If Round was composed in mid 2007 as an entry in the 2007-2008 Barto Piano Composition Contest. This contest is unique in that it requires a piano piece based on poetry.
This composition is about shapes. The square blocks at the beginning of Figure 1 were constructed from straight lines in the preceding imagery as the first line of the poem asks "What good has any shape found?" The blocks, in turn, transform into round shapes as the poem settles on an examination of round shapes. The complete poem in text form can be found on this page.
There is this long-standing admonition in poetry to avoid the abstract, which explains the ubiquitous use of metaphors and the words like, and as. That's why "Love is like a red, red rose, and "Hope is the thing with feathers." However, I found I could challenge that caveat and remain in the abstract throughout the poem by adding performance graphics to the mix.
But there was a trade-off. I quickly discovered that the use of performance graphics shortened the aesthetic "line." "Line," in this context, is a musical term that refers to an "idea" or "phrase." While a musical idea is much more amenable to being sliced up, repeated and stretched out over an extended period of time, the comprehension of an idea expressed visually occurs much more rapidly and has little tolerance for delayed development. Repetition of "lines," so common in music and poetry, is intolerable when portrayed visually.
Technical Considerations
The rotating coil image in Figure 1 is responding in real-time to the piano notes. Different areas of the coil are programmed to respond to different ranges of frequencies coming from the piano.
During the actual concert performance, the sounds from the piano are sent through one computer for affectation by the visualization software, while a second computer generates the optional text images using another software program. When the text is generated by a computer -- as opposed to being spoken live -- the output of both computers is combined through a video mixer, which is then sent to a video projector.
The vectored background color flow is also programmed to react to the sounds in real time. This "dependency on the sound" can be carried to the extreme, i.e. no sound can mean no visuals whatsoever. The screen is blank. As the sound begins, the visuals reappear and react accordingly.
The geometric shapes in the foreground, the flow of the colors as they enter and leave the screen, the color pallets in use at any one time, and various affectations to the overall image are generated by the software. The composer controls these elements in minute detail via scripts written in .txt and C++ formats. These scripts contain the timing cues for transitions, the formulas for constructing the basic geometric shapes using math and trigonometry calculations, the definitions of the color pallets using a different set of mathematical parameters, and the transformation of foreground and background shapes in and out of memory caches using commands contained within the software.
Please note that any jerkiness in the animation demonstrated on this website is caused by the conversion of the original files into a Flash-compatible format. The resolution is compressed to reduce the size of the file. The resolution used during a concert is at least 1024 X 768 and sometimes larger. The image is fed into a single video projector. The computers used in the construction of this piece and in the staging of actual events are standard P4/ 2.4 GHz with 2-Gig of RAM.
Figure 2.
Aesthetic Considerations
Since the music and the visuals had to be created from scratch, it seemed only fitting that the poetry should also be original. This would offer the flexibility to modify each element according to the nuances of the other media. If one element, such as the poem, were to become sacrosanct and immutable -- which happens when someone else's poem is selected-- then the potential of the finished product is restricted in its possibilities. By keeping all of the elements in play -- the music, poetry and visuals -- I felt I could create something better suited to the audience of the 21st Century.
To make this work, each element must be dependent on the other two. The words must be dependent on the music and visuals, the visuals on the music and words, and the music on the words and visuals. Only by leaning on each other would the whole be greater than the sum of the individual parts. If the poetry was originally written to stand on its own, then the music and visuals would become but an accompaniment.
Today's visually-oriented concert audience demands, I would offer, fresh stimulation at a higher rate than its predecessors. The contemporary audience is used to visual stimulation of the highest sophistication, which can be accomplished with the incorporation of a visual element in music and poetry.
I also felt that if the Barto contest offered a chance to compete by demonstrating creativity in completely different disciplines, i.e. classical music and poetry, there was an obligation to create in both of these fields. Since the contest demanded the involvement of poetry and music, I felt one had the obligation to succeed in both art forms, and likewise, the opportunity to fail by either. Obviously, in my case, the later prevailed. But then...
Performance Considerations
In my submission to the Barto contest, I indicated that the text, i.e. the words included in the graphics, could either be read by a narrator --and eliminated from the visualization material -- or superimposed onto the performance graphics, thereby eliminating the need for a narrator, as demonstrated in these video excerpts. If a narrator were used, then the hardware requirements for the visualization element was reduced to just one computer. If the poem were to be incorporated in the visualization (and the narrator eliminated), then two computers would be required.
It’s time for the computer science and art department to join the music department.
The composer is offering to visit any organization or teaching institution that is interested in establishing a visualization course as part of its curriculum. Such a course would involve participation from the computer science department, the broadcast department for audio and video production techniques, and the art department for the visual aesthetics. In other words, the live, interactive visualization of music presents the classic challenge of combing technology and art.
Assistance in presenting a visualization program to your organization can be obtained by using the contact form on this website.
A handout giving the costs of establishing a visualization program and some indication of the background and training necessary to initiate such a program can be downloaded here.
