Both when forming the spectral harmonies and during the chopping up of the improvisation, there was something I realized about the sound worlds being created that I felt important to mention. Both the ‘sound effects’ and the ‘music’ had a similar aesthetic effect. This is particularly true of the improvisation samples, which could easily be perceived as sound effects, and the spectral chords, half of which where based on a few of the sound effects.

This lead me to a conclusion, that sound design and composition in this context aren’t necessarily separate mediums, but exist in the same medium of sound. The main distinction between sound design and composition is how we get towards the sounds. Sound designers have more of an expertise  effects via sampling, electronic manipulation, recording foley, etc, with a main focus on the use of digital technology. Whilst as a composer (in this context) my main  Arguably these ideas are echoed in spectral composition philosophy where timbre and harmony are considered to be one in the same (Harvey, 2000)*.

*this is true here, where the sound design, is much dealing with different kinds of sound, and I mainly am dealing with different kinds of harmony, thought timbre is considered in my work a lot (orchestration, instrumentation, extended techniques, etc.) and harmony is thought to some respects in sound (i.e frequency manipulation, white/pink noise, etc.)

Harvey, J. (2000) Spectralism. Contemporary music review. 19 (3), p. 11–14.

Apr 3, 2024

There was another problem I had do deal with from the ‘chaotic section’. that being that it was only a single track, not a series of sounds, that can then be manipulated in an interactive context. So, for this section, I picked out a few points of interest. This involved separating many points, including:
-micropolyphonic textures (7) a kind of texture where a bunch of complex lines within a small register create a single atmospheric wash (Drott, 2011).
-The high whistles (2) which may have been created via overtone singing. This is a style of singing, common in Tuva (Bergevin et al, 2020) and Mongolia (Wu, 2019) , involves the enhancing the volumes of the overtones when signing, creating more than one pitch from a single voice (Sundberg et al. 2023).
-distorted noise (4)
-a continuous echoing of avant-garde vocal bends (5)

This is just to name a few. Here are all sounds, ordered from 1-8.

These sounds where aesthetically very similar to many sound effects that formed. This is continued to spark a philosophical idea mentioned in previously in the blog on the construction of new spectral chords, and will be expanded on in the next blog entry.



Reference list
Bergevin, C. Narayan, C. Williams, J. Mhatre, N. Steeves, J. Bernstein, J. and Story, B. (2020) Overtone focusing in biphonic Tuvan throat singing. eLife. 9.
Drott, E (2011). Lines, Masses, Micropolyphony: Ligeti’s Kyrie and the ‘Crisis of the Figure’. Perspectives of New Music, 49(1), pp.4–46.
Sundberg, J. Lindblom, B. and Hefele, AH. (2023) Voice source, formant frequencies and vocal tract shape in overtone singing. A case study. Logopedics, phoniatrics, vocology. [Online] 48 (2), 75–87.
Wu, S. (2019). To share or not to share: contested heritage in Inner Mongolia, China —A case of overtone singing (khoomei). International Journal of Heritage Studies, 26(3), pp.267–280.

Apr 2, 2024

When constructing the spectral chords previously referenced in submission 1, and in the previous blog, I created two harmonies aesthetically distinct from the rest of the content. These harmonies where diatonic, and in some ways more ‘consonant’ than the rest of the chords. I felt that these harmonies created a peaceful and ambient harmonic wash.

   

I felt these stuck out too much within the ‘sea/ocean’ section. However, they did fit well as a basis for the consonant section. I then formed 2 ‘fused chords’ which stuck together different aspects of each chord, and attached them together to derive more diatonic harmonies.

These has been applied to multiple different timbres used throughout the instillation, to give further coherence and connection throughout. 

Apr 2, 2024

When looking back, I felt that the idea of using mirror harmony might be throwing in too many concepts into the pot for representing the ocean. So for the rest of the sea-like chords, I chose to structure similarly through spectral analysis. However, unlike the ‘whalesong chords’, I instead analyzed some of Yuan Mei’s ‘sea creature’ sound effects. This gave more coherence to the sound world, and would ultimately lead to a philosophical realization that I felt important to acknowledge in a collaborative sound art instillation*, particularly ones that involve collaboration between composers and sound designers.

Here are the new sea creature chords.

 

*being used broadly to mean any art instillation involving sound.

Apr 2, 2024

For the layer representing the fear of unknown, I constructed four chords, each built from slightly different microtonal clusters.


Quarter-tones are outwith the 12-tone equal temperament tuning system that is used in most western music (Wood, 1986), and therefore can have an ‘unknown quality’ to them.

The timbres applied to the harmony are that of the voice, re-sampled and de-tuned, creating an ‘uncanny valley’ like-timbre, which is seemingly trying to imitate the human voice, but is clearly digitally manipulated. This fits as it is a sound that is unclear, and unknown in it’s origin.

here are the chords 1-4 with that timbre.

The other timbre is based around sampled tubular bells. Another breakaway from the sounds of the tubular bells due to breaking away from 12TET.
Here are chords 1-4 based around that timbre.

References
Wood, J. (1986). Microtonality: Aesthetics and Practicality. The Musical Times, 127 (1719), pp. 328–330.

Apr 2, 2024