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The General Process
Let us further establish a basis for communication by stipulating some terminology. I have long abandoned contemporary classical views on musical composition. So for example, no longer do I think in terms of notes but instead in terms of events, algorithmic events, and their output, to be specific. Also, instead of melody, harmony, key signatures, scales and etc., I think in terms of frequency relationships. Actually, beats, time signatures and other rhythmic structures fall under the umbrella of frequency relationships as well. Thank you to Mr. Stockhausen for pointing that out some 57 years ago. And for me, counterpoint refers to the wide scope of parametric counterpoint, which is the interaction of the parameters used to create and manipulate events. I compose using Csound, a programming language for creating music, and find it perfectly suited to my compositional sensibilities. For this project I used only a single Csound instrument; one that I have been expanding and refining for nearly 15 years. (A detailed description of the instrument is provided later in this paper.) It is a sample playback instrument that implements 19 pfields and provides a very wide degree of variance with regard to the original base sample. With that in mind, let’s listen to the second movement of Emergence. It uses the exact same four base samples as the first movement. In the beginning one can hear the similarities but as the piece progresses it would be difficult to discern the source of the sounds as being the same. The premise being that the sounds in the second movement are related to those in the first to provide continuity yet they are different enough to sustain interest. |
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Emergence - 2nd Movement *
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Dedicated to the Advancement of Human Consciousness