Richard Lo Bianco's Music in Motion

Throughout the semester we had the opportunity to explore several areas of acousmatic composition which I believe will definitely lead me to explore the area further. I consider it a really good experience and exercise making two contrasting pieces, one for live diffusion and the other one automated, I just wish I had more time to explore 5.1 or even diffusing in 8 speakers.

The concept of ‘cinema for the ear’ is something that I believe to be very vast and go beyond the traditional abstract combination of shorter and longer sound events. I believe acousmatic music expands the boundaries of Schaeffer’s reduced listening and can explore areas like traditional narrative with clearly-identifiable sounds. It could also be made to create short installations for people to get an aural experience of what it would be like to be in the middle of an unknown situation with the use of sound effects (such as a sandy beach, the middle of a battlefield, etc).

For my final composition I decided to create a somewhat constant background as a contrast to my first piece that had many moments of silence that contributed to an effective live diffusion. I had two lines phasing over time using as sound material the notes separated in the two stereo channels to create the “Deutsch scale Illusion” (see previous post). The first few sounds that are added, appear randomly in the forefront, but quickly incorporate as part of the background. The piece gains certain continuity by having sounds coming in and out from and to the background, towards the foreground.

Part of this is achieved by automating dry signal and effects as well as stereo placement. Some of the sounds used were chosen because of their unique quality and similarity to the constant background, whilst others were chose as a contrast between nature sounds and electronic sounds.

I decided to combine my idea of phasing whilst panning with an idea I thought of a long time ago and actually mentioned in a previous post that was incorporating aural illusions. I decided to incorporate into the piece an illusion known as the “Deutsch scale Illusion” which consists of playing the notes of an ascending and a descending scale but alternating each note in a separate stereo channel. The idea is that both channels play a part of both lines, but alternating notes from the scales. So heard separately, each channel plays a series of non successive notes, whilst played together, it gives the illusion of both channels playing two scales (one ascending, one descending) in unison.

An easier way to understand this is by looking at the following image.

The advantage of using this whilst phasing between channels is that as the phasing process progresses, the illusion is lost and one can hear each line separately. As some of the middle pitches phase back into a similar beat pattern, interesting harmonies are created. Although when the process is done and the phasing has brought the two channels to their starting positions a listener should perceive once again the illusion of unison, the effect is in fact lost, because the listener has been hearing the separate parts for a long period of time. It is only if we stop the playback, and begin listening to it again, that our ear is confused and starts perceiving the illusion once again.

The main idea and thought process that is going into task 2 at the moment, is making a contrasting piece. I came up with a clear idea upon listening to some music lately and during tutorials I got good feedback to get me started in a positive way. I decided to create a sort of repetitive background possibly including phasing, in which the background is constant and then single sound events would appear in the foreground. The benefit of doing this with automated diffusion in mind is the ability to have gradual movement between the speakers as the background evolves or phases. I was also considering the single sound events mentioned before to appear in the foreground and gradually get incorporated or “lost” into the background, or vice versa (the sounds appearing as development of the background and gradually move to the foreground)

Some of the inspiration came from listening to Electric Counterpoint (1987) By Steve Reich featuring Pat Metheny, as well as several pieces by Paul Lansky from his album More Than Idle Chatter (1994)

The performance of Task 1 went very well and I was pleased with the diffusion. My only worry before the actual performance was that I didn’t get a moment to practice in the Recital Hall. However, I had carefully listened to my piece several times and identified key moments in which I planned to apply some of the diffusion techniques I was able to learn in previous class sessions.

I decided to kick off the piece with circular motions in the clearly-identifiable horse hooves and gallops. One of the main diffusion techniques I applied later was quick changes (either front to back or alternating corners) in moments where short single sound events were heard on their own, with a brief moment of silence before the next one. Towards the middle of the piece, a sort of soundscape starts to develop. In my performance notes, this section aimed to give the diffuser some freedom to choose where to add the moments of silence by manually fading in and out the soundscape. Finally the piece reintroduces some sounds heard before but with quick automations in some cases, faster than what could be possible manually with the faders.

Composing an acousmatic piece, gives a whole new dimension throughout the compositional process. In the past few weeks, we’ve been listening to pieces by known composers, as well as a collection of sounds and transformations by classmates. There are certain effects achieved by diffused sounds that are now part of our creative pallet of ideas.

I wanted to put together a few sounds and incorporate several ideas into the structure and the range of material I would use. I wanted to make a structural piece that consisted of more than one section. I wanted to include a a wide range from high-pitched to low-pitched sounds. I wanted some transformations to the sounds that expanded on the parcels included within the sound, as well as clearly defined sounds. I also wanted to include effects in a way that would make sense, both from a compositional view, and from an aesthetic view that would work in space when diffused. My goal was also to achieve a balance between unknown sounds and clear identifiable ones. And finally, I wanted to make a conceptual piece of music that had key elements to help it tell a story.

In a future post I’ll expand on the exact sounds I used and the idea behind the diffusion techniques I thought of for performance in 4 channels.