exercises-ifrench.pdf |
overview.
Aside from the whole "having to submit something to get graded on", this collection of small pieces and games were inspired particularly by zine culture and a game designer called Grant Howitt.
Zines are, for the uninitiated, an independantly published booklet, often compromising of small pieces of writing and art under similar theme, and are often circulated in local underground scenes throughout the world, although through the aid of the internet, it's becoming more and more a global phenomena.
On the other hand, Grant Howitt is a tabletop roleplaying game designer (think Dungeons and Dragons, but indie), who's become known for his iconic "single-page games", where the entirety of the game (rules, character sheet, possible plot) can all be fit on an A4 page.
Though not particularly musical in the material, these two things definitely inspired the whole "feel" of this specific collection, added with my somewhat absurdist/postmodernist ideology that is in most (if not all) of the work I have created within the last year or so.
Zines are, for the uninitiated, an independantly published booklet, often compromising of small pieces of writing and art under similar theme, and are often circulated in local underground scenes throughout the world, although through the aid of the internet, it's becoming more and more a global phenomena.
On the other hand, Grant Howitt is a tabletop roleplaying game designer (think Dungeons and Dragons, but indie), who's become known for his iconic "single-page games", where the entirety of the game (rules, character sheet, possible plot) can all be fit on an A4 page.
Though not particularly musical in the material, these two things definitely inspired the whole "feel" of this specific collection, added with my somewhat absurdist/postmodernist ideology that is in most (if not all) of the work I have created within the last year or so.
no 1: oh five-legged horse, whisk me away.
Throughout the semester, I have become rapidly obsessed with minimalism, including Glass, Riley, Reich, Cage and Eastman. This exercise is aimed at applying principles of Steve Reich (phasing and repetition without difference in harmony) with the "sound" of Philip Glass (pensive piano). It was an experiment the repetition and how it legitimises "strange" meter (which is to say, not common to western music). When writing it, I though of a horse of five legs, galloping in an incomprehensible way.
It was interesting learning to play this piece for the recording below as well, because there haven't been a lot of times where I need to play like a machine, and I felt (through hours of repetition) almost automated to do it, which was cool.
It was interesting learning to play this piece for the recording below as well, because there haven't been a lot of times where I need to play like a machine, and I felt (through hours of repetition) almost automated to do it, which was cool.
no 2: ultimate guitar dot com.
I think ultimate-guitar.com is an interesting and useful tool when used correctly. For me, it's come in handy when I want to figure out a particular song, whether that be for leisure or arrangement. I also enjoy using the sire because the foundation of my piano practice was spent in front of a Fake Book (like a Real Book, but was originally made for radio), so it makes sense most of the time. There are, however faults within the system, and all of which I point out, whether lyrically or musically. The chord length is rarely defined throughout the website, and I thought it'd be interesting to play with that idea. The lyrics mean nothing of substance, it tells the tale of a person who has become stoic to the world, only encapsulated by a website.
Though it has a different conception and tale for creation, the result does sound like Perth artist Nate Wood, who I watched a week or so prior to writing this exercise.
Though it has a different conception and tale for creation, the result does sound like Perth artist Nate Wood, who I watched a week or so prior to writing this exercise.
no 3: my splash cymbal weeps acidic tears.
This was the first piece I wrote for this collection, and probably has the least thought put into the concept. It's the classic postmodern tale of "what if this instrument and this instrument combined/what if I played this instrument incorrectly" without any concept or thought put into the reason. However, it does kinda sound cool, and the concept of a traditional staff depicting sort of time linear is interesting, though I think just squiggles on a page would be a better suit. The presence of a staff automatically creates the axis of time, and it is very hard to get rid of that preconception.
no 4: panama.
The choice of the word "panama" was chosen entirely because of the similar vowels between the consonants, making it a little hard to pronounce over and over again at speed, and I only think I know about the Panama Canal from the jazz standard. However, I do think it's a fairly fun and interesting thing to talk faster than you can comprehend, and having the length determined by a more human factor than the traditional double barline or stopwatch is fun, and delves into my recent-love to purely improvised music.
no 5: for the table @ the backlot.
It isn't particularly clear in the presentation of this exercise in the zine, but the piece that I'm riffing off is Cage's Pieces for Carillon, and the creation based off of something inherently non-musical, and notating it into traditional staff notation. As seen in the pictures below, I took a photo at the Backlot cinemas of a table, and thought "hey I could do that thing that Lindsay talked about it" and then I spent about two hours editing the photo and arbitrarly chosing notes with a staff imposed over. There is an interesting thing that could be investigated about how this strategy does heavily favour tonal sounds. Also note the use of one stave for piano music, so at least it's somewhat playable. By the way, the lack of time signatures in the handwritten piece compared to the final is because I cannot count and made mistakes.
no 6: breathe into your palms, and call into the void.
This exercise came about after watching the film MONOS, where there's a repeated theme throughout the film both through the score and visuals of the whistle you can do when you cup your hands right. I, however, cannot do the whistle thing, so to compensate, I wrote a short exercise. This exercise is almost entirely about the technical, so there isn't a lot to write about. The custom score would often be interesting, but due to my ouevre, it's nothing new for me.
Mixing it after performing it live for no one was fun though. I think if I ever do more weird industrial experimental music (which is not a bit if), I would do something similar to this sort of minimal, lo-fi but still intrusive sound. Mixed in Audacity (the best DAW) and recorded on my headphone mic inbetween my palms.
Mixing it after performing it live for no one was fun though. I think if I ever do more weird industrial experimental music (which is not a bit if), I would do something similar to this sort of minimal, lo-fi but still intrusive sound. Mixed in Audacity (the best DAW) and recorded on my headphone mic inbetween my palms.
no 7: having a cheeky peak through a window and having an existential crisis at the same time.
When I am at a lecture, I often doodle to keep my attention up, and with the amount of pages of blank staves I bring, it was inevitable that I would doodle on the staff itself. However, after doodling the man, I thought it would be cool to transfer the drawing digitally, and to split the staff in four (the spaces) and create a graphic score that abstracts the original art. The other, less interesting part about the piece is that the instructions say to choose the same note within the same octave for the musicians, thus exploring the timbre of different instruments/players. This idea has been floating through my head ever since I've listened to Jacob Mann's Hold Music, which features this technique in action.
Also, if you're wondering, my interpretation of the graphics is: the amount of darkness in the line indicates volume.
Also, if you're wondering, my interpretation of the graphics is: the amount of darkness in the line indicates volume.
no 8: thebe oven.
Thebe oven has nothing to do with the Greek mythos of Thebe, or the kitchen appliance known as an oven, but is instead an anagram of Beethoven. The idea came about after a learning about Mozart's dice game, and remembering that I have a giant book of Beethoven sonatas. Combined them together, with a little help of Cage and his approach to this sort of stuff, and thus: Thebe Oven.
Also, after the whole process is done, there's a good exploration of Beethoven's cliches throughout his writing. He has a particular voice in his compositions, and it's interesting to see how the parts of the music fit together, while being in different keys entirely.
If you want to know what the bits of Beethoven I put in the example in order: Opus 14 Nr 2 Allegro Bar 44, Opus 7 Largo appassionato Bar 13, Opus 13 (Pathetique) Rondo Bar 32, Opus 27 Nr 2 Presto agitato Bar 21, Opus 22, Adagio con molta espressione Bar 24, Opus 13 (Pathetique) Rondo Bar 94, Opus 27 Nr 2 Allegretto Bar 60, Opus 7 Largo, con gran espressione Bar 46, Opus 22, Adagio con molta espressione Bar 90 and Opus 10 Nr 3 Presto Bar 39.
Also, after the whole process is done, there's a good exploration of Beethoven's cliches throughout his writing. He has a particular voice in his compositions, and it's interesting to see how the parts of the music fit together, while being in different keys entirely.
If you want to know what the bits of Beethoven I put in the example in order: Opus 14 Nr 2 Allegro Bar 44, Opus 7 Largo appassionato Bar 13, Opus 13 (Pathetique) Rondo Bar 32, Opus 27 Nr 2 Presto agitato Bar 21, Opus 22, Adagio con molta espressione Bar 24, Opus 13 (Pathetique) Rondo Bar 94, Opus 27 Nr 2 Allegretto Bar 60, Opus 7 Largo, con gran espressione Bar 46, Opus 22, Adagio con molta espressione Bar 90 and Opus 10 Nr 3 Presto Bar 39.
no 9: the sounds of consensual identity theft.
Ah yes, playing with Audacity: the exercise! This was just an excuse to muck around with my friends on the internet and play around with Audacity. I haven't really used the noise cancellation function or the Raw Data function before, so it was fun to play around with. Possibly the most exercise-y of this compilation of exercises: just me exploring things. I'd like to thank my friends by their screen names on Twitter (as of writing this), from left to right channel: average penis music enjoyer (@twinkpegger69), Austin The Kat (@Austin_TheKat), Mother Love Blone (@lastyears_model) and Graham Spencer (@TanTrundell).
no 10: y0U w0U1Dn’T D0wN104D 4 c4r;
There's this neat little-known feature in YouTube where if you press a number key, it divides the playbar into 10, and then brings you to the corresponding part to the key you pressed, which is a long winded way of saying if you press the 4 key, you will jump to exactly the 40% mark. I've wanted to do something with this for a while, and I thought, as it heavily relies on premade content, why not use the piracy ad in front of Happy Feet and make a sort of satirical comment on the ethics of piracy within this capitalist society? If I was feeling risky, this would be the only track on my bandcamp release that would be paid, but the question of "do I own my music that I present through ECU?" is a grey area, and one that I'd rather not deal with.
Also fun little sidenote the numbers chosen reflect the ASCII codes in the exercise's title, which I thought was neat.
Also fun little sidenote the numbers chosen reflect the ASCII codes in the exercise's title, which I thought was neat.
no 11: herd of electric headless chickens.
I have a complicated relationship with this one. I wrote it after Lindsay said there were 8 UE BOOM 3s in the composition course tool box, which no one had written anything for, so I wrote a piece called "gosh dang it jim, you scared the musicians away", and was intending for it to be performed at SOUND SPECTRUM, which, due to a COVID breakout, was cancelled. This piece doesn't really work recorded. It's a piece about performance and I guess a commentary on how most musicians (especially classical musicians) think that performance is just being sonically interesting, when yet the average music-goer is also interested in visual appeal, which this piece would've been (or at least loud, if not appleasing). It isn't really the same recorded, but oh well, whatchya gonna do about it?
Fun facts: the sine waves all increase at a equally decreasing rate of x=x-1 (400 to 407 is 7, 407 to 413 is 6, etc), and the name is... a last effort ditch to write something funny and interesting. The version in the final document was the last one to write and format.
Fun facts: the sine waves all increase at a equally decreasing rate of x=x-1 (400 to 407 is 7, 407 to 413 is 6, etc), and the name is... a last effort ditch to write something funny and interesting. The version in the final document was the last one to write and format.
no 12: pumpkin soup recipe.
Similar to number 7, I did this in the lecture because I was fascinated by the strange musics of Ligeti and micropolyphony, and this was my attempt to make a micro-micropolyphony piece. I was thinking back on a picture of me eating pumpkin soup when I wrote the lyrics, and then the lyrics happened. The notes weren't chosen with any real sense of purpose, I just kinda went of vibes alone.
no 13: music for nerds.
This isn't to say that the rest of my music isn't for nerds, but this one is explicitly so. Like a dedication.
So this piece has a lot of math in it. I've loved the concept of math from a young age, my dad is a mathematician and kinda forced it upon me, so it's ingrained into my thinking. There's chicken scratch from my notebook below, but for a basic premise:
Firstly, I assign the prime numbers into a grid of 12, starting with 2. Thus 2=1, 3=2, 5=3, 7=4, and so on. Then, you assign the numbers of the Fibonacci sequence (again starting with 2) and their corresponding prime number (example: 55 divides by 5, and thus is "3", 13 is a prime number so you find it's coordinate on the grid to get "6"). With these numbers, you then correspond it onto the notes on a 12-note chromatic scale in equal temperment. Following that, it is inverted 3 times, over the F, and then that is inverted over Ab, and then that is finally inverted over G. You then stack the notes on top of each other to get 4 note chords. Those are then played.
It's at this point that I should note two things: I only went up to 957, before we hit 4 digit numbers, for the sake of brevity, and I might have made a mistake or two. I love mathematics and it's complicated mess, but I'm also not great it, so some things might be not as accurate. It's a lot for my brain to handle.
So this piece has a lot of math in it. I've loved the concept of math from a young age, my dad is a mathematician and kinda forced it upon me, so it's ingrained into my thinking. There's chicken scratch from my notebook below, but for a basic premise:
Firstly, I assign the prime numbers into a grid of 12, starting with 2. Thus 2=1, 3=2, 5=3, 7=4, and so on. Then, you assign the numbers of the Fibonacci sequence (again starting with 2) and their corresponding prime number (example: 55 divides by 5, and thus is "3", 13 is a prime number so you find it's coordinate on the grid to get "6"). With these numbers, you then correspond it onto the notes on a 12-note chromatic scale in equal temperment. Following that, it is inverted 3 times, over the F, and then that is inverted over Ab, and then that is finally inverted over G. You then stack the notes on top of each other to get 4 note chords. Those are then played.
It's at this point that I should note two things: I only went up to 957, before we hit 4 digit numbers, for the sake of brevity, and I might have made a mistake or two. I love mathematics and it's complicated mess, but I'm also not great it, so some things might be not as accurate. It's a lot for my brain to handle.