In writing/performing/composing/researching my piece for DXARTS 567: Sound In Space, I focused on the texture and quality of sound as the backbone of my piece. The goals I set out for myself were to create an instrumental improvisational piece that explored the texture and character of two unique instruments. By “Instrument as Organism”, I am describing not a generic character or texture that can be filled by any player or any instrument. Instead, I am describing a specific instrument, played in a specific location, by a specific player, and the textures, sounds, and noises they are able to produce.

The work I did last quarter explored these qualities created by a vintage accordion from the 1930’s that I own, and a Mandolin. I wanted to experiment with (and reproduce/manipulate ambisonically) the character and depth of these two instruments intertwined in an improvisational performance. I synthesized this idea late in the quarter and had a short amount of prep-time going into the recording sessions, but was focused on a few specific ideas for what type of material I was interested in gathering:

Non-musical Sounds: I feel that some of the most important qualities of musical performance are moments that are non musical in nature. This category is where most of what I feel as “organic” type sounds come from. Ex: “breathing” of the accordion. Due to its age, the reeds and bellows in my accordion rattle and squeak, which I attempted to use in order to give the impression of old age and decay. This sound makes a prominent feature in my piece. “fret sounds” from the mandolin provide a high energy, light texture that is very nice, reminiscent to me of birds or small animals, and emphasizes the texture of both parts.

Musical Sounds: For the musical sounds I am interested in, I relied on a very loose improvisational setting. The Mandolin player found a phrase that he liked, and I encouraged him to continue playing with it and to develop it further. I tried to contrast the two instruments, having the Mandolin play mostly higher pitched, quicker paced melodies and notes, wheras the Accordion was confined for the most part to lower registers, emphasized even more by additional processing. The most important factor of the “musical” quality of these sounds was the contrast; low to high; bright to muffled; new to old (again, the Accordion is out of tune, some reeds stick or fail to function, the Mandolin is brand new and in tune).

In the composition phase of this piece, I focused on constructing a narrative inspired by the natural progression of life and death. I tried to give each instrument/texture a personification of a character, whose life was played out over the course of the piece. I am interested in exploring this type of narrative further, as I tried to explain during our first session. I feel that a longer piece would allow for a more dynamic and detailed narrative to unfold, as certain movements and gestures could develop more slowly and deliberately. Also, having more time to gather a larger amount of material would further add to this intensification of detail.

In taking this piece to the next step, which would be a level at which it could be shown at a completed level, I have identified these goals for myself:

Identify desired sonic elements: In my previous recording session, although I had a few strong ideas of the type of material I was looking for, I really felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants. I propose to create a structured list of the type of elements I want to include in my piece. This will not initially be a final draft, but instead a living document with which to base the next component of my new piece on….

Create a visual score: Creating a visual score will help to organize the narrative structure of my piece, by providing a layout for the previously identified sonic elements. It will become a visual element, something to refer to, and also something to structure my recording sessions when I get to that point.

Recording sessions: I think the key here is to have multiple sessions, in multiple locations, in order to gather the most material possible in addition to identifying elements that work, that don’t work, and that need to be factored into my original list of sonic material. In my last piece, one of the longest phases was actually going through all the recordings, which means that these recording sessions need to happen as early as possible and with higher frequency. I have already contacted my co-performer, who is completely on board for this kind of schedule.

Focus: For this piece, I want to explore the interests I identified above even further. I want to push the instruments I use, get them to produce even more sound and textures, and possibly explore additional instruments (brass, wind, string, whatever I can get my hands on), as long as they fit into the structure I have identified. I want to find all the organic, unique sounds that I can make with the specific instruments and players I have on hand. In my previous piece, I used a limited amount of human noise (limited to mouth pops, laughing, and a few various other sounds), which might be another area to explore, since human noises are intrinsically tied to an organic stereotype.

Prototyping: Since I was on such a short time schedule for my previous piece, I was unable to prototype my final composition. Once it was done, that was it, I could put no more time into it. I’m aware that we are also on a tight schedule, but I feel I have more experience going into it this time. I know how to run the equipment, I know the steps that need to be taken in order to organize, process and spatialize the material.

I plan to engage these goals as early as this week.

Now for reference, and let’s hope this works, I will play my sound piece. It is written for Ambisonics, so it won’t be anywhere near the same in stereo. If you would like to hear it in its full glory, you can arrange with me and I can play it, or you can download it yourself and listen to it on headphones here (WARNING: You need the newest version of SuperCollider installed on your machine to hear this. Click the button that Says “Straight Out” once, so that it now says “Stereo” and you should be set.)

567 Final (Stereo)

Thank you.