MEDITATION 2
MEDITATION TWO
The Task: The Seven Bridges of Königsberg, in addition to being a very famous problem in graph theory, can be thought of as a type of probability table for score creation. If we presume a musical vocabulary of four events (corresponding to the west island, the north bank, the east island, and the south bank), we can create a Markov process based on the possibilities of moving from one part of the map to another. For example, from the east island we have an equal chance of travelling to the west island or either bank; from the west island, however, we are twice as likely to travel to the north or south bank than we are to the east island (i.e. there are two bridges to each bank but only one bridge between the islands). Furthermore, we could restrict the motion in our score to include randomness without repetition (i.e. you can only cross bridges that you haven't just crossed).
Using this problem as an inspiration, create a musical sketch based on four sounds representing the locales (the two islands and the two banks) and seven sounds representing the bridges. Construct a piece such that guides the listener on a walking tour through the city (which may or may not sound anything like a real city, or even a real space), attempting to solve the problem of the seven bridges. In other words, create a musical structure such that your path follows the topography of the city in such a way that you move in a semi-random path across the bridges, the only requirement being that you don't double-back on yourself immediately.
You can generate the score by hand or through a computer algorithm like the one we did in class this week for defining Markov chains. Bring in what you came up with (both the score (paper or code) and the resulting sound) and we'll check it out!
And here is my Meditation 2 done in CSound!
The score is as follows:
C2B1A3B4C7D5B5D6A
where A, B, C, D = LANDS (using sounds like walking, people, traffic, seagulls.
and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 = BRIDGES (using sounds of means of transportation such as trains, buses, elevators, scooters, bikes, planes, etc.)
There was one score I made that involved swimming across one of the river sides that didn't seem to have a bridge, but someone thought it would be cheating...