9 - Minimalism 1

Minimalism - Steve Reich

This weeks composition was based on the works of Steve Reich. The guidelines were as follows:

• Create a modal pattern using quavers in 12/8.
• Build up texture and harmony using canonic "phase shifting".
• Use substitution: rests for beats and vice versa.
• Try and experiment with dynamics to accentuate rhythmic interplay.
• Homophonic instrumental texture.
• Produce a 'B' section using another mode.
• No bass line or downbeat.
• Try and keep it under 5 minutes long.

Research

Steve Reich's Piano Phase piece uses two pianos that play at very slightly different tempos. The result is that, as time progresses, the parts drift out of time with each other and a phasing effect occurs, which ends up boosting the levels of certain notes whilst dropping the level of other. It also has the effect of adding notes between notes (due to the time lag) and allows the piece to progress and change over time even though it is the same pattern being repeated.

Choice of sound

Within NI's Logic I chose simple and harsh sounds. As a portrayal of my contempt towards minimalism I had decided to make this composition as uncomfortable for the listener as possible. I chose a trumpet for the "A" section and a violin stab as the "B" section.

"A" Section plugin

"B" Section Plugin

To further add to the uncomfortable feel of the composition I opted to have the first section in C-Major and the second section in C#-Minor. When these parts overlay the piece becomes extremely tense.

"A" Section tonerow

"B" Section tonerow

Phase Shifting

The method of replicating Steve Reich's phase shifting technique was rather simple within Pro-Tools. The Time Compression/Expansion audio suite plugin allowed for this to be performed easily. The looped clip was stretched at a ratio of 1.009:1. This was repeated multiple times to create multiple tracks that were stretched progressively. 

ProTools Time Compression/Expansion plugin in use

Other elements

Since I had 6 version of each part I decided to pan them progressively from left to right. This gave the effect of the piece sweeping across the stereo image as the piece moves along. This panning also begins to create a chaotic bouncing effect as the piece move more and more out of phase, adding to the discomfort of the listener.

Panning of "A" Section

One point I had released was that by the time the "B" section had fully settled in the piece was not as uncomfortable as it was at the beginning. To counteract this I decided to bring in a rather horrifying noise akin to an explosion filled with feedback. To do this I used samples of an explosion mixed with a most ear-piercing noise that I had discovered within Massive.

"Ear Piercing Noise" from Massive

I fed the noise from this into a feedback loop with a pitch shifter built into it and an excessive reverb.I actually liked the noise that the tail of this reverb made so much that I decided to let it fade out for a whole 90 seconds. I found this to be the most interesting part of the piece in regards to it's sonic qualities as you almost start to hear aural hallucinations as you listen to it fade out.

Phase Invariance In The Dilithium Matrix

The term "phase" often makes me think of the phasers in Star Trek. A running theme within Star Trek is that if there's an issue with the ship it's usually with the dilithium matrix. This is how i came up with the name.

8 - Text-Sound Composition

Text-Sound Composition

This week's composition is based on my personal favourite of the Avant Garde artists - Karlheinz Stockhausen.

The guidelines were:

• Chose a text
• record it
• produce a piece using only the recorded text as the sonic material
• no samples
• text must be intelligible
• The nature of the piece must reflect the meaning in the text

Gesang der Jünglinge as an influence.

The piece is based around the concepts of Stockhausen's Gesang Der Junglinge. 

"In Gesang, Stockhausen has used eleven of the verses sung by the youths, presented in a far from straightforward setting. Much is swallowed up in the roar of Stockhausen’s electronic fire, but the opening words of each verse, “Preiset den Herrn” (“Praise ye the Lord”), can be heard recurring throughout the composition as a kind of refrain and, on a less audible level, as an element that unifies sections" (Smalley, J. 2000)

"Because comprehension of Gesang’s text, at least at certain times, is important for the meaning of the piece to be grasped, Stockhausen attempts to control this aspect as well. To this end, he developed a qualitative scale of comprehensibility, ranging from 1 (incomprehensible) to 7 ( the most comprehensible). Although these values are also subjected to permutations (the first minute of Gesang’s music cycles through all seven degrees), there is at least one time in the piece where the words are presented clearly in their original order" (Smalley, J. 2000)

Choice of text

I had spent a while trying out a few different pieces of text to use as the source. I had toyed with excerpts from William Shakespeare's "Macbeth", Edgar Allen Poe's "The Black Cat" and Bret Easton Eliis' "American Psycho". These all had a dark feel to them but I was struggling with interpreting their texts into suitable sounds. I eventually opted to use an excerpt from the "Bill Nye / Ken Ham" debate from February 2014. The part i chose was where Bill Nye describes the discovery of the echoes of the Big Bang.

Warping choice piece of text

I decided to leave the beginning of the text as it was. I eventually only modified two words out of the entire excerpt. The words in question were "hiss" and "bang".

The word "hiss" was put into Cecilia and stretch to evolve into white noise that would filter over time to add a long progression to the piece.

The word "Bang" was put into Soundgrain to add a looping, rumbling and undulating noise. I originally tried to recreate something along the lines of the "Croupier: Messieurs, Dames, rien ne va plus!" section from Karlheinz Stockhausen's Hymnen Region IV but Soundgrain did not prove powerful enough to be able to create the amount of layers required (and time constraints prevented me from being able to work on that single sound for the same length of time the Stockhausen was able to).

The final sound at the end of the piece is a variation of the Soundgrain modifications to the world "Bang".

Snapshot of "hiss" within Cecilia

Snapshot of "bang" within Soundgrain

The rest of the recorded text was overlaid on top of the newly added sounds. Certain words and phrases would trigger other sounds to start, such as "there was this echo" triggering the undulating noise.

Big Bang

The piece is named "Big Bang" for reasons that should be obviously apparent when listening to the piece.

References

Smalley, J, 2000. Gesang der Jünglinge: History and Analysis. USA: Columbia University.