Installation as an Immersive Score

Meru Set 1 - Back of Screen 1

 Before I write about my final installation presented at UOW, on this blog, i wish to focus on the musical aspect of the installation separately as a mirror from the way it was realised.

For the moment I resist classifying this as sound art for reason which I will explain. Usually from that perspective,  sound is an added element to a visual display. In this particular case i am entertaining the idea to look at in an complementary way.  Here the concept is to having the totality of an immersive space replace or act a the musical score.As I am not imposing sound into the space, I am inviting the participants to explore
 what is presented as options. This to me is more like a score.

Meru Set 2 - Back of Screen 2

This allows new possibilities not possible with conventional scores regardless of their format.  The idea is to immerse the performer in the score as opposed it being an object presented in front of one where the other surroundings are suppressed or ignored. It also omits the role of the score of something that is projected outward into the space since one is already inside of it. In this installation a participant is open to explore the totality of everything that is presented to them. It thus represents a totality in which the visual elements provide the stimulus for the sound.

Meru Set 3 -Front of Screen 2

Such a composition opens up new possibilities in terms of being open ended, without a fixed perceptible beginning and ending,  for varied number of players, and of  changing  players who might only participate in part of the total duration. The nature of the participants moving through the space thus liberates the concept of one person one instrument or set of instruments. In this sense it works toward a composition without an author or an anonymous one. The players though unlike in traditional western music do not bring instruments, something closer to how gamelan ensembles are fixed and thus a centre where people congregate. The corporeal experience and presence becomes the determination of how the work unfolds in the space which will be unique to each participant.

Meru Set 3 - Front of Screen 3

A composition nevertheless can be quite specific yet allows for each participant to take an active part in the create act. There is no separation between performer and audience. In this case, the instruments are predetermined and where they sound in the room is fixed. How they are arrange influences what a person might play next as well as providing self contained units even if the overall movement of the space is not. It is the unique structural possibilities of a certain class of microtonal instruments that allow for this type of interaction where strong acoustical realities can go from one end of the room to the other while still providing a local identity.

Meru Set 3 - Front of Screen 4

The installation incorporates a few of my instruments being used both in for their visual presence and as the sounds they produce.

Meru Set 3 - Shadows on Wall

9 of my Meru bars are used which are arranged in 4 sets of closely related pitches that cause beating. 

Meru Set 4- Back of Screen 3

 In the space, there is an over all placement starting from the entrance from low to high to correspond to the general character of the visual screens in which in turn is based on the space itself.

Meru Set 4 - Front of Screen 4

 What happens is that each visual elements such as the screen ( not that the score is limited to them) might be viewed from more than one perspective.

Meru Set 4 - Front of Screen 5

Also each instrument set will be a local point of perspective of the whole installation which will interpret even the same screen and frame and the shadows in a different way.

Meru Set 4 -View of The Tree

Each set will have available multiple direction to draw upon and even what is placed in back of the head  can continue to inform the participant.

The Tree - Front of Screen 5

 The sound of other instruments in the space extends ones vision and interaction around the corners of the space as well as invoking the memories from their location.

The Tree - Back of Screen 4

The instruments themselves can form apart of the score.

The Tree - Overall 

 The space or score in this case thus reflects a totality, a universe that one finds one is within. All elements one witnesses in the space becomes part of the score thereby increasing the means in which the score can interact.

THE HISTORY OF PROTEST DURING ANAPHORIA’S GREAT MISSIONARY EXPULSION

This short but distinct book by the respected historian Vunos Rainter is now available at the Center of Alphabetical Sequencing.  Already it is being heralded as an important work in detailing the unique methods of protesting during the last great upheaval on the island more than a century ago.  Since the Missionaries were strongly supported by military “advisors”, a different tactic was taken than the usual attempt of soliciting large group protest that normally take place in such situation. Instead the protest involve simultaneously appearing on as many different street corners possible. The effectiveness of this was it ability to be seen by more people that a concentrated group pushed to remote locales would not. When infiltrators seem to tip off the powers that be, smaller groups where formed that if need be would break into free acting protestors appearing randomly at times of high visibility.  This greatly hampered the mobilization of small but stronger forces who were unable to be everywhere at once.  The book also chronicles other tactics that appeared at the time like short 15 minute protests of large groups that would be gone by the time forces could be brought into place. Later there were even ‘groups of fives’ where smaller protest units divided into 5 groups would appear in a chain of locations each for a short period of time but them proceeding to another. Some locations could and would be visited within a few hours by a different group.

Forming Tetrachordal Scales from the Subharmonic Series

Here is a page of a document  added to The Journal of Anaphorian Music Theory. The document looks at one simple way one can derive tetrachordal scales from a subharmonic series. Such scales have been observed on equally spaced holes on flutes as well possibly the Greek Aulos.  Regardless of the case,  the scales manage to touch upon some well known ancient Greek ones as well as presenting  a method to finding others. Such a method could be easily tuned with only an ability to tune fourths and fifths above a given note.
A direct link to the PDF is also Here.

Performance from Yours and Owls 3/13

Here is an almost year old video clip from Yours and Owl's in Wollongong. It might be my favorite video on youtube as it seem to have less problems with it than the others. It is too bad the slower beginning didn't make in in, but it stands on its own. With Terumi Narushima as the duo Clocks and Clouds. A big thanks to Rory Anderson for putting this together on the fly.

CAS Commission Investigates Churchward's Map of Mu Resemblence to Anaphoria

A recently surfaced map of the Mu empire has lead to the formation of  a Center For Alphabetical Sequencing  commission to investigate it supposed source. This map of the Mu empire by James Churchward  that up till now had been unknown, has struck many in Anaphoria as being almost identical to the shape found in some of the oldest maps of the island. Some have disputed that the location and especially the size  is too far off for this to be anything more than a coincidence. Still others find evidence with Churchward stating this island was inhabited by people called the Naacal. While there are no such people on Anaphoria, the word does exist  in the language of the people surrounding village of Aal, meaning "family" or "social group".  Wikipedia states- Churchward claimed to have gained his knowledge of this lost land after befriending an Indian priest, who taught him to read an ancient dead language (spoken by only three people in all of India). The priest disclosed the existence of several ancient tablets, written by the Naacals, and Churchward gained access to these records after overcoming the priest's initial reluctance. His knowledge remained incomplete, as the available tablets were mere fragments of a larger text, but Churchward claimed to have found verification and further information in the records of other ancient peoples. 

It is reported by the commissions spokesperson  that while Churchward appears partially mistaken due to the incompleteness of data, it places possible  contact with India much further back and on a deeper level than previously conceived.
The  commission hopes this might solve certain unanswered questions about Anaphoria's ancient and cryptographic history.

A 19 tone extension of Centaur for Strings- Silenus

While my Centaur tuning was originally designed for 7-limit ear training back in the days when electronic means were too unstable to use, it has been imposing itself in recent years for a variety of projects. The occasion for this has been in having to write for ensembles to play music in another tuning but one that is also manageable to those not specializing in such things.

 One such project was for the Australian group, Ensemble Offspring and it soon again became useful in composing a String Quartet to be work shopped in Aberdeen. The latter had its real premiere last Nov. in Los Angeles by a string quartet led by Melinda Rice. As I invited to do another piece by Melinda as well as a another group, Locana, which includes a cello and violin, a new question arose: is there a 7 limit tuning that preserves the open string tunings in fifths yet gives some of the basic material also found in Centaur.

Since a shape of an interval learned on one string easily translates to another, the limitation to 12 pitches was unduly restricting. Hence the next point where things fell into a nice shape was with a 19 tone scale which differs by only one note from one worked out by Terumi Narushima in a lesson. Since the context is its use with strings, certain options present themselves as easily transposed from one string to another.