Week 7

This week Tuesday was a public holiday and so we didn’t have a class on Audio Arts. In Creative Computing we started learning about Pro Tools.[1] I have used Pro Tools a lot so leaning the software wasn’t anything new. But, I did find it helpful how Christian explained how a sequencer works from the most simplest level. I wasn’t sure about the difference between a channel and a track but this lecture cleared that up for me. The organizational formats of the Pro Tool sessions were also helpful. [2]

In Forum we spent time listening to Iannis Xenakis, Gabrielle Manca, and Phil Glass. Iannis Xenakis is a Greek composer with a maths background. This piece was created using mathematical graphs and to me sounded like lots of buzzing.[3]It was called “Voyage to Andromeda” (1989). I didn’t consider this piece music and because I went for so long (15mins) it got quite annoying. There were dynamics in the piece with some arpeggitations at parts, and also sometimes some ambient parts. Overall this piece was just buzzing that went for too long.

The next piece was called “In Flagranti” by Gabrielle Manca (1990). This piece was composed and written for guitar. The performer used all parts of the guitar such as:

Slide guitar
Sliding up/down
Hard strumming
Slapping on the fret board
Deliberate string squeaks
Hammering up on the fret board
Some open strings
General hammer on/pull offs

This piece went for 9 minutes, which wasn’t too bad. The song sounded strange but it was interesting to hear different parts of the guitar played and to try and work out what the performer was actually doing. I have some guitar background so I could pick most of the techniques. It was interesting when David Harris stressed the fact that everything was planned out on a score and although the piece sounded a bit random and improvised it was definitely written exactly that way. I thought this piece was ok to listen to but it still didn’t have any melodic qualities.

The final piece we listened to was by Phil Glass called “Rubic” (1984). When I heard this piece the first thought that came to my mind was “Finally we’re listening to some music”. [4]This piece had many instruments like flutes, bass, strings, marimba and brass. The notation was quite fast and the song had structure. The piece had a running feeling to it and it was definitely musical. Before I found out what year this song was made my guess was late 80s to early 90s, so I was close.

In the second hour of forum we had a presentation by an honour student, Seb Tomczak. He showed up this project he was working on called “Milkcrate”. Milkcrate essentially is the creation of music with specific rules. It was something different and original but it isn’t really something I would be interested in doing. Overall there were 6 Milkcrates and each has a different sound.
[5]
In each Milkcrate people would be inside a room and would have to make sure at least one person is composing music at any one time. The tools used to make the sounds must fit inside a matchbox. This lead to some interesting creations and it was surprising to see how paperclips, rubber bands etc could produce decent sounds once processed.

One point, which Steven Wittington brought up which I thought, was a valid point is: “Who owns the copyright or intellectual property?”. Seb organized the works and made up the rules but he didn’t actually create any music. This is an interesting point, which I really don’t know the answer too.

[1] Pro Tools LE. 'Pro Tools LE Software', Digidesign. http://www.digidesign.com/products/sw/images/PTLE7.jpg (Accessed 1/05/2006)

[2] Christian Haines. "Creative Computing Lecture - Audio Lab". Lecture presented at the Audio Lab, University of Adelaide, 27th April 2006.

[3] 'Iannis Xenakis' Wikipedia. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ab/Xenakis2.jpg (Accessed 1/05/2006)

[4] 'Phillip Glass'. Dunvagen Music Publishing Inc. http://www.philipglass.com/images/biographies/pg5.jpg (Accessed 1/05/2006)

[5] 'Milkcrate'. EMU Electronic Music Unit. http://www.milkcrate.com.au/images/sessions/mc_6_big.jpg (Accessed 1/05/2006)