Organizing a Sound Design Music & Symbols Organizing a Sound Design

Your Responses… Name at least 3 elements of music: Dynamics, Rhythm, Harmony, Pitch, Tone, Intonation, Blend/Balance, Tempo, Pitch, Timbre, Dynamic, Texture, and Rhythm, Form What does music notation aim to do? Help understand the fundamentals of creating music, make music legible internationally, Signify different styles/sounds, write down musical ideas, describe to musician how to play, convey how to create a story/setting through noise, gives guidance on how to play, symbolize music, guide musicians to what was originally intended by composer, To Communicate and Preserve Music

Your Responses… Is our current western-traditional system of notation the only way to symbolize music? No, absolutely not! Middle-eastern quarter tone scales, other systems in the East, synthesizers, 8-bit sound reproducers, yes, No. What are some flaws/weaknesses in our current system? Too many terms, overwhelming key signatures, ledger lines, limits expression, forces 12 pitches out of many, swung notes, strict, music is always a linear experience, emotion can be more difficult to convey through standard text markings, music can’t always be written out (has to be “felt” sometimes), double sharps/flats, it doesn’t show much about the music, hard for beginner’s to learn We don’t utilize shapes, colors, or sizes to their fullest extent & I agree with above.

Your Responses… Who are some notable composers that bend or altogether break use of the traditional system of notation? John Cage, Phillip Glass, John Mackey, Bach, Handel, Persichetti, Terry Riley, Casey Cangelosi, John Cage, Iannis Xenakis, Mark Applebaum, Thierry de Mey, John Mackey, What is a graphic score? A representation of music through visuals/symbols outside the realm of traditional notation

Your Responses… A surge in non-traditional notation has arisen with advancements in technology, what is one reason these might be related? Technology bridges the gap between non-traditional notation – different to play, computers are being used to make music, new ways to signify, Technology opens new ways to record/make music, computers use new notations that weren’t possible before, New tech. – new instr. – new instr. Specific notation = easier to be non-traditional, Music has married technology; new means of producing/performing = new symbols for those experiences. Is music notation a “finished” product or is it evolving? Evolving, Ghost Train is an example, room to evolve – like any art form. Evolving

Is This Music? Bolero by Ravel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJRE1y5uxOM In C by Terry Riley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJPJywWfyGo&t=4 33s Musique de Tables by Thierry De Mey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgZW9cwwl_o 4’33” by John Cage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTEFKFiXSx4&t=3 98s Pendulum Music by Steve Reich https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU6qDeJPT-w Ghost Train by Eric Whitacre

What is Music? Simply, music is organized sound. It does not need to be exactly reproducible – there are improvisations, undetermined repeats, and personal artistic choices. However, there is always something “framing” these sounds. Cage’s 4’33” is one such piece that will never be the same, due to environmental and audience interference, but is framed by a performer initiating a movement, transitioning to others, and ending the piece without any intended sounds. Music serves to heighten our physical and emotional responses to the world around us. Whether the composer desires to inflict these responses or reserve the audience to consider the natural sounds around them (affected by culture/environment/human nature) is, ultimately, artistic choice. How CAN we organize sound onto paper?

What Does It Look Like? Experience Icon Label Musical Notation Sounds = Visual icons Elements of Sound - pitch, timbre, dynamic, texture, rhythm Elements of Notation – size, shape, color, and location How did we arrive at these icons? Experience Icon Label

Currently…

Create your own! Experience Icon Label Listen to segments of Ravel’s Bolero Draw your own icons as you listen/respond to the music. Remember the Elements of Sound - pitch, timbre, dynamic, texture, rhythm Elements of Notation – size, shape, color, and location Experience Icon Label

Day 2: Experimental Music A Counter-Culture A musical score is a logical construct inserted into the mess of potential sounds that permeate this planet and its atmosphere – Cornelius Cardew

The New York School of Composers Centered around John Cage; Morton Feldman, Earle Brown, and Christian Wolff. The liberation of sounds "Let sounds be themselves rather than vehicles for man-made theories or expressions."  - John Cage

Non-Traditional Scores Common Features: Indeterminacy (3 aspects) Removes Composer’s Subjectivity Highlights Performer’s musical ability and background A musical score is a logical construct inserted into the mess of potential sounds that permeate this planet and its atmosphere." - Cornelius Cardew, Treatise Handbook, p.vii col. 2 pp.5

Indeterminacy at the level of Composition Chance operations to produce a fixed score. Ex. John Cage’s Music of Changes (1951) Used coin tosses to receive values Those values were mapped to different elements of music i.e. duration, texture, etc.

Indeterminacy at the level of Performance Open form Ex. Terry Riley’s In C (1968) 53 fixed musical patterns that performers enter, repeat, and transition through at will.

Also… Steve Reich’s “Pendulum Music”

Indeterminacy at the level of Notation Abstract visuals that the performer interprets into sound Ex. Cardew’s Treatise, (1963-1967) a 193 pg. graphic score "It should be pointed out that none of Cardew's works ever gave total freedom to the performer. The instructions were a guide which focused each individual's creative instinct on a problem to be solved - how to interpret a particular system of notation using one's own musical background and attitudes. " - John Tilbury

Try it Out! O.P.T.I.O.N.S. In Groups of 5 - Decide which level of indeterminacy this is Use your musical abilities and backgrounds to interpret the score. (Especially consider how you will start and end your performance) This lends new thought to the saying, “shape the phrase.” -Mr. Vereb, 3/30/17

Day 3: Experimental to technological

What was Experimental music Challenged our understanding of music by asking what is silence, Explored sounds as sounds; before you could place a symbol, image, or event with it. “A composer who hears sounds will try to find notation for sounds. One who has ideas will find one that expresses his ideas, leaving their interpretation free, in confidence that his ideas have been accurately and concisely notated.” – Cornelius Cardew The instrument as total configuration, a sound source Cage’s use of prepared piano Grandmaster Flash?

Continued Experimental Composers…are more excited by the prospect of outlining a situation in which sounds may occur, a process of generating action (sound or otherwise), a field delineated by certain compositional ‘rules.’ – Michael Nyman “Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond” pg. 4 Time is crucial, it is the “organization” of organized sound

How is experimental music evident today? My bias as a percussionist… Swerve by Gene Koshinski https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTC68YRgUQ4

How is Experimental Music Evident Today? Aphasia by Mark Applebaum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWt1qh67EnA Loss of ability to understand and express sounds

How is experimental music evident today? Ghost Train by Eric Whitacre uses indeterminacy to establish a SITUATION for sound to occur