WEEK 12 – CC1: Semester 1 Project Proposal

Dots & Dashes

I'm staying close to Pierre Schaeffer's original ideas and concepts of the late 40's when developing Musique Concrète with assistant/collaborator Pierre Henry. Although I have looked at scores and listened to other works, particularly of Stockhausen and Varese, these contemporary composers sound more conventional compositionally (admittedly, unfamiliar in their day). That's not to say Varese's Ionisation and work from such luminaries as John Cage (William's Mix) have no influence … and Stockhausen's Kontakte lingers, but we look to Schaeffer for the ground rules which define an entire musical form, and inspire further exploration.

Pierre Schaeffer - You can ring my bell ... tree.
http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?what=A&obid=32181

My work depicts the development of wireless communication over time. My audio starting point is not produced by a musical instrument nor intended for music making - morse code. A single dot in space, then more dots panned, the occasional dash, unrelated blips and bleeps. Slowly they begin clustering; parts of syllables, then full syllables. Murmuring anticipation … finally 'electromagnetism' bleeps out. I may use one or two musical instruments (for a note) and/or dialogue in the later stages and intend incorporating audio that fits my purposes along the way. If a duckling fits the bill, a duckling recording I shall pursue. The score will not be in traditional musical notation, but a product of the process and intrinsic to the piece (probably circular).

http://www.fotosearch.com/DGV332/455064/

As the works of Schaeffer and others utilised the new 'instruments' of the day - tape and disc recorders - I'll do the same, accessing an advanced disc recorder to create a sample library using software covered this semester (Peak, MetaSynth, NN19, Spear …), finally building a montage/sequence in Pro Tools (1) from my explorations. Musique Concrète as opposed to what Schaeffer called 'abstract' composition. The piece will incorporate loops, rhythmic groupings, time stretch/shrink while exploring tone colour, pitch, forward and reverse motion.

"Furthermore, (Schaeffer) emphasized the importance of play (in his terms, jeu) in the creation of music. Schaeffer's idea of jeu comes from the French verb jouer, which carries the same double meaning as the English verb play: 'to enjoy oneself by interacting with one's surroundings', as well as 'to operate a musical instrument'. This notion is the core of musique concrète."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musique_concr%C3%A8te

A Wiki reference, but I like that notion. So I have some sounds to start, but intend to remain open to chance and whatever may present as appropriate to the mood and feel of the work.

eFarnsMP3.mp3

'E' for 'Electromagnetism'

References:

1/-

"Digidesign - Industry Leader in Digital Audio and Live Sound." Digidesign. 2007. http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm? (accessed May 21, 2007).

MetaSynth 4. 2006. http://www.uisoftware.com/MetaSynth/index.html (accessed May 22, 2007).

"NN19 Sampler." PropellerHead Software. http://www.propellerheads.se/products/reasonadapted/index.cfm?fuseaction=mainframe (accessed May 8, 2007).

"Peak Pro 5." Bias Peak Pro 5. http://www.bias-inc.com/products/peakPro5/ (accessed June 5, 2007).

"Sinusoidal Partial Editing Analysis and Resynthesis." Spear Homepage. 2007. http://www.klingbeil.com/spear/ (accessed June 5, 2007).