Part Four - Music

Music Notes

This section begins the exploration between music and architecture and considers how they relate to each other and how they work together in existing architectural examples. This section will explore the visual impact on music, how it is used and the different forms and styles of writing. I will briefly touch on the physics behind music and how it is written, and see where my research takes me as a result of this.

Figure 269

Xenakis and Le Corbusier’s Polytope multidisciplinary experiment for 2 expos in the 1970s, combining music, architecture, and engineering.

'One approach I’m going to try in studying the relationships between music and architecture is examine what vocabulary and concepts the two have in common. I intend to flesh this piece out with definitions, but for now I’m going to list those words and ideas that are frequently tossed around in both fields. I realise this vocabulary might also appear in many other disciplines – which of course attests to the many links that exist between other seemingly dissimilar fields as well – but I do believe that the sheer number of common terms may be unique to this pairing and perhaps a few others.

Arch, Articulation, Balance, Colour, Composition, Contrast, Density, Depth, Development, Dynamics, Energy, Flow, Form, Foundation, Function, Genre, Harmony, Height, Line, Minimalism, Motif or motive, Movement, Ornamentation, Pattern, Phrase, Pitch, Process, Proportion, Repetition, Rhythm, Sequence, Shape, Space, Structure, Style, Symbol, Texture, Theme, Transparency, Unity, Variation, Volume.'

[http://frozenmusic1.wordpress.com/2010/01/24/dancing-about-architecture-cross-over-lingo/#more-54] accessed 04 Dec 2014

Evryali by Iannis Xenakis	Mass Black Implosion Mark Fusinato 2007 Ink on archival facsimile of score	A Score by Puccini The fluidity of the notes moving up and down the page, even the shape of the notes are representing a development for and end result.
Scanned in Music by Phillip Sheppard 'If architecture is frozen music, then music is liquid architecture' http://philipsheppard.com/2012/04/04/liquid-architecture/ The composer Philip Sheppard has explored his views on the relationship between architecture and music, the above image is used as one of his examples (which is simply a scan that has gone wrong) but it is how the notes then move along the page and create a new structure.	Brasserie les Haras By Jouin Manku Could. The building is a renovated Louis XV farm. The stairwell reminded me of a treble clef travelling down from the ceiling.	Carnet de travail By Élisabeth Couloigner A piece of art work called 'I'm Searching' This work is not music but the line work within it looks like a score flowing through the page.

Figures 270-275

Mass Black Implosion

Mass Black Implosion is a collection of music scores from different composers that have been drawn over by Marco Fusinato (an Australian artist and experimental musician). A line is drawn from every original note to every other note on the page to create a new composition, so every note is played at once to create an impact. His intention draws the listener and reader away from the composer’s original intentions. Below are a few images of his drawings, they are visually very strong and I found myself fixed to the recreation of them. The lines create shading, show chaos on the page dependant on how busy the music is, and draw you towards certain aspects of the music.

Shaar, Iannis Xenakis

Water Music, John Cage, 2010

Katarakt, Anestis Logothetis, 2008

Liaisons, Roman Haubenstock-Ramati

Mobile for Shakespeare, Roman Hauben

Treatise, Cornelius Cardew, 2013

1/1

You can view more of his work here;

http://atonoma.com/art/mass-black-implosion/

“I’ve had a long-term interest in noise as music. On one hand, I’m drawn to its purity, and on the other, its ability to contaminate.” - Marco Fusinato

[http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2013/soundings/artists/2/biography/] Accessed 28th Jan 2015

Figures 276-281

For information on composers click here

Other Works by Marco Fusinato

Noise & Capitalism	Spectral Arrows	Free
Double Infinitives	Aetheric Plexus The Colour of the Sky has Melted

Figures 282-286

Physics of Music

The first instrument that was the explosed to music was the human voice, so music has realistically been around as long as our existence. Pythagoras (a Greek philosopher who during the sixth century B.C. experimented on the 'properties of vibrating strings that produce pleasing musical intervals' [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/485171/Pythagoras accessed 29th Jan 2015]) knew nothing about frequencies but discovered the Harmonic scale. The Harmonic scale is produced by playing an instrument string at its halfway point, third point, quarter point, fifth, seventh and so on to produce the scale. See diagram below;

Rather than viewing this as physics Pythagoras saw it as a numerical mystery. Today we know it as the 'relationship between frequency of vibration and tone' [Hutchins, 1978, p. 2].

Galileo Galileo had a strong interest in the science of music acoustics, and stemmed from having a father who was a composer, mathematician and musician. He investigated the science behind vibrations and the relationship between the frequency and pitch of sound. His theory of music developed through his experiments and he found that the ratio of tensions (tensions of strings) was actually 4:1 where as before this it had been believed to be 2:1.

After this theory soon came the study of vibrations through stretch strings (by Marin Mersenne) which led on to create principles of musical acoustics. The main principles were a collation of theories; Galileo's theory of vibrations and frequency, Roberts Hooke's theory of the connection of pitch with the frequency of vibration, Joseph Saveur who developed the concept of harmonic and fundamental overtones and 'to this day suggested the name acoustics for the sound of study' [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/485171/Pythagoras accessed 29th Jan 2015]. The development list goes on in more depth into specific instruments such as the violin and brass genre.

Science has had a large effect and contribution to music, if music suddenly stops the sound still remains for a little whilst it is absorbed or escapes, the duration of this depends on the size of the room and the loudness of the sound. It can be shortened if a lot of absorbent materials and substances are in the room.

A plain room with hard walls reflects the sound (reverberation)and prolonged, where as a room containing a lot absorbent panels creates a short, dead sounding room. A larger room appears to reflect the sound for longer than a small room because of this effect. There is therefore a clear physical relationship between music and architecture at a minimum.

Harmonic Series

Figure 287

'Chladni Plates indicate the vibration of the body of a violin. These patterns were produced by covering a violin-shaped brass plate with sand and drawing a violin bow accross its edge. When the bow caused the plate to vibrate, the sand concentrated along quiet nodes between the vibrating areas.'

[Hutchins, 1978, p. 15]

Figures 288-291

Frequencies and Waves

What is the frequency?

The Frequency is the number of cycles per unit of time which is made up of the cycles per second (CPS), otherwise known as the interchangeable Hertz per second (Hz), which was named after the physicist Hertz (Hertz proved that electricity can be transmitted through electromagnetic waves which made the development of television and radio possible. Humans can hear from a range of 20Hz to 20kHz (20,000) and any ranges that are below or above this are used in computer aided music studios.

The lower the Hz the deeper (pitch) the sound is. Which also links in with wavelength; the wavelength measures the speed of sound and length of the frequency, therefore the lower frequency has a longer wavelength. The above diagram [CTS1] shows the difference between a low and high frequency rate. There are two forms, Pure tones and Complex tones. Pure tones are very rare and are usually a single frequency and is 'represented by a smooth curve in which distances to the right stand for time, and distances up and down correspond to the displacement of the vibrating body from its position of rest.' [Hutchins, 1978, p. 7]

Complex tones are a combination of vibrations of different frequencies which are produced by musical instruments, and usually more than one sound at once, this is a much more common tone.

As you can hear, changing the frequency of a sound is equal to changing its pitch. However, because of their simplicity, pure sounds are very different from the notes generated by musical instruments. This is because those 'notes' are more complex sounds. Complex means that a sound is not just a single frequency as a pure tone, but it is made of more sounds at the same time.

Frequency Example

http://www.indiana.edu/~emusic/acoustics/frequency.htm accessed 28th Jan 2015

Figure 292

Figure 293

Frequency Range Chart

[Hutchins, 1978, p. 9]

Frequencies are plotted horizontally along the bottom of the chart. The range of the scale is 40 - 20,000 CPS.

The circles on each line are an estimated range by expert musicians.

The lines at the end of each bar indicates associated noise.

Architectural Acoustics

"Sound is as much a part of man's man-made environment as heat or light. It can now be effectively managed, notably in rooms where music is heard, by applying the principles of accoustical physics"

[Hutchins, 1978, p. 78]

Quote by Vern O. Knudsen

There are many independant areas of acoustics, psychoacoustics and physiological (speach and hearing), communication accoustics (audio aspects), musical acoustics (instruments and the human voice), and architectural acoustics. For interior spaces the architectural acoustics focus on two procedures; utilizing geometrical acoustics, which is when sound waves which travel in a straight line hit a wall/surface that differs from where the sound originates. The soundwaves are transmitted, refracted and reflected, to work these out architects will superimpose the waves on plans and sections. The second procedure option is to work out a detailed analysis of how the soundwaves of different frequencies 'interact reflecting and absorbing surfaces of various shapes and dimensions'[Hutchins, 1978, p. 80]. The theory can cope with the real behaviour of sound in a room, using the space to reflect or absorb soundwaves, thus controlling the sound in the space.

When designing a space there are three key focus points: The shape of the whole enclosure, this is by far the most important, the design of the stage and the interior shell of the enclosure, and the reverberation (the collection of sounds reflecting) time. There are many questions posed in regards to the connection of frequency and reverberation time in a designed space.

Should the reverberation time be the same for all frequencies?

"Should it be based on the frequency distribution of sound energy in music, so that on average all the components will die away to inaudiblity in the same length of time?

Should the rate of growth or decay of loudness level be the same for all frequency components?"

[Hutchins, 1978, p. 90]

An example of a good sized room would be a rectangular shaped room with a volume between 5000 and 500,000 cubic feet, a ceiling height would be 6 times the cubic root of the wolume and the ratio of length would be 4 to 3.

So an exmple for a 200 seated chamber room;

52 X 40 X 20 ft.

Figure 294

Explaining visually how sound absorption in air can vary due to humidity, frequency and temperature. Along with showing the reflection

[Hutchins, 1978, P86]

Visual Interpretation Styles

Figure 295

"Sound is a word used in at least two senses: (1) the sensation produced in the brain by messages from the ear, and (2) the physical events outside the ear" [Hutchins, 1978, p. 2]

This image is of the basilar membrane responding to different frequencies at different points. The top two show the response to a pure tone, and the bottom two show an accurate response to a steamboat whistle on the left, and on the right a note played by a bugle.

Using two record players to create a drawing

http://youtu.be/EB_oSgx5b3I

Illinois: Visualizing Music

The below project is final project by the student Jax de Leon at SUNY Purchase School of Art and Design (New York). The project is based on experimenting and investigating music through deconstructing it and interpreting the sections visually. The sections are divided into instrumentation, vocals, lyrics, notation, word usage and patterns. The aim to show another way of interpreting an album.

'Music is a powerful, emotional medium that is much more difficult to quantify than, say, financial data or earthquake patterns'

[http://jaxdeleon.com/introduction accessed 29th Jan 2015]

After looking through the project, the idea of deconstructing and creating a visualisation from it is very clever, and gives a large scope into the thought process of creating a piece of music in the first place. Telling me how important the different pitch levels are to listen too and undertand what emotions the music is trying to create.

Vocal Album Grid The squares on the grid represent 1 second of the whole album, and each row is 1 minute, with an over all total of 1 hour 14 minutes. The subject of the lyrics is represented through the coloured squares (see key in next image). The marks on the squares indicated the number of singers and subjects sung. http://jaxdeleon.com/vocal-album-grid	Vocal Album Grid Key http://jaxdeleon.com/vocal-album-grid	Note Frequency Each circle represents a note in a song. "Each song is run through a music frequency analysis program that visualizes the frequencies being played and what note they correspond to. The percentage of a song employing a given note is calculated and graphed on a circle containing 100 concentric circles, each representing 1%. The highest note, B8, is located at the top. As you move clockwise the note gets lower until is reaches C2 back at the top." http://jaxdeleon.com/note-frequency
Lyric Content Key http://jaxdeleon.com/lyric-content	Note Frequency http://jaxdeleon.com/note-frequency	Lyric Content The horizontal coloured lined represents a line of lyrics, the length of the row is dependant on the amount of letters in each line. The colour is dependant on the theme of the lyrics (see the key in the next image). The white dot at the beginning of some rows is the mark of a new song. http://jaxdeleon.com/lyric-content
Word Usage Circles The collection of panels each represent a different song with lyrics. Each circle within each other relates to s word in the song, and the thickness of the circle is related to how many times the word is used. It is designed with the most common words used on the outer edge of the large circle. http://jaxdeleon.com/word-usage-circles	THE This graph shows all the words that follow the most common word in the song 'The'. The thickness of the line represents how often that word appeared after 'the'. http://jaxdeleon.com/the	Map The areas of Illinois that are mentioned throughout the album. The map charts the route taken through the album. http://jaxdeleon.com/map

Figures 296-304

Sheet Music

Cardew Treatise Score	Cathy Berberian's Stripsody score	Ligeti Artikulation Score
Xenakis	Gerard Grisey’s Talea	David Power Visual Music
John Cage

Figures 305-312

The above images are a collection of scores by different composers. Each composer has crafted his or her own style of creating a score. John Cage's score above, has been created to allow the singer to choose their own style, so he has created ten styles which are represented through different shapes/squiggles and colours. Some of the scores above are known as 'listening scores' which is put to the music after its has been played. You can see how the Ligeti Artikulation Score works below in the video. I will look closer at specific composers in the next section.