colored my impression. either way the rhythmical pulsing seemed like something that would accommodate a composed movement piece with it's rise and fall. Matt's piece seemed like a good beginning point for the sound he wants for his play proposal. I think given more time he could tweak and mix the sounds in so that it sounds more full and fleshed out. I owe alot of the roughness to the late stage he got his computer and have full confidence he'll be able to move it into a more polished direction. Mike's 'piece' was still in that experimental stage of working with the new technology so I really wasn't able to get too much of an impression as to an actual direction he was going in other than playing with the idea of generative music via MIDI files. I think I missed everyone else'.

Virtual Studio Technology

Steinberg's Virtual Studio Technology (VST) is an interface for integrating software audio synthesizer and effect plugins with audio editors and hard-disk recording systems. VST and similar technologies use Digital Signal Processing to simulate traditional recording studio hardware with software. Thousands of plugins exist, both commercial and freeware, and VST is supported by a large number of audio applications. The technology can be licensed from its creator, Steinberg.

First Designs

Brian- Very interesting and definitely gave me the feeling of a carnival on acid. Love the movement of the sound and progression which told a specific story.

Shamar- Great integration of the different sounds, the design was interesting every step of the way and made me want to listen to more.

Mario- Is fantastic to see the way in which you manipulated the different sounds and to see how they affect the movement in your dance piece.

Mike- Interesting start and showcase on how to use the different programs to transform a specific sound.

Jerome- Love the story the whole piece told and the compound effect that each sound had on the whole emotional framework of the listener. I did feel that some of the sections were a tad bit too repetitive but i can definitely see how this design could be a story on its on even without dancing or actors.

Matt (My design)- after listening to everyone elses design, i realized that there needs to be more depth to my design and that i need to experiment with some of the sound synthesizers and find a way to surprise my audience and give more variety to the design.

Laurie Spiegel

Laurie Spiegel's Website:
http://www.retiary.org/ls/index.html

I found out about her on the digital design blog, but am posting this video here since it has to do with sound.

Quote of the Day!

The most powerful instrument on the planet is the human voice!!!!

Fellini/Rota

Fererico Fellini

Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI[1] (January 20, 1920 – October 31, 1993) was an Italian film director. Known for a distinct style which meshes fantasy and baroque images, he is considered as one of the most influential and widely revered film-makers of the 20th century.

Nino Rota

Nino Rota (December 3, 1911 – April 10, 1979) was an Italian composer best known for his work on film scores, notably the films of Federico Fellini. He also composed the music for two of Franco Zeffirelli's Shakespeare films, and for Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather trilogy.

Rota also composed ten operas, five ballets and many other orchestral and choral works, the most famous being his string concerto.

Sound Design Week 4

Period

~Researching music of the time

social
political
culture
entertainment



Download Max/MSP

Max/MSP

This version represents a new era of Max programming, with a completely redesigned multi-processing kernel and a streamlined development environment built on a platform-independent foundation. With a new patcher interface, searchable database of objects and examples, integrated documentation and new tutorials, the new Max user will find a smoother learning curve while experienced users will see improved productivity.

Miller Puckete

Miller Smith Puckette is the associate director of the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts as well as a faculty member at the University of California, San Diego, where he has been since 1994. Puckette is best known for authoring Max, a graphical development environment for music and multimedia synthesis, which he developed while working at IRCAM in the late 1980s. He earned a Ph. D. in mathematics from Harvard University in 1986 after completing an undergraduate degree at MIT in 1980. He was a member of the MIT Media Lab from its opening in 1985 until 1987 before continuing his research at IRCAM, and since 1997 has been a part of the Global Visual Music project.

Max Matthews

Max Vernon Mathews (* November 13, 1926, in Columbus, Nebraska) is a pioneer in the world of computer music. He studied electrical engineering at the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, receiving a Sc.D. in 1954. Working at Bell Labs, Mathews wrote MUSIC, the first widely-used program for sound generation, in 1957. For the rest of the century, he continued as a leader in digital audio research, synthesis, and human-computer interaction as it pertains to music performance.


SoundProject


1. Eno/Byrne Samples

2. Cecilia --- On file

Strectch.Warp

3. Midi - Reconstitute

Archive - UBU
Stream - ShoutCast > Freesound
Hard: Wire Tapper

4. Live
5. Midi Efftects

Export to:

Wav-Stereo-Pen 16

6. Bring Ableton/Put in Pat's Box
7. Mix All Sounds In Audacity/Twick them in Cecilia
8. Download Koan/Noaticle

I think I found the Maple Midi Drivers not sure yet gotta check on my comp

Scrol down the page to the download section I think this is it... I'll check when I get home on my comp and let y'all know tomorrow.

http://www.postpiano.com/Maple/maple-index.htm

Keykit Introduction

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8153

Herbert Brun Reading

Technology and the Composer
Herbert Brun
(1970)

As read to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Stockholm, June 10, 1970.

I.

Between 1877 and 1896 Edison and Berliner developed their cylindrical and disc phonograph systems, providing us with the new ability to store audio signals and to retrieve them from storage by electro-mechanical means. About half a century later, and nearly 30 years after Lee DeForest had initiated Electronics with the first vacuum tube (the triode audion), the phonograph-disc was joined by magnetic tape and the phonograph by the tape recorder. During the last 15 years great progress has been made in learning how the computer could assist the musician towards achieving ever higher degrees of precision in storing and retrieving audio information.

The emergence of electronics, vacuum tubes, transistors, and all kinds of increasingly sophisticated circuitries supplied the impetus to delve anew into the still only vaguely answered questions about the physical nature of sound, the possibilities of analyzing and of synthesizing any desired sound, the problems of psycho-acoustical phenomenology. It also led to a vast arsenal of electronic sound sources, sound modifiers, devices for control and amplification of sound, to microphones and loudspeakers, but most important of all: it led to an improved concept of storage, to the concept of simulated memory, to the programmable studio and to the even more programmable digital and analogue computer system.

Although composers became aware of these developments rather early -- although Busoni, Schoenberg, Varese, Schillinger, Stokowski, Chavez, and many others wrote and talked about the promising influence of science and technology on composers in their search for new compositional procedures -- it was not until rather late in the game that some notable connections between technology and composition were established. Most of the time since 1906, when Dr. Thaddeus Cahil demonstrated his Telharmonium or Dynamophone, was dedicated to the invention and enormous improvement of techniques for the production, manipulation and performance of sound. In 1916 Edgar Varese asked for new musical instruments and enrichment of our musical alphabet, and a few years later for the cooperation between electrician and composer. From 1927 till 1936 he tried to get financial support for the development of an electronic instrument for composition at Bell Telephone Laboratories, where Harvey Fletcher and Rene Bertrand would have collaborated with him on the project. He could neither get a Guggenheim Fellowship nor any help from sound studios in Hollywood. In the meantime Hammond had produced his organ, the Novachord, the Solovox, and one can follow this instrument-oriented trend through the years up to the present.

In the United States composers began work with tape and tape recorders in about 1950. The next ten years saw the establishment of various studios and laboratories, where composers, musicians, and technicians could collaborate in furthering all kinds of projects pertaining to the relationships between electronics and music. In North America almost all such studios are located at and affiliated with universities. Major examples are the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, and the studios at the Universities of Illinois and Toronto. Now there are hundreds of such installations to be found in the western hemisphere; and if ten years ago many a music department chairman did not know what an electronic music studio was, today that chairman would at least always know whether the school has one or not.

For some time now music has been getting involved with the computer. This also began mainly at universities, notably at the University of Illinois, where Lejaren Hiller and L. M. Isaacson completed their first computer assisted composition in 1956. If one combines positive experiences with apparently justified expectations then one can predict that the interaction between computers and the composer will prove far more fertile with regard to compositional procedures than will either the availability of new instruments, or the more and more streamlined modular compactness of portable studio equipment and tape recorders, or even the integration of performing humans into ever-more sophisticated circuitries that allow for unlimited amplification of naturally redundant autobiographical sound portraits.

As the composer meets technology through the computer, both have a chance to see one another far more clearly than the usual barriers, namely sound and industry, permit. The composer has begun to recognize that technology is not merely the provider of instruments, of devices, of conveniences; in short, the composer is learning that technology is not just techniques and engineering. The composer now defines technology as the science and art of applying knowledge to the desire for problem solving and I, for one, concede that technology would have a far more beneficial impact on society if its potentials were controlled by technologists rather than by industrialists and politicians.

It is desirable that the technologist take a fresh view of the composer. The time has come for the technologist to see that composers are not merely music makers, or art makers, who think that their products have to measure up to an established standard of culture and who are eager to call them merchandise and sell them. Many composers today would like to live in a socially concerned and courageously heuristic environment: they are looking for problems; they do not claim to know but are eager to create models for solutions; they would rather produce some dynamic input than find their product flatly output and consumed; they have experienced the width and the narrowness of at least one medium in depth and so can move in it or on to the next. They would want contemporary technology to return the respect they have for it by using and assisting them so that their work may escape the psychologist's case study and the aesthetician's collection, and instead, be given a chance to become a dynamic input to the contemporary social system. Together with technology, the composer defines input as something that induces and initiates such changes of state in a system as would not occur, without this input, at the moment or possibly ever.

II.

The story of music and technology tells of a very old couple which composers keep visiting in order to have their dreams materialize, their intentions implemented, their problems solved. It depicts in various terms, largely depending on the storyteller's choice of emphasis, the emergence of our need for the control of acoustical events for a purpose, and our ways of catering to this need through a maze of apparently continuous chains of either observed or stipulated problems, and either found or invented or stipulated solutions. The story would show composers to be motivated by a more-or-less intuitive allergy to the inevitable decrease of information in the systems through which they see their world at any given time; even the systems they love exhibit symptoms of decay and stagnation, and all they can do is retard the final curtain by creating systems wherein that which passes swiftly in reality would stay alive a little longer in an analogy. It does not matter much in what language and in which terminology composers happen to think their thoughts: their concepts of what is to be music next are always related to some technological considerations, and this relationship ranges from extreme subtlety to gross obviousness. There ought to be no need at this point to elaborate on the rather commonplace notion that technological considerations show the way from a musical idea to its realization, first in some code and then in a performance; and that technological considerations lead to the availability of the acoustical phenomena needed by composers for an audible representation of their musical ideas. It may be appropriate, however, to remember that musical ideas are thinking models in more or less deliberately stipulated linguistic systems; that, for reasons to be discussed later, the complexity of such systems is increasing in many a sense and dimension and that, therefore, composers now have to turn to technology with the additional request for assistance in handling the systems they stipulate.

But as composers turn to technology today, they are bound to find themselves forced into two intertwined admissions: that the belief according to which we live in a technological era is merely a belief, unsubstantiated by any sufficiency of facts; and that the concept conjured up by the word composer needs broadening until it embraces more than just music, painting, or the arts in general; that it must extend its pretensions towards the regions where the languages thrive, grow old and wither, the natural, artificial, formal, and the dead alike.

As long as technology is ruled and controlled by hard and fast beliefs and as long as it makes its way to the people through a veritable maze of filters consisting of almost exactly those same hard and fast beliefs, we are living in the era of hard and fast beliefs, in the ideological, not in the technological era. The services that technology renders to all those who---being no technologists---need destructive power in order to survive better knowledge, and to those who---not being composers---use the languages of an incurably sick system to curse and condemn even the discussion of attempts at composing a yet-unpolluted one: these services never were designed by technologists.

Technology being the science and the art of applying knowledge to the desire for problem solving, it takes a believer and ideologist to present as applied knowledge the advanced techniques of murder, brain-washing, and destruction. Where such a presentation is accepted and successful there one cannot help but rebel against the power that language wields over thought, imagery, and desire. For much of the power of presentation rests in language, in the grammatical and syntactical innocence with which it acceptably supports even the unspeakable. As long as all this power and innocence act in favor of the believer's and ideologist's presentation, attenuating the voices of everyone else, so long the technologists and the composers have an axe to grind in common.

If ever there will be a technological era worth talking about, it will be thanks to technologists and composers. By their joint efforts, extended over a prolonged period, they may contrive to emancipate thought from language sufficiently for a rehabilitation of both, and continuing from that, introduce an era for mankind where every thought has its language, and where all people have at their disposal a device that will respond to each person's input according to the language stipulated by that person. Today we still labor and suffer under the oppression of those who can hide their determined unwillingness behind a modestly confessed lack of understanding, behind less modestly uttered claims for everyone's right to misunderstand, behind aggressive attacks on an allegedly unrealistic but in effect only nonconformist intellect. Tomorrow, in the technological era, if it is to merit this label, this kind of hide-and-seek game should have lost its power-illuminated glamour, and have made place for a prosaic and, thus, nonviolent confrontation, in language and in action, between those who can articulate the desire for an intelligent society and those who understand, but do not want it. There should be no question as to what an intelligent society is, nor as to who wants it and who doesn't. The difference between technology and composition will dwindle to an insignificant degree of a nuance; whereas the difference between nuances of thought will acquire significant proportions, worthy of the discriminating potentials of the human mind.

When, many years ago, I was first invited to give talks and lectures, the invitations meant that I was to be a composer of music who is to discuss and to present music for an audience interested in music. I felt that, therefore, I had to show how the thoughts I really wished to talk about were relevant even to music. Under this pressure I soon found out that the composition of music, is, in fact, relevant to the thoughts I consider important at any given time. Finally, I asked myself: What if it were true that composition simply is the generator of relevance, and that composers, no matter of or in what, are people who desire that whatever they create be relevant to whatever they consider important? If this were true (and I stipulate it is), then I could go on and state: The thoughts I consider important, and the medium in which I try to create what otherwise might never happen, are related through my desire for relevance; thus they become representatives of two systems which ought to show a high degree of mutual analogy, once a structure composed by me is applied to both. Wherever such an attempt is successful one can consider the process as a model of some effective method for reaching a desired state; this, then, allows for a new look at what may now appear to be---besides and beyond being desired---also desirable.

The definition of a problem and the action taken to solve it largely depend on the view which the individuals or groups that discovered the problem have of the system to which it refers. A problem may thus find itself defined as a badly interpreted output, or as a faulty output of a faulty output device, or as a faulty output due to a malfunction in an otherwise faultless system, or as a correct but undesired output from a faultless and thus undesirable system. All definitions but the last suggest corrective action; only the last definition suggests change, and so presents an unsolvable problem to anyone opposed to change.

To the composer, however, a suggestion of change is a signal sent out by the system, signifying a deficiency of input and the urgent request for the creation of what otherwise may never happen, be it even a new and different system. The composer's basic attitude is system-conscious and is nourished by observations which give repeated reassurance that it will always look only the way the composer looks at it, and so may look different if looked at differently.

Discerning between composition of art and the far broader concept of an art of composition I contend that the latter need reach a higher level if the former is to be an input for, not only an output of, society. I suspect that an intuitive awareness of the recent meagerness of input has led, almost justifiably, to the contemptuous sneer at the word culture prevalent in many circles, intellectual and otherwise. Many words, including this one: culture, could be rehabilitated if they were to refer to the dynamics of input rather than to the kinetic triumphs of output. Not that there is a lack of continuously offered input. But the words that indeed refer to it also reject it. The message announcing an offered input is called a threatening disaster, disorder, anarchism, and the like; yes, this society's language is in such a panic that it frequently, in its confusion, calls a threatening disaster that which actually was nothing but a message of its own accomplished output. Such an obvious disorder in so highly a respected system as our language is a challenge to all those composers who are not exclusively interested in their music. It is a challenge to the art of composition in general; and the composer---oscillating between music, languages, linguistics, analogies, systems, structures, logics, logistics, some mathematics, and an enormous repertory of words burdened with apparently indelible and frequently quite obsolete meanings---calls it all just so much language and begins to search for some way in which the composer might construct languages that do not yet support any power but their own.

In the meantime I shall use the term language for denoting structured systems which are made by humans, which humans thus can change or replace, and which, as a significant property, possess the capacity for involvement in the storage and transmission of intended messages or unintended messages or both. Technologists in all the branches of science and engineering, and composers in all the arts, both continuously design, construct, create, and change languages of all kinds, in order to store and transmit the thoughts or images they had in mind. Little of this is heard in an environment where power can be seized, and more power gained, by redesigning, reconstructing, and recreating thoughts and images that comfortably fit the language everybody knows and speaks already, where trust and confidence can be earned by proving these thoughts and images to have existed for generations as popular grammatical fictions in a language common to us all. No wonder then if within such boundaries everybody thinks they know what everybody is talking about and words are said to mean simply what people take them to mean.

But wherever it is true that, as the saying goes, words mean what people take them to mean, these words cannot escape the meaning given to them by people. Where there is no escape, there are no alternatives, there is no freedom; and any meaning that argues with words which never escaped it just tells the story of its life. Every thought, idea, or concept, as it emerges for the first time in a given society, needs words so that it be expressed, be presented, be heard, understood, and finally communicated. In search of such language one has to either create new words, or add and attach new meanings to old words. If a word, in the course of time and usage, has accumulated many kinds, shades, nuances of meaning, then we have to consider the context in which the word appears in order to know which particular meaning it is to carry. From this it follows that a new meaning of a word may be suspected, or assumed, if the context is such that none of the conventional meanings would fit. It is easier to coin and integrate into language a new word, a new sound, a new visual unit, than to make an old one mean something new. This is because the newly coined word announces its newness in every context. Its function is unambiguous and thus not context-bound. A new meaning, on the other hand, cannot be announced by an old word alone but only by a context to which the old word is a newcomer, in which it had never functioned before. The older a word is, the more meanings it has accumulated, the more ambiguous it becomes, the more context-bound it is. Whereas a new word adds to the language by enlarging the vocabulary, a new meaning adds to the language by increasing the significance of context.

All this I contend to be analogously the case in all systems in which the elements enter into temporarily significant coalitions, and where some communicable meaning becomes associated with either their moments of appearing or with the particular structure causing their appearance. Words in language, gestures of sound in music, definitions of visual units and colors in painting are just a few of the many terms denoting such coalitions.

On the one hand, I concede that in order to relate or permute established thoughts and ideas it may be sufficient to know what the listener takes words to mean, and to form one's language accordingly. The success of this language is then measured by the degree of comprehensibility. The problem of the speaker here is a problem in communication. The speaker's aim consists in having a new constellation of old thought understood by the currently valid rules and usages. For the presentation of new thoughts, on the other hand, the speaker should be requested to make words mean what they heretofore had not meant, thus adding to the available repertory of a word's meanings that new meaning which is necessary for the presentation of the new thought. The success of this language can only be measured by the degree to which it questions the sufficiency of meanings already associated with words, and by the quality of the thoughts that so become audible for the first time; at which time there is, obviously, never enough of the kind of evidence available that would allow for completely correct evaluations.

As this is the point where the arts, including music, come in, let me formulate a useful term. Where a new thought is presented, the speaker's problem is not any longer only a problem in communication, but one of communication. My useful term is introduced thus: A speaker with a new thought has to solve a problem of anticommunication. The syllables "anti" are used here as in antipodes, antiphony, antithesis, not meaning "hostile" or "against" but rather "juxtaposed" or "from the other side". Anticommunication faces communication somewhat as an offspring faces the progenitor. And just as the offspring eventually will in turn become a progenitor so will anticommunication, in time, become communication. This knowledge ought to make it possible for a community of people to have a good time with either. Indeed it should be noted that the good time lasts longer with anticommunication which leaves a lot open for the next occasion than with communication which puts everything neatly away on the spot. Anticommunication is an attempt at saying something, not a refusal to say it. Communication is achievable by learning from language how to say something. Anticommunication is an attempt at respectfully teaching language to say it. It is not to be confused with either non-communication, where no communication is intended, or with lack of communication, where a message is ignored, has gone astray, or simply is not understood. Anticommunication is most easily observed, and then often can have an almost entertaining quality, if well-known fragments of a linguistic system are composed into a contextual environment in which they try but fail to mean what they always had meant and, instead, begin showing traces of integration into another linguistic system, in which, who knows, they might one day mean what they never meant before, and be communicative again.

However, when something new is conceived, introduced, and noticed, then there appears a temporary gap, an interregnum which will disappear only when that "something new" begins to be accepted, understood, and used: when it begins to grow old. This time of transition is a time in which messages are sent that no one receives and in which messages are received that no one sent.

This is the time in which a language gained is a language lost. By most people this time is experienced only occasionally, in passing, in some concert, some exhibition, some reading, and then usually not too happily; for it gives them a hard time or no time or too much time, but no answer to their question: "What does it all mean?"

It is this time, however, that is the almost continuous time present for those poets, painters, and composers who move with it, who always think of themselves as living and working just in that mute and dumb moment where the language they gained got lost, where it won't do and say what they would have it do and say. It is therefore a sign of understanding and perceptivity if one expects their productions, their works and words to escape the prevalent level of communicativity under the condition that all of their activities and objects be at least propositions and at best provisions for the next, now the future, level of communicativity. Creative Art resides in poetry, music, dance, painting, architecture, theater, film, television, writing, and even in "Happenings" only if each of these sub-disciplines functions by anticommunication, which is my term for potential and virtual expression in a field devoid of communicative guarantee. One ought to expect, yes, as an ambitious audience, even demand that this field be cultivated at a time later than the last harvest and earlier than the next.

But what if it is not only the much maligned audience, the people who come to listen and to see who have the wrong expectations? What if it is society itself, and therewith also the performers, the dancers, the actors, the musicians, who do not know that their profession consists in handling competently the temporary incompetence of their language? What if it is a property of all our social systems not to have matured enough in order to liberate and promote language from its fictitious status of a slave which will do the best it can, to the status-independent existence of students and scholars, who will try to do better than the best they or anyone can?

III.

I challenge technology to escalate its push towards a socially beneficial technological era by designing and constructing for all of us the compound facility wherein and wherewith many people can be induced to come and enjoy the effort of learning how to compare and measure their languages against and with their imagination and their desires. I am speaking of an artificial system which should function as an accepted member of society and be respected and used equally by the few and by the many, as long as this differentiation will have any validity left.

I imagine a building in which the arts are met by technology and the sciences on their common ground. They all investigate, stipulate, create, and exploit systems. They are all faced with the puzzles and the functions of structure. And their aims and results complement one another because of their difference. While the sciences observe or stipulate systems which are to be analogous to an existent truth or reality, and while technology stipulates and creates systems that are to function in an existent truth or reality, the arts stipulate and create systems which are analogous to an existence desired to become true or real.

All three must be represented with all their branches and departments in the team that has to invent, to stipulate, to study, to discuss, and eventually to decide on the interior and exterior requirements that such an artificial system must be able to fulfill. Let me mention just one area of research that might demand no less than such a team's collective efforts before it will even begin to reveal its dimensions and secrets.

What if it were true that, as the saying goes in many quarters, the human mind is limited by nature to the potentials we already know, and that we may thus not expect it to ever possess the properties necessary for the creation of what we call an ideal society? If this were true we would need artificial systems that possess those properties to guide us. And if it were true that, as the saying goes in other quarters, the human mind has shown here and there the potential for change and development but that precisely the rarity of such an event generates hostility against it in the many who did not participate in it, then we would need artificial systems that remove the property of rarity by demonstrating the participation of all. No matter on which assumed truth it is based or to which conjectural reality it may be meant to correspond: any such artificial system should possess properties that we either cannot have, or do not yet have, but that we need and thus should be able to imagine or be taught to imagine.

It is quite obvious: any such artificial system will contain a computer installation. But what kind of an installation? Nobody knows yet because it should not be developed before the software, the programs that define the structure of the system, have been written. And these programs should be written, and the assembler code should be constructed, only after a decision has been reached as to what the whole system is supposed to do for the user. The user, however, is not to be seen as a paying consumer, whose demands have to be educated until they fit the available offers.

The word user refers instead to a member of one subset of the set of all possible kinds of input. The first task then is to define this subset until it contains every possible kind of user. Every user is an element of at least two social systems: the social system the user sees and at least one social system that sees the user. The artificial system must be able to insist on getting just so much input from the user as it needs for identifying the social systems in which the user's existence is definable. The response of the artificial system could then adopt the property of an input to any one or all of the systems defining the user's existence. The complete set of all possible kinds of input would thus contain all users and all responses by the artificial system. If we roughly define input as something that induces and initiates such changes of state in a system as would not occur without this input, at the moment or possibly ever, then we may expect that the artificial system thus would be capable of supporting what I called corrective action as well as what is called creative acts.

What is asked for is a heterogeneous assembly of input-oriented minds that would define an intelligent society, redefine the user, and develop an artificial system that by its response capability would show its users their roles in an intelligent society so that they may become induced to also want it in reality.

Inevitably such a project progresses in stages of partial fulfillment of set goals. At every significant stage, however, the results reached should be incorporated into a systems program which is to be submitted to and analyzed by technologists. They, in response to this input, would proceed to invent and construct the apparatus, the hardware, the computer, the input-output interface which best can represent, simulate, execute, and display the functions of an artificial system that possesses properties which we either cannot have or do not have yet. Clearly this installation will also be used to reach the next stage of significance, and will, if intelligently conceived, eventually only have to be modified and improved. Should there ever come the day, and an invention or discovery be made, that would render obsolete this whole machinery, possibly even the whole project, it will be either a no-man's day or a day for world-wide celebration.

Work on the project has to begin simultaneously in as many places as possible all over the world. Every school, every university or equivalent institution could assign to a selected but preferably heterogeneous group of its members the task of starting research towards a definition of the potential user in the immediate environment up to and including the areas overlapping with those defined by neighboring groups.

The building I imagine should be planned and constructed at each place, combining special features reflecting local preferences with those more general features that would make it a compatible member of a world-wide network of equivalent institutions. Everywhere it should grow as the results of such research accumulate everywhere.

Composers in the technological era are professional members of such projects. Their profession is the art of composition and their work establishes and demonstrates connections of various kinds between various elements, stipulated and desired connections that cannot occur in the eternal feedback loop of empirically functioning thinking processes.

Technology in the technological era sees the composer's work as an input of a particular nature, as an analogy to a desired reality which may have to be implemented and to be observed in functional action before anyone can possibly judge whether such a reality is---besides and beyond being desired---also desirable.

To the question whether a statement is true, let there be added the question: what if it were true?

To the question whether a composition is music, let there be added the question: what if this were music?

So that language may not become a fossilized fetish, let it be praised for the thought it expresses, but ruthlessly criticized for the ideas it fails to articulate. Language is not the standard against which thinking is to be measured; on the contrary: language is to be measured by a standard it barely reaches, if ever, namely the imagery of human doubt and human desire.

To measure language, with imagery as a standard, is the function of art in society. The arts are a measuring meta-language about the language that is found wanting. If the imagery succeeds in containing, anticommunicatively, for later, the simulation, the structural analogy to that which was found wanting, then, who knows, it may tell us or someone some day with breathtaking eloquence and in the simple terms what we, today, almost speechlessly have wanted so much.

Our present era meanwhile dictates in ever more venomous terms that we must turn to artificial systems if we wish to conduct intelligent research and intelligent experiments without causing bloodshed, corruption, and misery.

(A few days after this paper had been read, the chairman of the meeting requested that I submit to the experts present at the symposium a proposal summarizing the goals and ideas implied by my paper. The experts, then, were to vote on whether to recommend that steps be taken towards an implementation of the proposal.)

I propose that an international apparatus be defined and initiated which would investigate and analyze submitted ideas, compositions, statements and general propositions with regard to their function (potential or real) as structural models. The apparatus should be so formed and equipped that it can answer the following questions: What is the composition and the structure of that system in which the submitted item would have the greatest significance? In which system, social, political, physical, would the submitted item be compatible with concepts of truth, reality, practicability, etc.?

(The assembled experts declared this proposal to be incomprehensible. They requested that I resubmit it with an explanatory addition.)

Explanatory Addition

The apparatus mentioned above would face each and every statement, but not with the question: "Is this a consistent statement?" The question would be: "Which system needs to be stipulated so that, therein, the statement becomes consistent?"

This kind of questioning statements is and has always been the composer's profession. In looking at the composer's work we perceive the extent to which the composer succeeded in establishing that system in which the composed statements are consistent; we no longer discuss the value of statements but rather the value of the systems implied by the statements.

As the composer stipulates systems, elements, and structures, the composer becomes increasingly proficient in recognizing the problems that appear in systems.

Problems may attack a system from within---a malfunction in the system---or from without: the system as a whole is questioned. The states, and thus also the problems of large complex systems, do not show themselves in their real totality but rather in smaller less complex subsystems which imply---by analogy or by disintegration---the system wherein they are consequences and consistent or inconsistent statements.

In contradistinction to Industry and Business who must dominate the system to which they adjust, Technology and The Arts need neither dominate nor adjust. Composers and technologists are not concerned with the exploitation of, and adjustment to, problems. They are concerned with the solution of problems and, as a first step in this direction, with the design of models, structural analogies, of the desired solution.

The construction of models for problem-solving in the broadest and most general sense is the goal which Technology and Composition have in common. In order to reach and to effectively demonstrate this goal they have to preserve their independence from temporarily ruling values which always imply and reaffirm only the system that ought to be investigated and that gave rise to the problem. If technologists and composers were to join forces in an internationally supported endeavor of systems-research and systems-creation they could hope to avoid loops of futility, to preserve their independence from temporarily ruling values, to reach and to effectively demonstrate their goal. Their findings, discoveries, suggestions, and explanations should throw considerable light, be it welcome or not, on our ability of changing, if need be, just those concepts which we most automatically take for granted.

The contemporary distance between composers in the technological era and the systems that rule their lives is a required prerequisite for their effectivity as temporarily inabsorbable, critical, and necessary inputs to their society.

(Whereupon the experts, who, really, were only specialists, refused to vote on the proposal. Some argued that it was irrelevant to the meeting's theme. Some argued that it would offend member states in UNESCO. This argument was flatly denied by the participating representatives of UNESCO, but to no avail.)

Notes

1. Hugh Davies: Repertoire Internationale des Musiques Electro-Acoustiques, International Electronic Music Catalog. London, 1967, The M.I.T. Press, 1968.

2. Lowell Cross: Electronic Music, 1948-1953 in Perspectives of New Music Vol. 7, No. 1, 1968.

3. L.A. Hiller and L.M. Isaacson: Experimental Music McGraw-Hill Book Co., N.Y. 1959.

mario's absence!

hi guys... i apologize for my absence today!

i'm on this phone conference at we speak... and have been for the last 2 or so hours!

as soon it's done i'll there. i had no idea it was gonna take so long!!!

Plunderphonics

I think music is supposed to be borrowed and stolen. It's like a good piece of information. I can give you a good piece of information but it's what you decide to do with that piece of information which makes it worthwhile or not. How do you think inventions have come about. inventors borrow and use other people's ideas in order to lead up to the culmination of what is known. Henry Ford was not the first inventor of the car. There were many models known before. Peanut oil driven cars, cars powered by steam. Henry Ford used those models and invented the Model T. I know there was a car invented before that by him but I can't think of it. And is not music an invention, it's a composition for the soul. Music is not trivial, to most it's the cornerstone to a sane life. For most, these so called hackers, piraters, composers, remixers, music is an outlet a source of creativity, and for most they do not know what or how much their piece of work is inspiring. It's sound in the air, and there is no way of calculating the influence, but most would say music has saved them. So who is to say a song made by me a college bozo or a song made by Enya is more influential to people. Music is a sound collage, it has just become more complex over the years. From the beginning of music starting with notes they were passed on "borrowed" by the first ever musicians and it became more complex through the centuries up to now where we are not only borrowing notes but we are borrowing riffs and sounds. If you want me to explain this I can in more depth. Just ask me in class!! Again it's a bout the intention of the artist. Chopped and Screwed is a hip hop style known throughout the South. Songs are taken and slowed down and intersticed into other songs to reflect the Southern drawl of the South. Is this stealing. But it's recognized as a legitimate hip hop style. Some words of thought!!!

Plunderphonics

In the Plunderphonics paper, Oswald says “as curious tourists should we not be able to take our own snapshots through the crowd rather than be restricted to the official souvenir postcards and programmers”. As I understand it, he is saying that we should have the right as individuals to interact with music from our own unique angles and thereby remix the culture surrounding us according to our inclinations. In this way, listeners no longer are just passive. Instead, they too become active in the process of music making much like a person who is enjoying the architecture of a beautiful city through the lens of his camera.
However, I am still a bit confused as to what exactly constitutes plagiarism when sampling music. A person can take a picture of the Eiffel Tower in his own unique fashion and not worry about such restrictions, but in the world of music, the rules seem to be different and not well defined. At least from what I can understand at this point.
The Wikipedia page on John Oswald quotes him as saying, “if creativity is a field, copyright is the fence”. I found that to be a very succinct and memorable way of explaining the problem that Plunderphonics runs into.

John Oswald's Plunderphonics

Here's a link to some music clips of John Oswald's Pluderphonics.

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:xn4uak2k0m3x

MIDI Virtual Driver for Vista Users

30 day Trial for LoopBe1

http://www.nerds.de/index.html
click "Downloads"

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Terry Riley Video

Terry Riley begins speaking of the cross-cultural influences of music that he was doing in the mid 1960's. I think the influence of other cultures while a good thing oftentimes to a young artist can be a precarious road to walk. Oftentimes perhaps musical influences can be pulled with no clear connection or lack of connection whatsoever. Also there exists the possibility of too many influences leading to a mashed up mess with no sense of cohesion and loses the individual flavors of the cultures from which they were drawn. The idea of a mirror being reflective of the various cultures was mentioned at one point in a previous blog. The inherent danger is that by the mixing of so many cultures those shards of mirrors can eventually be ground into so much dust that the ability to be able to reflect the light is lost.

Eno Video

I particularly enjoyed Eno's tie in of the idea of music as reflective of the organisms and systems inherent in the world to resonate with my own ideas. The concept that each thing in the world exists as a byproduct f many different events and interactions not as an individual entity but part of a complex system of relations translates over to music to create an idea of give and take between not only musicians but also individual notes, melodies, types of instrumentation and likewise the influences that germinate the music and all that leads up to the generative moment of conception for the music/sound itself. Likewise the existence of the music then permeates the rest of the world through its own interactions ad infinitum. Kind of like an osmosis of sound.

The Wire Tapper 19

This was a really cool ixture of different sounds. Some of them were a it annoying but I kept thinking about sounds in nature that were pulled to make this CD. The music sounded like things you would here everyday.: to the simplest things such as typing on a keyboard or the creeks in the wooden floors. i have a new found perspective on music now. lol Well not completely but it is cool what you can do with sounds from nature. i'm so use to the popular songs out now with the in studio made beats and piano keys.

Reed Phase- Track 12

Wow........... is all I can say about this track. I didn't realize how annoying the repetition of a certain sound could be. At first I was like this is beautiful until I realized the looping of the song wasn't going to break. But if you were to visually apply an image to the sound it kind of incases the awkward beauty of the sound. I started to imagine a waterfall flowing continuously down a river bed, or even the dripping of my bathroom faucet after I cut it off. it's crazy how I first thought to be annoying, but it is kind of cool!

Terry Riley on self realization

On so many levels I agree with Terry Riley. He mentioned in the video that music is " a way of knowing more about yourself in relationship to the Universe." The only difference for me is that music serves as a relationship between me and God. it defintitely connects to the spiritual side of your being. I think that people make music which expresses what their insides would say or sing out loud if they had a voice....lol Funny but that's what I think

Brian Eno

I really respect anyone who creates their own sort of style and can accurately as well as opinionatedly express themselves. I can agree with Eno's aspects of his form of music being improvisation mixed with collaborative elements. I think at times the best art is art that is developed right on the spot and is not planned out and when you can add other elements to give it a nice polishing

In repsonse to Mario's comments on Terry Riley

In response to Mario's comments on looping and vedic hymns, is that track from Bush of Ghosts a vedic hymn? I was wondering if that track held any great significance or if they just lied the sounds mixed together. It was very meditative sounding. But yeah.... just wondering.

Ambient and Generative music

Being in a society where most music I listen to is composed of organized notes with a consonant melody, the whole ambient sound is kind of awkward. Hearing some of Brian Eno's work my mind quite often feels like I'm on drugs, like I am sitting on a cloud. It's kind of creepy.But at the same time I think it allows you to be free and break away from tradition. Who says that music has to be something with a steady and rhythmic eight count?

As far as generative music goes I donot understand all four primary perspectives that characterizes it. I some what can understand the structural style of generative music and the creative style. I don't know if I understand the interactive style of generative music. I do agree with Eno's theory of music changing and evolving. Here are the the four theories in case someone's wondering what I am talking about:

Linguistic/Structural

music composed from analytic theories that are so explicit as to be able to generate structurally coherent material (Loy and Abbott 1985; Cope 1991). This perspective has its roots in the generative grammars of language (Chomsky 1956) and music (Lerdahl and Jackendoff 1983), which generate material with a recursive tree structure.

[edit] Interactive/Behavioural

music generated by a system component that ostensibly has no inputs. That is, 'not transformational' (Rowe 1991; Lippe 1997:34; Winkler 1998). Brian Eno's Generative Music 1 is an example of this.

[edit] Creative/Procedural

music generated by processes that are designed and/or initiated by the composer. Steve Reich's Its gonna rain and Terry Riley's In C are examples of this (Eno 1996).

[edit] Biological/Emergent

non-deterministic music (Biles 2002), or music that cannot be repeated, for example, ordinary wind chimes (Dorin 2001). This perspective comes from the broader generative art movement. This revolves around the idea that music, or sounds may be 'generated' by a musician 'farming' parameters within an ecology, such that the ecology will perpetually produce different variation based on the parameters and algorithms used

The Beat Generation- Spontineity

I think the beat generation has alot to do with the negative depictions in society today. This generation really pushed the envelope on the topics of sex, drugs and artying. You can only expect the generations that follows behind to top what was done in the past. The very art of music and the instruments that create the melodies aren't as important anymore, because the focus is put on valuables and sexual promescuity. I mean the beat generation brought forth some great talent but I feel like it is a contributor to the music industry's limitation of creative music topics.

Subterranean Homesick Blues

I think the video was really interesting. It kind of reminded me of Charlie Chaplin films, the beginning of filming. I think that connection made me connect with it as the beginning of an era. Rock videos...... I lost focus sometimes because I was trying to read the signs as welas keep up with the music. if I could borrow from this video, but instead of pairing up the signs with the lyrics, I would have it silent and have the viewers focus on reading the lyrics presented. I think something along those lines. But it might just be that I had a hard time focusing on the selected words from the song.

Erik Davis

My question here is: why are acoustic spaces so effective in this regard? What is it about sound that is so potentially immersive? I think it has to do with how we register it—how it affects different areas of the bodymind than visuals do. Affect is a tremendously important dimension of experience, and one of the most difficult to achieve in a visual environment. "Atmosphere" might be a good way to describe this aspect: sound produces atmosphere, almost in the way that incense—which registers with yet another sense—can do. Sound and smell carry vectors of mood and affect which change the qualitative organization of space, unfolding a different logic with a space's range of potentials. Ambient music, or an ambient soundscape, can change the quality of a space in subtle or dramatic ways.

Terry Riley

I grew up in India (89-96) and for me Terry's words are very familiar; the relationship between "looping" and "Vedic hymns".

In Ancient Vedic Texts you find the term "mantra-siddhi" mentioned frequently in relation to meditation and spiritual life (self-
realization). Mantra-siddhi (mantra a compound word meaning "mind liberating") and siddhi (perfection) implies that a prayer be repeated thousands of times in order to tune into a spiritual reality...

Anyway, it's all fascinating to me!!!

Brian Eno

I find amazing the precise choice of words he uses! I would expect nothing less from a sound genius!

His analogy about organisms reconfigured by "forces and constrains" to create other more complex organisms i think can be and is the basis for and can be applied to art in general at various levels.

I also admire his creative freedom, "I want to be on this edge between improvisation and collaboration" that phrase says it all.
As a dancer and performer when I hear the word "improvisation", I hear "awareness", "real time", "presence"... "ever-fresh"!!! I think that it's a improvisation is an essential in any art; it's what keeps that form of expression alive.

Reed Phase, track 12

Reed Phase, track 12 on the CD that came with Sound Unbound, is not a track that I would care to listen to over and over again for any extended amount of time. However, I do appreciate the artist exploring the way in which repetition intensifies the sound. While listening to it, I was at times lost in it like a stream of thoughts pulling me further and further in. Then, just as I was becoming lost in the repetition, the repetition would become too much. At this point, it felt like a form of Chinese water torture with each repetition being one more drop landing on my head. I could hear the piece loop at times and yet was confused as to whether I was hearing the exact same sounds through the entire piece or if it was changing slightly. It was like the repetition was playing with me!

The Loudspeaker in the Tower

I had an amazing supplemental reading about bells called "The Loudspeaker in the Tower" by Ivan Illich. Check it out dudes!!!

Campanalogy

Campanology (late Latin campana, "bell" + Greek λόγος, "knowledge") is the study of bells. It encompasses the physical realities of bells — how they are cast, tuned and sounded — as well as the various methods devised to perform bell-ringing.

In particular, it is common to collect together a set of tuned bells and treat the whole as one musical instrument. Such collections — such as a Flemish carillon, a Russian zvon, or a British "ring of bells" used for change ringing — have their own practices and challenges; and campanology is likewise the study of perfecting such instruments, composing music for them, and performing it.

Generative Music and Terry Riley

Generative Music relies on a system or process to create a continually evolving and ever-changing piece of music. Unlike a live performance or recorded music, Generative Music is never the same. Using software and technology as paintbrushes, the artist is able to create his own sounds and then let them free within pre-set parameters. The process is similar to a craftsperson creating a wind chime so that he can hear music. The craftsperson knows that he will only be able to control the type of material and how thick it is and how many chimes there will be on the finished piece. Such construction will directly affect the sounds that will emanate from the wind chime, but beyond this he will have no more control. Once the piece is finished, the craftsperson must hang it in the wind for unpredictable sounds to emerge as the wind blows.
As I scanned a few articles on this topic, I began to wonder more and more about how we will experience music in the future. One article pointed out that because generative music is ever changing it cannot be recorded and therefore copyrighted. What will the affect of this be?
I am also very curious about generative music being brought into more public spaces like Brian Eno’s 1975 project, “Music for Airports”. I am specifically interested in bringing such music into a hospital environment where people lay staring at white walls for hours on end without much stimulation except for the static and whirr of hospital machines and the un-rejuvenating noise of the television. Last year, I took part in a one month intensive class with Shands Arts in Medicine that looked at using the Arts in a hospital setting to foster healing in patients. I saw music in particular to be very powerful. One woman who had been in a lot of pain and not able to fall asleep, fell asleep within 10 minutes of three people performing live music right by her bedside. I even watched the monitor that was hooked up to her change to a more relaxing state right before my eyes! As part of this class, we were also lead through a musical journey in which we all played various instruments at different intervals with our eyes closed. The process took about 10 minutes. It brought us into another state and when we finally opened our eyes again, we came out of this musical journey refreshed. So, the healing qualities of music are undeniable.
The Terry Riley video that is posted on this blog talks about the possibilities that music opens up for a person to more fully realize himself. Riley says that “music carries a powerful message about who we are”. I think that is true not only on a personal level, but can also be applied to the larger society. If music has this power, then incorporating its effects into the larger society should be something we aim for. We should be including the positive and healing aspects of music into our everyday lives in the different public spaces that we interact within.
The idea of music as including healing and spirituality makes me wonder what sounds exactly affect one’s mind in such a way as to cause this mental shift. What makes one noise grating and another uplifting? The sounds of the sitar have a very calming effect on me so I’d like to find out why that is so.

Sound Design

Sound design is one of the youngest fields in stagecraft, second only to the use of projection and other multimedia displays. The idea of sound design has been around since theatre started, however the first person to receive a credit as Sound Designer on the poster and in the programme alongside the lighting and scene designers was David Collison for the 59 Theatre Company Season at London's Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith in 1959. The first person to be titled the "sound designer" on Broadway was Jack Mann for his work on Show Girl in 1963 [3], and for regional theatre to Dan Dugan at the American Conservatory Theatre (ACT), San Francisco in 1968. Since then the field has been growing rapidly. The term "Sound Design" was introduced to the film world when Francis Ford Coppola directed (and his father, Carmine Coppola, arranged the music for) a production of Private Lives at ACT, while the final cut of the film The Godfather was being edited in 1972.

Currently it can be said that there are two variants of Theatrical Sound Design. Both are equally important, but very different, though their functions usually overlap. Often a single Sound Designer will fill both these roles, and although on a large budget production they may work together, for the most part there is only one Sound Designer for a given production. Where such distinctions are made, the first variant is "Technical Sound Design" (which has also been termed Theatre Sound System Design by the United States Institute for Theatre Technology's (USITT) Sound Design Commission), which is prevalent on Broadway, and the second "Conceptual Sound Design" (which has also been termed Theatre Sound Score Design by the USITT), which is prevalent at Regional Repertory Theatres. Both variants were created during the 1960s. These terms are really examples only, and not generally used in practice since most Sound Designers simply call themselves Sound Designers, no matter which role they are filling primarily.

Technical Sound Design requires the sound designer to design the sound system that will fulfill the needs of the production. If there is a sound system already installed in the venue, it is their job to tune the system for the best use for the given production using various methods including equalization, delay, volume, speaker and microphone placement, and this may include the addition of equipment not already provided. In conjunction with the director and musical director, if any, they also determine the use and placement of microphones for actors and musicians. A Technical Sound Designer makes sure that the performance can be heard and understood by everyone in the audience, no matter how large the room, and that the performers can hear everything they need to in order to do their job.

Conceptual Sound Design is very different from technical sound design, but equally important. The designer must first read the play and talk to the production's Director about what themes and messages they want to explore. It is here that, in conjunction with the director and possibly the composer, the designer decides what sounds he will use to create mood and setting of the play. He or she might also choose or compose specific music for the play, although the final choice typically lies with the director, who may want nothing but scene change music or, on the other extreme, will want ambient beds under every scene, such as Robert Woodruff of the American Repertory Theatre or Bill Ball, Ellis Rabb and Jack O'Brien who were active at ACT and the Old Globe Theatre, San Diego, in the mid 1960s where Dan Dugan initially began his art. Many sound designers are indeed accomplished composers, writing and producing music for productions as well as designing sound. With these designers, it is often difficult to discern the line between sound design and music.

Some noted Sound Designers and/or Composers include David Budries, Abe Jacob (considered by many to be the Godfather of modern Theatre Sound Design), Steve Canyon Kennedy, Otts Munderloh, Mark Bennet, Hans Peter Kuhn, Obadiah Eaves, John Gromada, Darron West, Michael Bodeen, Rob Milburn, Tom Mardikes, Jon Gottlieb, Dan Moses Schreier, Jim Van Bergen, Bruce Ellman, Richard B. Ingraham, David Van Tieghem, Joe Pino, Steven Brown, Richard Woodbury, David Collison, Jonathan Deans, Tony Meola, Paul Arditti and John Bracewell.

On occasion, the director may be very hands-on and will tell the sound designer what sounds to use and where to play them. In such cases, the sound designer becomes little more than an audio editor, but this depends to a large degree on the director and his relationship and level of trust with the sound designer. There are also collaborations such as exist between Ann Bogart and Darron West in the Siti Company, where he is in rehearsal from the day one and sound is really another character of the play. Also, the Conceptual Sound Designer must build the "prop sounds" (telephones rings, answering machines, announcements etc.) and figure out how to fit them into the established themes with regard to when and where the action is supposed to be taking place. For example, using a modern cellular phone ringtone would be out of place for a phone ringing in the 1940s. A Conceptual Sound Designer uses sound to enhance the audience's experience by conveying specific emotion or information without using words.

Above all, both the Technical Sound Designer and the Conceptual Sound Designer must call on experience and "uncommon" sense to ensure that the sound and music are contributing constructively to the production and are in harmony with the work of the actors and other designers.

The union that represents theatrical non-Broadway sound designers in the United States is United Scenic Artists (USA) Local USA829 which is now integrated within IATSE. Theatrical Sound Designers in Canada are represented by the Associated Designers of Canada (ADC). Sound Designers on Broadway working on productions falling under the League of American Theatre and Producers contracts (i.e. all Broadway theatrical productions) are represented by IATSE Local One[1], by virtue of Local One's merger with IATSE Local 922, the former Theatrical Sound Designers local union. Local One maintains a binding contract with Broadway producers for work performed on Broadway shows.

Charlie Richmond assembled a set [4] of Definitions, Communication Standards, Recommended Working Procedures, Information List, and suggested Contract Addenda to the ADC in 1990 in order to assist them in creating a Sound Design contract which finally occurred in 2004.

Other audio positions in a production that may or may not be filled by the designer include that of the production engineer.

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