Matching Items (4)
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- All Subjects: Electronics
- Creators: Suzuki, Kotoka
Description
This creative project thesis involves electronic music composition and production, and it uses some elements of algorithmic music composition (through recurrent neural networks). Algorithmic composition techniques are used here as a tool in composing the pieces, but are not the main focus. Thematically, this project explores the analogy between artificial neural networks and neural activity in the brain. This project consists of three short pieces, each exploring these concept in different ways.
ContributorsKarpur, Ajay (Author) / Suzuki, Kotoka (Thesis director) / Ingalls, Todd (Committee member) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Light Emerging is a symphonic dance suite in five movements. The work’s approximate length is 25 minutes; it is scored for flute, oboe, clarinet in Bb, bassoon, horn in F, trumpet in C with loop pedal, trombone, percussion, electronic percussion, piano, strings, and fixed media. Each movement of the dance suite is written to be performed as a standalone piece or together as one multimovement work. The music showcases open quintal sonorities layered in conflicting substructures, which contract into denser brooding passages and transform into tonal fanfares.
Attempting to capture the essence of how humanity uniquely experiences light and assigns personification to it, the composer presents light and dark as the main characters in a grand ballet of good and evil. Prism (Movement I) is an overture that is constantly shifting and evolving. A rainbow of colors is presented by the various orchestra members, as timbral and pitch evolutions showcase the ever-changing perspectives of a prism held to light. Yin/Yang (Movement II) explores the relationship between light and dark. The solo clarinet represents light breaking through the darkness as its colorful flourishes pierce through the brooding fixed media. Sunrise (Movement III) captures the impressive majesty of light bursting over the dark horizon in the early morning. Lux (Movement IV) is a dance of light, using solo trumpet and a chorus of phantom trumpets. Light Eternal (Movement V) expresses the deep need for humans to worship that which is unknown and eternal, and the power of light to overcome the dark. The “March of Eternal Light” signals our end in this world and the journey to the beyond.
Attempting to capture the essence of how humanity uniquely experiences light and assigns personification to it, the composer presents light and dark as the main characters in a grand ballet of good and evil. Prism (Movement I) is an overture that is constantly shifting and evolving. A rainbow of colors is presented by the various orchestra members, as timbral and pitch evolutions showcase the ever-changing perspectives of a prism held to light. Yin/Yang (Movement II) explores the relationship between light and dark. The solo clarinet represents light breaking through the darkness as its colorful flourishes pierce through the brooding fixed media. Sunrise (Movement III) captures the impressive majesty of light bursting over the dark horizon in the early morning. Lux (Movement IV) is a dance of light, using solo trumpet and a chorus of phantom trumpets. Light Eternal (Movement V) expresses the deep need for humans to worship that which is unknown and eternal, and the power of light to overcome the dark. The “March of Eternal Light” signals our end in this world and the journey to the beyond.
ContributorsJohnson, Brice (Author) / Rogers, Rodney (Thesis advisor) / Rockmaker, Jody (Committee member) / Suzuki, Kotoka (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Mongolian overtone singing (höömii) and Mongolian wrestling songs (tsols) are vocal styles that evoke physical and mental strength in the vocalist through the accessing of nature. The phrase “höömii-tsol-thinking computer” conveys my end-goal while composing, performing, and researching for my original composition strong.mng. I wanted to create a work in which the computer would be informed by the performance methods and philosophies employed during Mongolian höömii and tsols.
Strong.mng is a 25-minute production for dancer, live digital illustrator, and overtone singer with a laptop computer serving as both a fixed and interactive responsive musical instrument. The music draws upon themes from höömii and tsols through the lens of virtual fieldwork, which was the research method I used to inform strong.mng. Through the composing and performing of strong.mng, I arrived at the following three-part hypothesis: firstly, the development of a robust symbiotic relationship between höömii, tsols, and today’s electronic music technology may transform the technological devices used into agents of deep ecology and bodily interconnectedness. Secondly, this transformation may metamorphose the performer into a more courageous being who is strengthened both physically and mentally by the Mongolian belief that, when performing höömii and tsols, the musician is drawn into kinship with nature. Lastly, I believe some computer music is restrained in its potential by techno-somatic discreteness as well as anthropocentrism, and that applying philosophies from höömii and tsols can help move computer music more towards a physically embodying means of sonification; one that is also akin with the natural world.
Strong.mng is a 25-minute production for dancer, live digital illustrator, and overtone singer with a laptop computer serving as both a fixed and interactive responsive musical instrument. The music draws upon themes from höömii and tsols through the lens of virtual fieldwork, which was the research method I used to inform strong.mng. Through the composing and performing of strong.mng, I arrived at the following three-part hypothesis: firstly, the development of a robust symbiotic relationship between höömii, tsols, and today’s electronic music technology may transform the technological devices used into agents of deep ecology and bodily interconnectedness. Secondly, this transformation may metamorphose the performer into a more courageous being who is strengthened both physically and mentally by the Mongolian belief that, when performing höömii and tsols, the musician is drawn into kinship with nature. Lastly, I believe some computer music is restrained in its potential by techno-somatic discreteness as well as anthropocentrism, and that applying philosophies from höömii and tsols can help move computer music more towards a physically embodying means of sonification; one that is also akin with the natural world.
ContributorsKennedy, Justin Leo (Author) / Paine, Garth (Thesis advisor) / Solís, Ted (Committee member) / Suzuki, Kotoka (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Electro-acoustic compositions throughout the twentieth-century have flourished due to the modern advancements and improvements in technology, including image based interactive software. This project aims to reveal how three composers of different backgrounds utilize the use of euphonium in combination with live interactive electronics. To this date no known works have been composed for this instrumentation.
Advancements in the development of audio software and hardware have helped to improve and rapidly evolve the inclusion of live electronics including the use of performer-triggered events, audio processing, and live electronic decision-making. These technologies can be utilized and explored in various ways. Three composers have been commissioned to each compose a new work focusing on using the timbre of the euphonium in combination with explored electronic sounds, unplanned sounds of nature and the use of the human voice. Each work is performed and examined by the author in order to further explore the electro-acoustic properties of this genre, how they communicate and interact with one another, and how the electronics interact and meld with the sound of the euphonium. Compositional elements in this project include but are not limited to the use of pre-recorded natural and “un-natural” sounds, and the manipulations of both pre-recorded and live sounds through the use of performer triggered events using visual programming languages such as Max/MSP and looping pedals.
Advancements in the development of audio software and hardware have helped to improve and rapidly evolve the inclusion of live electronics including the use of performer-triggered events, audio processing, and live electronic decision-making. These technologies can be utilized and explored in various ways. Three composers have been commissioned to each compose a new work focusing on using the timbre of the euphonium in combination with explored electronic sounds, unplanned sounds of nature and the use of the human voice. Each work is performed and examined by the author in order to further explore the electro-acoustic properties of this genre, how they communicate and interact with one another, and how the electronics interact and meld with the sound of the euphonium. Compositional elements in this project include but are not limited to the use of pre-recorded natural and “un-natural” sounds, and the manipulations of both pre-recorded and live sounds through the use of performer triggered events using visual programming languages such as Max/MSP and looping pedals.
ContributorsDuron-VanTuinen, Danielle Rae (Author) / Swoboda, Deanna (Thesis advisor) / Ericson, John (Committee member) / Suzuki, Kotoka (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017