Musings without sound 

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Parallel Perspectives

formal considerations in performance

Color	Shape	Construct
pitch height	melody	tonality
articulation	meter	rhythm
loudness	duration	dynamics
timbre	texture	setting

i would appreciate hearing your thoughts

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aka LoneMonad

monad - the intersection of spirit and matter

it is my quest to point to the

lone monad

that connects us all

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my wifr calls it stiring up the mud

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Chord Substitutions

with examples in C Major

category	basic	primary	7th	secondary dominant	dim (secondary leading tone)	mode shift	tritone equivalent (neapolitan)
4th class	iii (E,G,B)		iii7 (E,G,B,D)	III7 (E,G#,B,D)	vii7 (B,D,F,A/Ab)		bVII (Bb,D,F)
3rd class	vi (A,C,E)		vi7 (A,C,E,G)	VI7 (A,C#,E,G)	#i7 (C#,E,G,B/Bb)		bIII (Eb,G,Bb)
2nd class	ii (D,F,A)	IV (F,A,C)	ii7 (D,F,A,C)	II7 (D,F#,A,C)	#iv7 (F#,A,C,E/Eb)	iv (F,Ab,C)	bVI (Ab,C,Eb)
1st class	V (G,B,D)		V7 (G,B,D,F)		vii7 (B,D,F,A/Ab)	v (G,Bb,D)	bII (Db,F,Ab)
Tonic	I (C,E,G)	Iadd6 (C,E,G,A)	Imaj7 (C,E,G,B)	I7 (C,E,G,Bb)	iii7 (E,G,Bb,D/Db)	i (C,Eb,G)	bV (Gb,Bb,Db)

 

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we have not learned yet

that shooting the messenger does not alter the message

punishing the person who commits a heinous crime is ineffective

if you have to punish someone (i do not advocate any punishment)

punish those who stole the perpetrators birthright

Minimalism is pleonastic

My mode of artistic expression is improvised performances

on aMente an instrument I have created.

It features realtime algorithmic generation laced with samples,

functions as a real-time performance system,

and is implemented in MAX/MSP.

aMente can be used as a tool in the process of composing.

It facilitates playing with a theme or pattern

using theoretical development techniques in real time.

These "play dates" can be saved and read into notation programs.

My students and others have used it for that purpose.

I prefer to use those facets in real time as an improvised performance.

It liberates me.

Musicians have always enjoyed being at liberty,

Musica amente

Cadenza

Ad libitum

Ride

Jam

Freak Out

Improvise

I find this mode of artistic expression satisfying

and very close to the musing fundament.

It is not my purpose to discuss improvisation in detail here,

but

some attention to its precepts are needed

to explain the design of aMente.

Nonelectronic improvisation is accomplished

in part

by reliance on athletic facility

that has been developed on an instrument.

Some of the realization is very conscious

but

much streams out as a blend of mental and physical preconceptions.

It is always constrained by physical ability

(although many improvising musicians

report using performance ability

they did not know they had).

The mental facets of improvisation fall into two categories,

namely experience and theory.

Real time analysis of a musical milieu

is both concrete and abstract.

Memory can elicit specific associations

to musics the performer has heard,

played and thought before.

Theories (harmony, timbre, form and development)

will also come to mind

and guide the performance.

To conclude this very brief exposition,

I would like to state that

I believe that electroacoustic instruments are extremely well suited for improvisation, primarily because of the special malleability of these instruments.

Orchestral instrument requires the performer to be malleable,

they have to mold themselves to the instrument.

Electroacoustic instruments allow themselves to be molded to the performer.

This programmability exists on the physical level.

Like the variable range of interpretation of the velocities on a keyboard controller.

But the most important feature is that they can afford the performer

relief from high levels of physical activity

so that attention to theoretical thought can be enhanced.

There are routine built into many commercial synths

like sequencers and arpegiators

that take advantage of this ability.

aMente is kind of like an arpegiator

but takes the concept to a full performance level

rather than an ancillary process.

The aMente process seems to me very much like the tonal drive to tonic

except that it is geometric rather than syntactical.

There is more of an oeuvre than a rhetoric or grammar.

aMente provides a holistic form.

The performer supplies the linear

by manipulating the variables of the algorithm

in real time.

Improvising with aMente

involves the three basics of improvisation:

association, theory and athletics.

Actually athletics can be pretty low key.

Physicality mostly involves a lot of clicking and dragging

and some typing.

It does not require the same level of muscle training as an

orchestral instrument.

I never get comments on my physical virtuosity

BUT

I often get comments on my facial expressions.

aMente design:

I think of it as unique and mine,

BUT

everything I started to describe

seemed to be taken from elsewhere (not the Einstein elsewhere).

It represents what I think of as: "Culture Surfing".

"Beg, Borrow or Steal"

"I have always relied on the kindness of strangers."

"I get by with a little help from my friends."

There are three facets of music creation: experience, theory and play.

Some aspects of each of these are built in to aMente.

Experience is a memory factor

(a library of recordings and "MIDI" sequences)

with a database solution designed to find and sort compatabitilties

based on key, tempo, popularity, date, genre, key words

and many other parameters.

The primary theories are various chaotic and serial patterns.

These patterns serve as the principal unifying factor.

This is where the instrument began.

It was not very soft in the beginning.

It began 35 years ago as a patch on an Arp 2500 modular synthesizer,

then had subsequent versions on a guidance computer

(from a declassified D17-B intercontinental ballistic missile)

attached to the Arp,

MIDIfied on a Commodore 64

and currently running on a Mac in a MAX/MSP environment.

aMente is designed to play with these samples and theories in real time.

The primary operating mode is improvisation.

Let's start with the legal dilemma of the aMente "experience".

When i borrow a single sample

it is not stealing.

It is just a number representing an instance of wave height.

No one would be able to recognize the source.

BUT

The process of sampling itself is obviously borrowed

It is quite sophisticated.

I did not create it.

When I borrow more and more samples,

at some point

they can begin to be perceived

as a specific sound

subject to recognition of source.

It is these conjured images that begin to get me in trouble.

What if oboe comes to mind?

No one seems to care that I did not invent this sound.

If major second comes to mind,

no one seems to care that I did not invent this.

if diminished triad …

C major…

rondo…

swing

cha-cha

fugue

…a myriad of recognitions seem to be taken as acceptable borrowing.

Not stealing,

even though explicit permission has not been granted.

Having digested Cage's concept of process as object,

using a sufficient amount of information to conjure up Barry Manilow

does not seem different to me

than using root movement of a perfect fifth

or a flanging effect.

AND

They all come from elsewhere.

When should I cite the reference?

Who should I cite (pay)?

It is impractical if not impossible to credit the originator.

(Exactly which accumulation of droplets is THE source of the Mississippi?)

From the bottom of this open mind shaft,

it seems like i should just cite the big bang & be done with it.

As I understand the current legal quagmire,

I won't go to jail if just perform live,

which is what I love doing anyway.

The mores, conventions and laws are in flux.

In the mean time;

themes, pieces, wholes, theories and processes

will continue to be borrowed for my music.

There are sound file players (from disk or RAM)

which include facility for various tempo, looping, triggering and filtering controls.

Theoretical aspects of aMente include traditional themes

read from a standard MIDI file

or played into aMente via a MIDI controller (including aMente itself).

They are then parsed into separate files for each of the following parameters:

pitch, velocity, duration, rhythm and voice (channel).

These separated files are the subjected to local and global patterns.

The pattern generators are used to calculate real time note events.

These events may be realized with outboard MIDI synthesizers

or on board synths.

I use a 3 op FM synth I developed in MSP

and sometimes a VST synth.

The synths and audio files may be processed with the MSP processors;

aAmp, aDelay, aRez, aVolve and aVerb

or by MIDI controlled processors.

The pattern generators are the backbone of aMente.

aMente supports up to three global patterns at once.

These continuously generated patterns

produce sequential control values from 0 to 127.

They are buffered

so the last 256 samples of the pattern are available

and are displayed graphically for your viewing pleasure.

This allows for synchronization and/or offsets.

For example if the pitch is following the pattern in real time

and the velocity is offset by one,

then a high pitch would be followed by a loud velocity.

The timing of these patterns

can be derived from any of the rhythm generators

or can be independent of the rhythms.

The patterns:

Sample and Hold &endash; This was part of the seminal patch and is still a favorite.

The waveforms available for sampling are a mix of two waves;

sine, cosine, saw, inverse saw and noise.

Noise of course is the classic sampled waveform,

but I find the periodic forms to be of great usefulness.

When the period is very long the pattern is pretty simple

and is good for background patterns.

When the period gets into the audio range

these patterns can be quite compelling

especially if the frequency of the sampling pulse is modulated.

Tic &endash; This generator manipulates the system clock.

It does not get much use any more.

It was a stopgap substitution for sample and hold on the first port to Mac.

The SID chip on the Commodore 64 was great for sample and hold

but I never found a satisfactory patch in MAX until MSP came along.

Meander &endash; This probably gets more usage than any other pattern.

It is basically a random times random process

which insures a greater probability of small steps.

The vector may be up, down or all around.

The maximum step size is programmable

as a percentage of the total range.

It is also reseedable so a repeating pattern may be enforced.

Another very useful option is initial height.

If this option is chosen

the pattern will begin at the same height for each reseeding

producing an ostinato type pattern.

Otherwise the next iteration follows at what would have been the next interval

producing a sequential motive.

A third option chooses a random height for each iteration.

Quantile &endash; A bar graph

with 128 manually assignable bars for weighted probability.

It has a fluctuation option that makes it lots of fun.

The weights can fluctuate.

In fall mode, every time a value is chosen it gains weight

thereby becoming more probable to be chosen again

(sort of like politics).

When it reaches a programmable maximum,

it fall back down to the minimum.

Values with no weight do not participate

so this can act as a fluctuating set.

There is also a rebound mode in which the weights are increased

until one reaches maximum

then the weights are decreased until one hits minimum

and so on.

Broadband &endash; This is just basic randomness in "white" mode.

"Pink" mode will insure equal distribution

producing all values before repeating any of them

sequential randomness.

It is reseedable.

Fractional &endash; This is a 1/f fractional noise pattern.

It is not the usual Voss algorithm

but a pattern based on an algorithm by Martin Gardner

written in one of his math columns in Scientific American.

Bell &endash; The skirts of this Gaussian curve are programmable

so it ranges from brownian motion

to pseudo white randomness (ecru?).

Pop &endash; x n+1 = ax n (1-x n)

This is the Verhulst fractal

that models the population of bacteria in a Petri dish.

It is especially interesting with values of "a" between 3 and 4.

(As I understand it, "a" is a growth rate

that represents the food supply in the dish.)

Values of "a" between 3.2 and 3.4495 will make the pattern bifurcate

settling into an orbit between two population values.

Values of "a" between 3. 4496 and 3.569946

will eventually orbit between 2, 4, 8 or 16 population values.

Values of "a" between 3. 569947 and 4.0

will eventually orbit between 3, 6 or 12 population values.

I find this range to be especially musically compelling.

Reseeding restarts the whole process.

Pert - In+1= In +K sinqn ; qn+1= qn + In+1

This is the Chirikov fractal that models a pendulum with a perturbation.

It is like sampling a sine wave with a wobble in it.

XCC &endash; This one looks at a continuous controller MIDI input.

The patterns are available to the note generator windows:

Pitch, Velocity, Duration, Rhythm and Voice.

Each of these windows contribute an element to calculate a note event.

They all choose values from a theme, set or range.

The theme is an individual file parsed from

a standard MIDI file or a MIDI sequencer

in the "Construct window".

The sequencer in the "Construct window"

can take input from an external MIDI devise

or can record the output of aMente.

Any part (including all) of the theme may be available at any time.

The beginning position and the ending

position are programmable in real time.

The set consist of up to 16 distinct values

programmable and rearrangable in real time.

The original order depends on the order of selection.

The elements may be scrambled or ordinated in real time.

The range is also programmable in real time.

The choices are made using the pattern generators,

serial processes,

or various random patterns.

Choices are made from up to 3 pattern generators

via weighted random selection.

Serial choices include forward, backward and bow tie (back and forth).

Weighted choices are similar to the quantile pattern.

Random choices include white and pink and are reseedable.

These are based on Gary Lee Nelson's random generators that

can be indexed so that they can be independent

or synchronized with other generators.

Once the choices are made there are further manipulations

in the form of orientation and magnitude.

The out put can be inverted around a specific point.

C4 becomes C5 inverted around F#4.

(There is a convenient routine

that will calculate the center of the current theme, set or range.)

It can also be scaled.

At 50% C4-D4 becomes C4-C#4.

At 200% C4-D4 becomes C4-E4.

The "Pitch Window" also has map and displacement routines.

The mapping feature allows remapping of all 128 values.

The default choices include scales, triads and tetrachords,

but there is an edit feature to redefine any or all maps.

The displacement feature allows serial, quantile or random selection

of up to eight displacements

in the range of two octaves above or below the chosen pitch.

The "Rhythm Window" also has meter,

derivative rhythms and rests routines.

The meter is chosen randomly from a range.

This is normally treated as a number of subdivisions in a measure.

Three metrical patterns can be defined

using these subdivisions with weighted randomness.

e.g. 4/4 will be heard with a range of 16-16 (sixteen subdivisions every time)

& 100% probability on steps 1, 5, 9, and 13 (quarter);

50% probability on steps 3, 7, 11 and 15 (eighth);

12% probability on all even numbers (sixteenth).

Degrees of metric (ir)regularity may be introduced with a variable

range of steps and/or fluctuating weights.

Rests may also be introduced in this rhythmic flow as a

reseedable random percentage.

I do not want to get too bogged down in detail.

The purpose of this discussion is to report on the way

I improvise electroacoustically.

The description of aMente so far is the bed

of algorithmic generation that constitutes my primary tool.

Typically I will choose a pattern

that is usually triggered (reseeded)

from one of the various counters (counting notes, tics etc.)

and apply that pattern to pitch, velocity, duration, rhythm and voice.

Those parameters might be in sync

(e.g. high, loud, long & slow on the last defined synth),

offset

or independent.

As I listen to the output,

ideas present themselves to me.

These ideas are similar to the ideas I had when I was a trombonist

except that they are much more theoretical and longer ranging.

I am much more likely to think things like

"become more and more sparse over the next five minutes

while increasing the range and

introduce a new timbre".

That might have happened when I was a trombonist,

but I was much more concerned with the moment then

than the larger form.

The freedom from highly athletic activity

gives me a wider time frame perspective.

(Shouldn't there be a word like perspective

but with a hearing root instead of a seeing root?

"peraudiative")

Globalization

i am me

we are human

we are global

i am not

those two boundaries seem clear and secure

everything inbetween is noisy and insecure

it irresistible (and futile) to attempt to make intermediate levels more secure

it seems like the way to promote globalization is to change myself with humanity in mind

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¢heap a$$o¢iation

remix without boundaries

everyone has power YOU are the only one who can really be YOU you have something to say everyone else benefits when you express who you really are many forces deny that power conformity (government, religion and other cultures) opposes that power

when i was a grad ass band director i wrote a fight song mostly a riff with an associated yell orchestrated for the whole band when i went back years later they no longer had any of the parts or remembered where it came from but they still did the song very fulfilling no credit needed   during a sophomore theory class (there were only two of us) my teacher went to her files and brought out a note scrawled by Madame Boulanger with a lot of writing (in French that I could not read) and the four full diminished 7th chords at the bottom we discussed the myriad resolutions and non resolutions and the essence of the breakdown of functionality this was a gift who do I thank - what is the gift who do I thank do I thank my teacher do I thank my teacher's teacher where does this come from it is like the source of a river the source is an accumulation - not singular what is the gift is the gift the theory is the gift the application of the theory is the gift the example of use of resources is the gift the attention my teacher paid to me if so then more thankees appear like the students who flunked out to leave my class size small   thesis-synthesis-antithesis happens in such convoluted ways that make accounting impossible   ¢heap a$$o¢iation it is more than just sampling it is also Copland's use of "Simple Gifts" (ironic) it is Bernstein's use of "Romeo And Juliet" it is the allusions that Cope talks about it is the use of the blues progression it is Warhol's soup can it is Wurm's shoe …… it goes to the fundament (or monad if you will) of art the sharing that affirms life

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 i like these singers - Leslie Hunt, Amy Kirstin, Clarice Assad, Betty Buckly, Marnie Nixon, Elise Kermani, Elyzabeth Meade

the orthodox academic dogma defines the "composer" as the creator and the performer as the producer

while that is helpful in understanding the hegemonies strains of music

it is not really helpful in other music

my musings have varying degrees of preconception

almost never totally preconceived

quite often lacking in specific preconception (the ancestors called it mindless)

the materials used for my musings include the whole of my experience

music and other events that i have heard

including recordings that i have

improvisations and scores i have played

theories i have studied

and even the previously extramusical experiences i have had or imagined

a hero becomes a hero by pointing to a fundament
the designation and veneration of the hero obfuscates the pointer