As part of the Composition section of my Directed Studies in Electronic Composition, my final project will be a composition that I have to record. As a way to track my process and my progress, I’ll be posting some brainstorming stuff, starting now! These ideas will not be so neatly strung together as a web. In the early stages of brainstorming, the ideas are more like goop that oozes into different shapes the moment I try to pick them up and shape them. So, I suppose this post is a way for me to poke, pinch, and observe my ideas as they are at this point.
Solidified parts of my composition idea (the ingredients of the goop?)
- I will compose for interactive electronics and voice.
- The vocalist will wear a sensor node fixed into some type of headband to trigger tracks and/or effects by tilting her head.
- The vocalist I asked to help me with this happens to be a mezzo, so that is the range with which I’ll be working, but it could possibly be adjusted for any voice. If I am able to easily make the electronic part transposable, I will do so to enhance the versatility of my creation.
- Where possible, I want to make the final product user-friendly; however, that will not be my focus in this course. If I end up really liking whatever becomes of this, I will make time to simplify the rough technological edges as a personal project later.
- I will have to figure out an efficient way to program the sensor node, making it a kind of state machine to offer a variety of sounds given only a few basic tilting directions, left, right, forward, and backward. (This part makes me REALLY thankful that I took Digital Systems last semester with Chris.)
- I will need a mic to possibly project the voice, and definitely for input to modify the voice occasionally. (Might run into trouble with feedback if the mic picks up too much sound?)
- I will need to program a way to calibrate the tilt of the node so the performer can use it within their natural range of motion.
The goopy parts: Implementation
(Lyrics will be notated in regular text. Comments will be in brackets. Electronic idea descriptions will be italicized. Electronic trigger actions will be bold – R for tilting the head right, L for tilting the head left, F for tilting the head forward, and B for tilting the head back. After each tilt, it is assumed that the head be brought back to center. I want to preserve the forward tilt for resets of sections to facilitate practicing, with it functioning like a back button in a music player in that one nod takes you to the beginning of a section, and nodding while at the beginning of a section would take you to the previous section. Each section would be like rehearsal markings in traditional scores, and they would change the configuration of what your head controls at that time. I want to use the backward tilt as a ‘next section’ trigger, but since that needs to happen in performance, I also want it to correspond with a sound so the audience isn’t left wondering why the performer just awkwardly tilted her head back for seemingly no reason. So, forward tilt will be a silent ‘back’ trigger for rehearsals, and backward tilt will be the final trigger of each section to suit performances while also providing a way to skips sections for rehearsal purposes. The pitches are still just in my head and I have yet to figure out what they are, so they’ll wait a while.)
Worlds col-lide [each syllable is one beat at 60-72 bpm, with ‘lide’ being accented and released with the ‘d’ on the next beat to line up with the trigger]
R crash like how people imagine lightning to sound, even though we know thunder is the sound of lightning
Step a-side [starts roughly two beats after, with the same layout as the last line]
L boom like thunder
Make way for invisible sym-pho-nies [starts 2.5 beats after, with ‘make’ taking up half a beat, ‘way’ lasting ~1.3 beats, each syllable in ‘for invisible’ is ~0.3 of a beat, ‘sym’ is 0.75 of a beat with a lift before the next one, ‘pho’ is 0.25 of a beat, and ‘nies’ is held for 2 beats, releasing the ‘s’ on the next trigger]
R background blend of strings and stormy wind texture that continues until the end of the next trigger
Full of endless possibilities! [some kind of syncopated of hemiola-esque rhythm for this to make it feel a little drawn out and free, with the next trigger happening slowly after beginning the syllable, ‘ties’]
B bend pitch of mic input up as tilt is increased, and peak with a shattering sound that ends the previous trigger’s output and sounds like tinkling of glass falling, then tinkling morphs into a calming rain sound that stays until otherwise triggered, and a regular percussive beat emerges with a folk-like lilt to lead into the next section that will contrast the drama of the first section with a folk-song way of comfortably telling a story
–End of goopy parts–
I have the next section mostly planned, but I think I’ll limit these posts to go by section if I keep the layout as I currently envision it. I just wanted to break ground on these process logs before I get too deep into planning and end up having to share everything all at once. I’ll have at least another post up by the end of the week if I can stay on task with the schedule I planned!
Go make things! 😀
Electroacoustic Playground 