Breath and Step is what I would consider a project for myself more than it is a piece of music, a piece that I began with the intention of pushing me in a new direction to the classical writing techniques I've grown used to and stretching my electronic knowledge. In this piece I incorporated all of my favourite elements of my electronic studies that I found surprisingly enjoyable despite being in an ares that I arguably am not skilled in or leaning towards. In terms of it's themes and ideas, the piece explores the first chapter of the bible, Genesis 1, and how not only is it God who creates life by speaking it out into being and how we as the image of God have that power too as well as the ability to act upon those words. If I could sum up the concept in two thoughts it would be that there is power attached to our words and that without action our words just become intention, ideas that can equally strengthen or weaken each other.

 

For last semester's circuit bending class I worked with my fellow composer, Holly Powley, to create what we call our MIDI shoes, that is shoes that have touch sensors in them, of course if that was all there was to it that would be too easy. Thanks to the wonderful website Instructables, we were able to find this MIDI Shoe tutorial and follow along with it, unlike most of the tutorials on the website, this tutorial did not come with downloadable coding and while we have had some teaching in coding, we had to recruit the help of Stuart James to help us create a program on ARDUINO and MAX MSP that would work with all four sensors in our shoes. The hard part wasn't making the circuit but what came in the following semester when I attempted to get it not just working but working how I wanted.  This involved moving the sensors around the shoe to find a place that wasn't too out of reach for my foot to put pressure on it, but also that it wouldn't go off every half a second when I tried to walk, something I still don't think I've nailed but that I have worked my piece around.

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Of course the live sounds my shoes are creating will be one of the main elements. With the first and last sections of my piece I will be making calculated but random sporadic notes, like a response to when I hear notable words mentioned within my piece as well or short rhythms and patterns, nothing too loose that it feels unthought of but also not strict enough to make slight mishaps obvious during the performance. In the middle section the shoes act as a form of response to a rhythm that comes into the piece and allows the performer, in this case myself, to actually be involved and interact with the piece and to showcase its precision(or in some instances, lack there of) I also feel that with the unique element of the shoes having that part sway from loose structure to keeping in rhythm creates allows not only the audience but especially the performer to get comfortable with how the shoes react to their steps and adapt the performance to be more refined by the final section.

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One of my favourite units I've ever had to take in my time at WAAPA would definitely be Spacial Music, the thought of creating something that, when you close your eyes, immerses you in a whole other landscape is just such a great concept to me. I also think having a piece based around God and the power of words and action and the life that brings, it needs a more technical set up that will be equally immersive and powerful to the listener. To create this Spacial set up I simply manipulated the surround panning automation of each of my tracks in logic and have prepared my piece for 5.1 Surround Sound Set up.

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Structurally the piece follows several journeys and developments, the first being the aforementioned discovery of the MIDI shoes and how to effectively work them the way the performer desires. Along with that is the adaption of the sounds the MIDI shoes are programmed to make, beginning with simple sounds take from some field recordings, simple sounds with unknown origins taken haphazardly from these field recording because they 'just sounded right', they were low and bass-ey, they fitted well with the tone. As we move into the structured, more rhythmic section of Breath and Step, those original sounds are adopted into the piece almost as if those sounds that we(I/the performer represented as mankind) made and developing that into something more, as if God has given us these sounds to work with and is in turn shaping them into something greater. In this section the performer also adopts a new sound, footsteps, granted slightly manipulated, which represents the acts of us outworking what is being spoken into us, creating more and expanding on what is now just a foundation for this piece. as the piece goes into the last section we are again brought back to the original sounds, as this is a cycle of action and speech, as we listen to the words of God we are driven to act on them and through that he multiplies the outcome and creates a greater calling for us to follow.

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The second journey is that of the story behind the rest of the audio, the field recordings, synth sounds, how they change and interact and how this represents creation, man kind, our development in relation to God. We begin the piece in near silence, an arpeggiated drone the only thing heard followed by footsteps, mimed by the performer. We then begin to hear bird chirps and the first line of speech "In the beginning..." this is both a symbol of the beginning of a new day and, in relation to the chapter of the bible, the beginning of creation itself. As God speaks out things into being we hear those things being brought into the piece birds, myself, nature. Eventually as my speech becomes more involved in the piece other sounds are brought in, footsteps and a gentle melody; as with mankind we bring thought, creativity, like God we begin to speak out things into being we act on those thoughts and ideas we use Gods creation to inspire us, and through that concept the bird calls in the piece are suddenly interwoven with artificial bird calls. As we reach the end of the song we can hear the sounds of both the things of God; mankind, nature and the things we have created through God as our inspiration, and continuing to the end of the piece that arpeggiated drone, representative of God and his infinite nature.

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Final the lyrics, or quotations should I say, passages taken from the bible. This part of the piece I would certainly say is more literal or obvious in the ideas it is conveying. Parts that are repeated such as the lines "and God said" or "and it was so" create a clear connection between each other, the idea that God spoke those things into being, and that by reading the bible out myself and turning that into a piece I am, not trying to be like God but following in his footsteps to better his vision. as I read in the piece "God created mankind in his own image."

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With the more technical side of this piece it may seem like I half-heartedly made the piece with excuses for when things don't go right, I'd like to say however that only the second half of that assumption would be true. In all honestly this piece was based purely on experimentation and the desire to test things I lack confidence in, but, I still want to make a meaningful and engaging performance for my audience knowing full well that technical errors may occur because, I'm just learning. That's not to say I'd call my thought process excuse making, I just tried to best align my abilities, the possible outcomes and creative meaning to support each other and 'speak life' into each other.