COMPEL Omeka Dev

Browse Items (868 total)

  • EleKtrIoN I (music of diamond) is a composition based on the sonification, remix and artistic reinterpretation of diamond property data obtained by very sophisticated scientific computer simulations translated into music using a computer-aided data-driven composition environment developed by the composer in the materialssoundmusic project.

  • The structure of Ricercare is a reinterpretation of the original “ricercare” style of the late renaissance and early baroque period. Here the word “ricercare“ (Italian for “to research”) takes a double meaning: on one hand is the research the performer does to find the optimal connection between the flute and the sonification of the data stream in the basso continuo accompaniment; on the other, it refers to the scientific research work that has led to the data on which this composition is based. All the parts are directly based on the remix and sonification of the materials property data for Silicon, Germanium and Tin (Si1_ICSD_60389, Ge1_ICSD_181071 and Sn1_ICSD_53789 in AFLOWLIB.org), some of the group IVa elements of the periodic table. The flute part is built on the materials data mapped to pitch class sets (one of the output of the data manipulation algorithm). These pitch class sets are used in the original form found by the mapping procedure – no operation (translation, inversion or multiplication) is done on the sets. The rhythmic patterns oscillate between quasi-random sequences and continuous virtuosity runs as in a baroque solo section. The basso continuo is split in one harmonic and one percussive part. The harmonic part comes from the direct mapping of the materials data into MIDI note-on/note-off events streamed live through the DataPlayer app; the percussive section doubles the flute part in a rhythmic unison triggered by the flute through an audio-to-MIDI pitch recognition Max for Live patch.

  • In Contrappunto (the first of my Inventions for data stream) the data stream (from the AFLOWLIB.org entry for Silicon) is manipulated during the live performance creating a musical material that will be influenced by the performer in any instance of execution. This is where the CADDC environment is most versatile, allowing for a large degree of improvisation and for a broad palette of esthetic choices. The duration of the piece is open and the recording on SoundCloud is just an example of the infinite possibilities that this piece opens.

  • after Giacomo Leopardi

  • These five short pieces are inspired by poems by Eugenio Montale, italian Nobel laureate in 1975. In his work, starting from the first collection, Ossi di Seppia (1925), Montale focused on the dilemmas of modern history, philosophy, love, and human existence in poems that are characterized by the hermeticism of the message if not of the language, in a dramatic and psychological dynamism.
    In each of these compositions I explored the dilemma of the sound in a multiform collection of audio manipulations that create dynamical and evocative portraits of the poet’s words.

  • Music for 88 keys is the first example of a composition based on the sonification and remix of materials property data from the online computational materials repository AFLOWLIB, the heart of the materialssoundmusic project.The sonification algorithm behind Music for 88 keys maps the materials information into sound by encoding data into MIDI events in an automated high-throughput fashion. The sonic data are fed to audio generating patches written for MAX and Ableton Live through a DataPlayer app. The algorithm used in the creation of Music for 88 keys maps data to the MIDI notes 21 through 108 (the 88 keys of the piano) and associates an amplitude (MIDI velocity) to each note derived from a manipulation of the same dataset. The duration of any MIDI event (that is a representation of rhythm and meter) is inferred from the rate of variation of the data (i.e. their derivative in time), making each material soundscape completely internally consistent. The MIDI stream so generated is then treated as a collection of musical structures for further compositional elaboration. “Music for 88 keys” is a suite born from the remix of the data from Diamond, Zinc Oxide and Gold. The piece is scored for player piano and electronics and is dedicated to the memory of Conlon Nancarrow, the American composer who made the player piano his instrument of choice throughout his career. In Music for 88 keys the original datasets from AFLOWLIB.org are variably manipulated through different techniques: from simple variations of tempo and meter to extensive reordering of pitches or regions and various orchestration choices. The suite starts with a preludio that uses the sonic mapping of the data for Diamond as starting compositional material. The same concept is used in the interludio, but with data from a different material, Zinc Oxide. Interludio separates the two principal sections of the suite: largo and andante, with the piano accompanied by sampled percussions sounds and based again on data from Diamond, from continuo, based on the data for Zinc Oxide for piano with a drone of brass, and  contrappunto aureo, based on the data from Gold, where the brass and the percussions are both combined with the piano. The suite ends with a postludio, where the piano alone states again a sonic mapping of data that now combines the three materials.

  • In Bengal, young children are told that the whispers and crackles they hear near bamboo bushes are the voices of the ghosts that live there. With this story in mind, I have created a piece where I have elaborated the natural sounds made by bamboo trees when they are moved by the wind. These natural sounds are then mixed with other ambient sounds (street, traffic, conversations) and processed so that the resulting composition is characterized by a remote and abstract atmosphere. The original sounds have been recorded in Jakkur, India, in the summer of 2006.

  • For the podcast “StaticMusic/Drones” of the New York Miniaturist Ensemble, 2007.

  • “Democracy is lovely, but baseball is more mature.” – Richard Greenberg

    In my never ending search for formal models which paradoxically display properties of randomness and asymmetry yet completeness and structure, I turned to baseball. The skeleton of this piece (although it wouldn’t be apparent unless I told you) is derived from a scorecard I kept of a Cubs/Cardinals game. The title references what one commentator refers to as “a move which has worked once in the last twenty years” – the Look to Third, throw to first. In homage to the many paradoxes that lie latent within the game of baseball (for example, it’s a pastoral game with urban roots) there is a second possible, more literal, reading of the title. This is music which is inspired by the features of sculpture, the art form which dwells in the third dimension and utilizes space, volume and perspective. Baseball is often described as poetry in motion, and any true fan of the game can speak to this point for hours as they describe the beauty and intricacies of watching an infield in motion as a ball is perfectly bunted down the line or the excitement of judging whether a throw from the outfield will beat out a runner at the plate. These motions through space become the narrative, the story of each game. Every baseball game has 9 innings, 27 outs per team, yet each game, each story is different and unique. It is these aspects of the game that this piece tries to capture, for each movement, with the aid of electronics, presents essentially the same structural narrative but in a unique way, from a unique physical perspective. Imaging how the same musical materials would react and resonate as they move through different physical spaces guided the creation of this piece, and is the way in which the piece “looks to third” for inspiration – I’m still working on the throw to first.

Output Formats

atom, dcmes-xml, json, omeka-xml, rss2

If you see an error or would like to add content to COMPEL, please leave a comment or contact Hollis Wittman at hollisw@vt.edu.