« January 2007 | Main | March 2007 »
Here's a new version of my bounce game. I used Eric's Slingers Game as a template which explains the simarities. There's still one small glitch, but the game runs fine.
Click below for game prototype:
Bounce Ball
Click below for Flash and ActionScript files:
Files
There are many examples of representations of non-musical sounds finding their way into classical music. Perhaps, the most famous example is that of the thunderstorm in the Fourth Movement of Ludwig von Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony named the “Pastoral.” [PLAY 6TH SYMPONY EXCERPT] Notice how the loud crashes of the orchestra seem to replicate the crash of thunder while the drums also seem to simulate the rumbling of the thunder. Storms were in fact one of the most popular examples of non-musical sounds used in 19th century classical music. They can be found in Rossini’s “William Tell Overture”, Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique” and Musorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain.” And indeed there are other sounds from nature that can be found in other pieces. Both Mendelsohn, in his “Scottish Symphony,” and Wagner in his “Flying Dutchman Overture” orchestrated sounds that are very reminiscent of tides rising and falling on seashores.
Of course these examples all come from nature, which was definitely a good source of material from this time period as the industrial revolution was just about to start and the machines that would later influence the music of 20th century composers had yet to be built. However, it is my belief that composers from the 18th and 19th centuries were also influenced by sounds that were even closer to home, so to speak. After listening to classical music for most of my life, I believe I have found examples of composers who were influenced by human sounds
The first two examples I would like to play are by Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. These two were contemporaries and they composed their music at the end of the 19th century. However, Haydn, a truly prodigious composer, is known as the father of the modern symphony. Here’s an example from his Symphony No. 101. Listen towards the end of this excerpt for a short section where the strings oscillate back and forth between low and high notes [PLAY HAYDN 101]. This oscillation is much easier to hear in this next example from Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 [PLAY MOZART 41].
So what do these short sections of music represent? It is my belief that both composers are imitating the sound of breathing. The high notes are the inhales and the low notes are the exhales. The fact that in both examples this particular sequence of notes is repeated several times lends support to the theory. In addition, there are also examples of music by 20th century composers, such as Benjamin Britten, who uses something called a “breathing motif,” so the possibility that earlier composers did the same thing may not be unfounded. Listen again to the Mozart and see if you can hear the breathing in the music when that section comes up [PLAY MOZART 41].
Now Mozart was no stranger to using human sounds in his compositions. Here is a much more famous example from Mozart’s Requiem. However, this time the example is not of breathing but of sobbing. [PLAY MOZART REQUIEM]. This composition, which is believed to be the last piece of music Mozart ever composed, has been studied closely for a long time. Many musicologists and musicians have described the sounds coming from the strings as sobbing. The reason why they may be correct is because the name of this particular movement from the Requiem is “Lacrimosa,” which means tears in Latin.
Moving ahead, we now return to Beethoven. He came right after Haydn and Mozart and in fact Haydn was one of his teachers. His two predecessors heavily influenced him. However, once Beethoven had learned the forms and styles of his day, he went about transforming them in some rather ingenious ways. Nevertheless, one can still find many examples of “breathing” in his music. Here’s one example from Beethoven’s 3rd Piano Concerto [PLAY BEETHOVEN 3RD]. The breathing, if that’s what it is, is remarkably clear and can also be found in many other pieces by Beethoven such as his 2nd and 4th Symphonies and his 19th Piano Sonata.
But are these really examples of breathing? Couldn’t they simply be examples of a popular musical device of that time? The answer to the second question is of course yes. Perhaps, these sounds are merely coincidences. Or perhaps, these composers were just unknowingly influenced by the sound of breathing. The truth is we’ll never know for sure. As far as I know there are no written records explaining these particular musical devices and we can’t simply call up Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven and ask them. However, the real reason why I think this hypothesis may be correct is because it is part of a larger one that I have regarding classical music. I believe that there are strong connections between the sound of speech and classical music. I cannot prove that yet, but it is definitely something I want to explore further. All I have to go on now are examples like the ones I’ve just presented and a gut intuition that I’m on to something.
Before I end my presentation, though, I would like to play one last example of breathing [PLAY TRIO SONATA]. This time I can tell you exactly what was going through this composer’s mind when he composed this piece. As it was, this composer wasn’t thinking about breathing when he put down these notes, he was in fact, just using them as a musical device. How do I know that for certain? Well, this piece is called the Trio Sonata in B minor for Flute, Cello and Piano and I am the composer. Thank you.
For this assignment I tried taking the sound of noise and using it creatively to produce different kinds of sounds that are apparently similiar to noise.
Steam Engines:
First Steam Engine
Better Steam Engine
Steam-Accelerator
Motor Noise
Seashores using Peter's noise mod patch:
Messing with WAV files:
For this assignment I used my field recordings and passed them through several of the filter patches, which I then modified.
Bang Warped
Bus Warped
Bang Warped
Honk Down
Motor Warped
Squeak Echo
Watersteps
Mechanical Echo
Mechanical Watersteps
Second Mechanical Watersteps
For the Key patch, I again used one of my field recordings and manipulated it using the keys on my keyboard.
First attempt at MAX/MSP.
Accelerator
Beeping
Electric Wind
Electronic Chopper
Flat Pulse
UFO
The idea for my Midterm Project came from Dan’s Forces example on his website. In that example, an object falls through a horizontal region of the screen that is of a lighter shade than the rest. While there, the object reacts to a new force, which is labeled as water, and slows down. The whole point of this example is to show how an object can respond to different forces depending on its location. I took that example and altered it so that the “shaded” region was vertical and the object was moving horizontally. Now when the object entered that region it moved upward as if something was counteracting the force of gravity.
I would now like to use this new upward force in a simulation and/or game of kite flying, which I developed in the second week of class. The user and/or player will now be in control of the person who his holding the rope that is tethered to the kite. The kite is flying above the ground and is in interacting with four separate forces. Gravity is pulling the kite down. Wind is blowing the kite from left to right. And finally there are two separate forces for an updraft that is pushing the kite higher. One smaller updraft is randomly moving back and forth across the screen, buffeting the kite and realistically nudging it upward. The other updraft is a stronger column that really propels the kite higher when it gets caught inside. This column is also placed randomly on the screen but unlike the other updrafts, it does not change positions after the start of the simulation.
There is a lot of potential with this code. Each force can easily be calibrated to adjust the kite’s behavior and make it act more realistically. In addition, new forces can be added. As a game, it would be very interesting to have random objects such as planes, helicopters or even a thunderstorm (rain falling from it through particle generation, perhaps?) pass through the screen. Each object could exert a new type of force on the kite such as a jet wash or a downdraft. The player could also exert a force by pressing the mouse button to try to pull the kite down. For the Midterm, however, I will just keep the kite flying as a simulation.
Game Space - Push Ball
Target is now smaller and protected. Only a bounce shot can hit it.
J = Move Pusher and Ball Left
K = Move Pusher and Ball Right
Spacebar = Pushes Ball
Core Mechanic - Push Ball at Target
J = Move Pusher and Ball Left
K = Move Pusher and Ball Right
Spacebar = Pushes Ball
The readings for this week (Cage and Russolo) opened up a can of worms for me. I could write several long essays (I wrote one several years ago) about the topics these two raised but I’ll try to keep it short for this assignment. Both readings are reflections on the crisis in music, particularly Classical Music, at the start of the 20th Century. Coming out of the Romantic Period, composers of that time were very uncertain what to do. Many composers and musicologists believed that all of the great music had been composed already. In response, composers tried to create a whole host of new styles and genres for their music. Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky are two of the main examples of this period and their music went in opposite directions.
Russolo is also a good example as the Art of Noises was written in 1913. His take on the crisis was to look to noise as the answer. Cage came a little later and by that time the crisis and the resulting controversies about what was proper music were already in full bloom. Cage tried many different strategies including noise and silence. The question, however, still remains: can one consider the methods these two men pursued (or in Russolo’s case, what he wanted others to pursue) real music? Or is it something else? This debate has now raged for a century and it even consumed the life of poor Arnold Schoenberg, the father of atonal (a poor word, actually) music.
My take on this actually has to do with a question I have been pursuing for many years. In fact, this question is one of the things that led me to ITP. My question is this: what is it about music, good music in particular, that can cause an emotional response in a person? Music, after all, is just sound. How can these sounds, however simple or complex, make a person feel something? Russolo seems to believe that noise can accomplish this feat, but I am not so convinced. One of Russolo’s most interesting points is that before the industrial age, humans lived in a relatively quiet space. His belief that noise can be exciting and emotionally stimulating is probably just a result of the fact that he hadn’t experienced the cacophony of sounds that we live in today. For him, it was simply something new.
Having just undertaken a close examination of sound with my field recordings, I will say now that noise can certainly be interesting. But I do not believe it is interesting enough to cause an emotional reaction. Another reason why I believe this is fact is that I have a strong suspicion that music, particularly good music, is strongly related to the sound of human speech. Certain genres of music make this clear but I wouldn’t be surprised if almost all genres in some way exhibit this relationship. This might be the answer to my question, but I will need to make more studies of sound, speech and music to be sure.
A note on my field recordings.
I tried to just focus on capturing sounds and making them sound interesting. However, very quickly the musician in me came out and several of my little recordings seem to sound like unusual percussion instruments creating fascinating rhythms.
Back and Forth
Bang Step
Fake Hammer
Honk - Beep
Motorbang
Sqeak-Beep
Water Clicks
Water Steps