32 Short Films About Glenn Gould
When we consider the music of today, our mind may easily go to the pop music, generic I–V–vi–IV chord progression, classic rock band, two verses, tag and chorus, but beyond that lies an abundance of different musical techniques. Used in a variety of different genres, for different instrumentations to create different atmospheres and moods, each technique deserves to be shown off in it's own composition.
Modal Interchange
Lately there has been a video going about explaining the basics of Modal Interchange, also known as borrowed chord. I found the concept behind it an interesting, and very new way to me, to add some depth to basic chord progressions, so I took it upon myself to experiment with this concept. The basic of it is taking a chord progression, from any key of any mode, for example, the most basic, C Ionian mode and replacing or inserting a parallel chord from another mode, such as C Lydian mode, into the piece. To begin I took a simple G Major Chord Progression, vi-V-IV-V, from there I experimented with several chords from other modes until I had ones that sounded interesting while retaining a good bass line. I ended up having two Lydian and one Aeolian chord. Then I simply made a melody to the chord progression, remembering to change the accidentals of the melody in harmony with the chords. Below is a table of parallel chords, a screenshot from the video and the exact table I used to write my own piece.
Mapping
The concept of mapping, taking a pattern or image and using somehow shaping it into a musical piece. To understand the inspiration of my piece, it is important to know that I am a youth leader. I use an online site to record the attendance of the girls I lead and that is then displayed on a table for the next few months. I began by counting both variables and found that I had 23 girls listed over 19 dates and decided that the dates would determine notes over treble and bass staves, while the girls would determine the notes while the final one would be a minim. For privacy reasons I have hidden their names, but to the right is the attendance graph this piece is based on.
Permeatations
Permeatations, according to the dictionary definition and a mathematic standpoint is "The action of changing the arrangement, especially the linear order, of a set of items." In music that is taking the first note of a short musical phrase, and placing it at the end, thus making the second not the beginning of the next phrase. For this piece I wanted to experiment with a more complex phrase and see how irregular the tune could become gradually. I am myself unsure as to how different it sounds, I believe there are parts that could be considered audibly displeasing to some, but it's still very clearly the same collection and pattern of notes, and I found that while tying notes across bars can make some visually discrepancies, it will, of course, have no impact on the audio.
Continuity Illusion
There are several methods behind the continuity illusion, one of which is called the Shepard tone, often likened to the visual stylings of M.C. Escher, and in particular his 'Penrose stairs' or 'endless stairs' works. A Visual representation of the endless stairs, the shepards tone gives of the illusion of a note constantly increasing in pitch for, in theory, forever. The concept behind it is having several notes octaves apart, all increasing simultaneously in pitch, crescendoing in and decrescendoing out as to 'mask' the ends of the notes and blend them into each other. This is however, a lot easier to do digitally than it is manually on an instrument, so I decided to test this and try discover the best way. Originally my desire had been to use as few instruments as possibly, I soon discovered that probably wasn't going to happen. I found that the piano gave me the most flexibility, widest range and had the most practical use of instrumentation, although I feel there is still a better way to get the same result.
Nested Tuplets
After experimenting with Nestled Tuplets I decided that they weren't a technique used with the intention to sound beautiful, at least not in a conventional sense. After a number of attempts I found that over use of Nestled Tuplets created too irregular of a beat to be used as is, so I decided that this would be more of an experiment than a focus on aesthetics. I created a pattern for each bar and compared them both to my assumption of what it would sound like and a comparison between bars with similar tuplets.
Common Fate
Common fate, the concept of 2 or more objects moving in parallel unison with each other to create the idea that they are combined. Cars driving along a road beside each other in the same direction at the same speed are seen to have common fate. in music it is when two or more voices move to the same rhythm at a constant pitch apart. In certain genres of music, this could be seen as equally good and bad depending on the interval being carried throughout, for example parallel 5ths and 8ves were a big no-no in baroque. After creating . tune and testing out a number of intervals, I found that 3rds sounded the best.
Auditory Stream Segregation
Described as being an essential technique in some elements of music that elevates and uses to the fullest potential visuals to alter the acoustic outcome of a piece, Auditory Stream Segregation is certainly a technique I believe was formed to refine and really shape the final 'design' of a song. While some may not hear it, certainly not through midi generated music, this technique is mainly for the performer I believe, and would create a unique visual effect in performance. For this piece I again wished to experiment with the concept and decided that as it was a visual technique I would make it more visually complex as opposed to audibly aesthetic.