Chapter Two : Running Fast and Playing Dead (2001)

Chapter Three : inside, out and unplugged (2000 - 2001)

Chapter Four : angry concrete (1999 - 2001)

Chapter Five : Conclusion

Introduction :

            Within my work, there are two main criteria that I wish for it to contain. Firstly, I wish to make music that forms an emotional bond with the listener, a strong feeling within about the art, even if they do not understand the concepts or techniques used to create the work. I see music as a form of emotional expression, both of my own, and of the listener, in response to my work, and although most of my art is based on a specific emotional time or event in my life, I do not document what this may be, as I wish for the listener to experience the piece with no preconceptions in this way. That way, the emotion they feel towards the piece is unique and relates directly to them. The aesthetic of the piece, by which I mean the actual sounds that are created, and the appreciation of them, is perhaps the most important aspect within my work, and for this aesthetic to connect with the listener in a personal emotional way. However, although this aesthetic level is very important to me, it is also important for my work to be intelligent, for the listener to also be able to enjoy the work on a deeper mental level, to understand and find interesting the techniques and ideas explored within my art. I contain conceptual aspects in my work, in the form of deeper-rooted ideas than just of the aesthetic, and explore these ideas and concepts within the art. The pieces within this masters submission are all linked by the concept of the exploration of ambiguity, juxtaposed with conflict that is expressed in various ways throughout the works. The idea of conflict is exhibited in sounds and textures going against one another, smooth soundscapes cut up by harsh, rough interludes and within instrumentation. For example, in angry concrete (1999 - 2001), the nature of the conflict is shown by the fact of the piece is quite specifically scored for two string quartets, and not a string octet, as the concept is off two string quartets almost battling with each other. One is treated in real time with electronic manipulation of their sound, the other entirely acoustic, with both playing similar material at times, but both striving to achieve prominence. Also, within this same piece, this idea of conflict is explored within the musical material. In contrast to this conflict, this opposition of musical material and ideas, I also make use of ambiguity, a blurring of sounds and sound worlds, expressed normally within the sphere of live performance, to have the performer(s) playing live, but because of the use of live electronic manipulation, for weird and wonderful sounds to be emitted, confusing the audience, blurring the distinction between what is live and what is pre-recorded. Also, within the actual musical material, there is often an ambiguity between instruments, in the way the musical material is spread among them. There is also a technical link between these pieces, as they are all somehow looking at the relationship between acoustic instruments and electronics. Each piece tackles this issue differently, looking at it from a different angle. Running Fast and Playing Dead (2000 - 2001) is a computer piece, made of original acoustic string samples, which are manipulated by various computer programmes. The opposite of this is found in inside, out and unplugged (2000 - 2001), which is an acoustic realisation of and electro-acoustic piece. Here the basic musical material (the pitch and rhythmic information) is taken from an electro-acoustic piece, and then mapped onto acoustic instruments, so instead of taking acoustic material and making it electric, here I take electronic material and information, and turn it into an entirely acoustic piece. angry concrete (1999 - 2001), on the other hand, deals with the mixing of instruments and real time electronic sound manipulation, with the one string quartet being affected electronically in real time.

Running Fast and Playing Dead :

            This is a short experimental film, created by visual artist Mark Scott-Wood, of which I composed the soundtrack. The film is very "lo-fi" in feel. By this I mean that the technology and techniques used in making the film were fairly basic by today's standards, it being shot with an inexpensive camcorder in the Peak District, then edited using a video and a TV, and manipulating the material using just this equipment. The sound track fits in with what is happening in the film, but is also a computer piece in it's own right. The sounds used in this piece were created using some pre-recorded string samples, which were then affected using a computer. Here I use the term "sample" to mean a sample of material that I have written and recorded myself, it is a sample of the instrument, not as a sample of another's work, taken and used within my own work, as the phrase sample can also be taken to mean. When recording these string samples, I not only recorded pitch based fractions of material, I also recorded as many different sounds as I could get from the instrument, not just using the "traditional" way of playing, bowing and plucking the strings, but also hitting the sound box, bowing the edge of sound box, bowing below the bridge, scratching the strings, and various other techniques in order to create a number of varied sounds. To compose the soundtrack along with the film, I used the programme pro tools, a multi tracking music editing programme, which also supports film and other visual information, using the film as one track, in order to refer the music to it, and make sure it all fitted together in a precise and synchronised way. Certain images go with certain sounds, as the film is quite repetitive in regards to the actual material, but it is the treatment of the visual material that changes throughout the film and is what is being experimented with. I match this with the music, so each "scene" or section of material has a "theme", which is apparent in the music, but there are also slight changes within the musical treatment, and execution of this "theme".

            The samples, once recorded into pro tools, were then affected in the computer programme peak, a music editing programme which uses various plug in effects, both Cybersound and Hyperprism, and I used these effects to treat and manipulate the samples. I wished to create a somewhat harsh, but also haunting quality to the basic string sounds, to give a "creepy" soundscape to complement the visual material, as it is very unclear what is going on in the film. The basic material is of a man running through woods, barefoot and wearing a tuxedo. It is not clear if he is running from or to something, although the desperation with which he runs (occasionally rolling down hills and slipping over in a quest for speed, it seems) suggests away from something. We never discover the answer to these questions, why is he running, and if he is running away, what is he running away from? Interspersed with this running footage are scenes of a man laying motionless, in various places and positions (for example, on the ground by a river, hanging over a branch of a tree) Through the soundtrack, added to the visual material, I wished to make the audience experiencing the art feel uneasy about what is happening, to feel doubt and wonder about whether this is just "playing dead" as the title suggests.

            As mentioned above, the film is experimenting and making use of low quality equipment and old fashioned editing techniques, and I wished to reflect this in the soundscape supplementing the film. Although I was using modern music editing techniques (in the form of the computer programmes Peak and Pro Tools), I actually manipulated the sounds in order to make then less "clean" and digital sounding, adding distortion, glitches and hiss, to create the sound of less sophisticated equipment. I also made use of crude editing techniques, such as when assembling the sounds in pro tools, there were instances where the sound peaked, and became even more distorted, which I made use of, instead of correcting, and adjusting levels as would normally happen at such an occurrence. This I felt added to the low quality sound that I was aiming for within this piece. This piece fits into my experimentation with instruments and electronics, although it is not exploring live manipulation of sound, it is using sound samples from acoustic instruments (strings) which are then changed, and affected by various electronic techniques. Although I use many different sounds actually from the string instruments, as explained above, most of the music within this piece is pitch based, as with all of my music. The drumbeats are the only things that are not derived from a pitched instrument, as they are produced using a drum machine. The actual string samples are manipulated and changed to such a degree that they are barely recognisable as coming from stringed instruments, with such effects as ring modulation, time stretching, resonant filters and distortion being employed to create the final sounds used.

inside, out and unplugged

            This piece looks at the concept of combining instrumental and electronic music in a different way, and is actually an entirely acoustic realisation of a completely electronic piece. The basic idea was to take a piece of electro-acoustic music, and score for acoustic instruments. The original piece (Inside Out by Ed Kelly) is one which was quite a challenge to make acoustic, as it deals with extreme frequencies, noise based material and is written for an 8 track diffusion system, and it took me a few attempts before I found an angle from which to approach this challenge. At first, I thought about having each of the tracks within the 8 track system as one instrumental line, but this was not possible, due to the diversity of each track, it would have been very hard to translate the material for acoustic instruments, as they are of course limited in range. Also, I pondered on the obvious way of just listening to the piece and using effects inherent in the instruments chosen to recreate the timbral aspects of the electro-acoustic soundscape. However, I then struck upon the idea of reconstructing it acoustically, purely from the pitch and rhythm information that was contained in the piece. Up to the point of actually finishing the realisation, I had only heard the piece once, and decided that if I was to go "back to basics" with the piece, recreating a piece made with new technology (a computer) into a piece using very odd technology (acoustic musical instruments), then I should work from the more traditional modes of composition; pitch and rhythm. This is where the emphasis lies in this work, with not much regard for the timbral similarities. To extract this information, I ran the piece into the computer programme Metasynth, and created a sonogram of it, a chart which gave me the most prominent frequencies and when they occurred. I translated this into pitch information, again using the programme Metasynth, and worked through this guide, using it as a graphic score for my version of the piece (appendix 1). The more prominent pitches were shown as darker on the page, and it was these pitches I made use of most, with the lighter ones being reproduced only quieter in volume, in correlation to the shade of the pitch. The next concern facing me was the choice of instruments. Because of the great range involved, I decided to use a piano. This was also a good instrument to use, because of it's ability to play both light and denser soundscapes. The other instruments, I wished to keep with in a family, and chose all wind instruments, a flute, two trumpets and a French horn, instruments I felt worked well together, with their ranges and timbres. As I was only working from the pitch and rhythm information given to me by the sonogram, I still had a great deal of control over many of the musical decisions that had to be made, such as that of the instruments detailed above. The notion of timbre within music is something of great interest to me, and the same material played on a different instrument, can completely alter the feel of the piece. This made the choice of instruments an important musical decision, as it set the feel for the piece, playful, with harsh accented notes through much of the piece, which I felt was the feel depicted by the sonogram, with many short black frequencies shown. Also, as there were a great many frequencies that were present in varying degrees of importance within the original electro-acoustic piece, I had to pick and choose the ones that made the most musical sense to use in my realisation. The pitches that were indicated as most prominent were certainly used, but there were several points were it was difficult to decipher which were more important, and in these instances I chose the ones which made the most musical sense, given the feel of my acoustic realisation, spiky and playful. When writing the actual piece, after all this preparation, one concern I had was that I was looking at it too closely, and following the sonogram too religiously, making the piece not as musical and not as aesthetically pleasing as it could be, as I have discussed before the importance of the aesthetic in my work. However, I made sure to look at this piece as a piece of music in itís own right, and not as just an acoustic representation of the electro-acoustic, or "cover version". Within the actual musical material, the piano is the main focal point of the piece, the wind instruments mainly expressing short rhythmic features. There are many what seems to be frequency clusters in the sonogram, and I recreated this effect using note clusters on the piano, accented by short, staccato notes on the wind parts. Also, there were parts where it was difficult to pick out any specific frequencies at all, the range of the frequencies were apparent (normally very low) but the actual specific frequencies that were being heard were not. During these sections, I used the piano as a solo instrument, working within the general frequency range, but creating the notes based on my own musical judgment. The piece relates visually and musically to the sonogram, with the specific pitches adhering to the graphic score as closely was possible, and gestures that are found within the electro-acoustic piece information also being made apparent within my version of the piece (such as the frequency/note clusters).

            The piece and it's concept of an electro-acoustic piece being made entirely acoustic, not only fits in with my exploration of the relationship between instruments and electronics, but also deals with the theme of conflict, in some respects, because of the differences between the two versions of the piece. In my acoustic realisation, I am conflicting with the idea of the electronic material, trying to take if from itís original context and mapping it into a completely new framework, with only the very bare minimum of the electronic material to work with (the pitch and rhythmic information). The two pieces clash, and although they share, for the most part, the same base material, the way it is executed is very different, and without the sonogram, the two pieces do not appear to relate in any way. This conflict between the purely electronic and purely acoustic sound worlds, is shown within this piece, as is also shown the possible ways of crossing material over from one sound world to another.

angry concrete

            angry concrete in a two-movement piece, written for 2 string quartets, one affected in real time by electronics, and the other left entirely acoustic. By this I mean, the affected quartet, have microphones above each instrument, or contact microphones on each instrument, depending on resources, in order to pick up the sound of each line, which then is feed into a computer (for the recordings heard in conjunction with this thesis, the computer used is a Macintosh ibook, 500mz G3 processor) with then puts effects onto the sounds made by the quartet, manipulating them, which is the sound heard out of the speaker, the original quartet sound, plus the electronic manipulation. This is all done almost instantly, although there is a slight delay, it is very slight, and does not affect the audience's interpretation of the piece. The programme used on the computer to do this manipulation of sound in real time is the programme MAX/MSP. MAX is a programming language, and thus has similarities to other languages. A language has a sentence, which is made up of words and grammar. In the case of MAX, the patch is the sentence, the object the words, and the algorhythm the grammar, and in order for the sentence to make sense and express what you want it to (or the patch to work in the way you want it to) the right words (objects) must be there, and the grammar must be correct (the algorhythm or order of objects within the patch). MSP is a digital sound processor and makes up the objects of max, similar to the way letters make the words to be used in the sentence. A patch is built, (fig 1) to trigger the effects, using the number keys on the computer (1 through to 0), nine being no effect at all (straight) and 0 stopping the sound from running through the patch altogether, so that no sound would come out of the speakers. I built this patch so that when I pressed the number of the effect I would be requiring, it would load up the effect, and to actually activate the effect, the space bar had to be pressed. The effects that I used to manipulate the sounds of the string quartet were vst plug ins, which I experimented with (fig. 2) in order to find the exact sound I wanted in regards to the instruments, then added those into the patch, so that each key 1 through 8 would trigger a different effect, which was displayed next to it. This piece explores the idea of mixing real time electronics with acoustic instruments.

            Conceptually, this piece is one that is loaded with the themes of conflict and ambiguity, on many different levels. Firstly, the instrumentation chosen for this piece, of two string quartets, as opposed to scoring it for a string octet, as discussed in the introduction (Chapter 1), shows the nature of the conflict between the unaffected "pure" string quartet, and the quartet being manipulated electronically in real time. These two quartets play similar material, but are battling for prominence against each other, even though often playing similar material. This adds the notion of ambiguity into the piece, the blurring of whom is playing what at times, the boundaries of each quartet not clearly defined, and merging into one another. Although the quartets are still battling for prominence, the individual instruments working together within their own quartet, and against those of the other quartet, this distinction becomes lured with the nature of the musical material. The first movement begins with a quiet, slow, expressive theme, followed by slow, high chordal figures in both of the quartets. As this progresses, there abruptly comes a loud figure, rudely interrupting the slow chords. It is three times the speed of the opening, comprising of short double-stopping chords, and loud, roughly placed and roughly played notes, which is processed in the affected quartet with distortion. This conflicts with the slow figures which are marked expressive, as the players are told to play as nastily as possible, with no regard for tuning or tone, just to play as loud and as harshly as they can, during this short, unexpected interruption. The slow figure then returns, picking up in the middle of the phrase being played, when the loud interruption occurred. The reaction from the listener is normally one of shock, and surprise at this interruption, cutting through the slow, sonorous chords, before leaving as quickly as it arrived. The slow, building chord theme develops into a slightly faster section, containing a little more movement. In this section, the violins and violas, of both quartets are playing rising chords, each moving on a different beat of the bar. The cellos play long notes, coupled with a triplet figure, playing against one another. This section is a good example of how the individual instruments of the two quartets battle against one another, but with the result being one of ambiguity, and the blurring of which quartet is playing which material. Suddenly, again, the fast, distorted section appears from nowhere, for a one bar reprise. This sudden change from slow and quiet to fast and furious is one of the major motifs throughout both the first and third movements of this piece, and is one of major indications of the conflict concept within this work, through musical material. The movement then goes back into rising chord motif, after this brief, sudden interlude. A repeat of the opening theme of the piece comes next, but this time, although the "question and answer" effect between the two quartets is in play here, they interrupt each other, whilst each playing the theme, overlapping each otherís start and end notes. All parts eventually end up holding the c major chord, however. This marks the move into a section with a different, more playful feel than that of the beginning of this movement. There is a melody made up of each of the first violin parts providing fragments of it, flitting this tune back and forth between the two instruments, each playing part, but needing both parts played together, to hear the melody in itís entirety. The other parts accompany this melody, with each instrument working with their same instrument in the other quartet (as violin 1 in the affected quartet works with violin 1 of the completely acoustic quartet, it is so true for the other instruments). The second violins play short rhythmic features, whilst the violas and cellos play occasional double-stopped crunching chords, as found in the loud, fast, harsh sections of the whole piece. This brings the ambiguity of the writing more to the forefront, as instead of conflicting here, the quartets are working together, and it is often times hard to tell if it is one violin or two playing the melody. Throughout this section, the lead is handed around the various instruments of the quartet, first to the unaffected viola, then the two cellos intercept with a brief reprise of the opening theme, before an extended section of the distorted feature leads back into violin melody, this time playing against the viola tune. During this last segment of the movement, all the different sections and ideas that have been explored so far are thrown in together, with the music jumping from one section or idea to the next, with no warning. This again fits in with the concept of conflict, as each section of musical material is fighting for prominence, each idea interrupting the other. Finally, it is the fast, loud, crunching double stopped section that seemingly achieves this, as it crashes towards the end, only to be stopped in it's tracks by a very quiet held chord, in fact it is the very opening chord of the whole movement. This chord now also ends the piece, fading away quietly, a moment of calm after the hectic section before it.

            Within the second movement the nature of the conflict differs. To begin with, the instrumentation varies, as the only instruments used in this movement are the first violin and cello from the affected quartet. It is the musical ideas within this movement that are confrontational, with the two parts, the musical material of the violin and cello, battling against each other. In the beginning, the two parts trill very closely together, at the interval of a minor second apart, which is affected by an oscillator. This then gives way to the violin playing a short spiky rhythmic figure, contrasting with the celloís vaguely pitched, smooth glissandos. The two instruments come together after this, for a reprise of the trilled theme, followed by the musical material switching instruments, with the cello now playing in a short, spiky style, and the violin taking the smooth, glissando material. Towards the end of the movement the conflict is resolved and the two parts come together, both first playing the glissading material, then the rhythmic material together. The movement ends as it began with the close trilling theme.

Conclusion :

            Within this commentary on the music presented for this masters submission, I have explained my attitudes and ideas about the music I create, and shown the common themes that bind the music together, that of the relationship between acoustic instruments and electronics, and the conceptual themes of conflict and ambiguity within the works submitted. Also discussed are my attitudes towards music, how I believe in music as an emotional expression tool, of both mine and the listeners, how I wish for my work to also contain intelligent thought behind the purely aesthetic, and how this relates to the compositions presented here. Within all the works, there is a level of aesthetic beauty, of emotional writing and expression, as well as intelligent ideas and concepts, and it is this combination, I believe, that creates great works of art.

Fig. 1 - MAX patch for angry concrete (1999 - 2001). To activate the patch, press the mic button at the top of the patch. To load the vst plug ins, press "plug" on the "vst" object, select the vst plug in you require, then press plug again, and scroll down the menu to "open". This will open up the plug in with preset properties (as found out by using Fig. 2, the test patch). Once all the vst plug ins are loaded, and the patch activated, pressing any number from 1 through 0 to load up an effect (9 being no effect and 0 will stop sound from going through the patch), then press the space bar to activate, thus manipulating the sound of the instruments going through the patch.

Figure 2 :

Fig. 2 - VST test patch for angry concrete (1999 - 2001) . To load a sound sample into the system, press "read" on the buffer object, and choose the sound source you require. The amount of time the sample will play for is stated in the buffer object (in this case 8000 = 8 seconds). To add the VST plug in(s) to see how the sound if effected, press plug on the vst object, and pick which VST plug in you wish to use. The sound will play when the speaker button at the bottom of the screen, playing the sound sample through the VST(s), as well as the sample unaffected. The "groove" object loops the sample.

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