Chapter 5: DISCUSSING THE POEMS AND THE COMPOSITIONS
The
musical examples given as part of this dissertation show a progression from a
highly abstract translation of speech into music, seen in the piano pieces
derived from the poem ZOOMING IN, to an amalgamation of speech
and music, seen in the installation Someone, to the poem Saint
Dymphna's Bells, and finally to music driven by text, seen in Under An
Open Minded Sky.
The
choice of these texts out of the many possible came about after much reading
of, followed by discussion with, the respective poets. During these discussions
I came to understand the various working methods of each poet, their approach
to the subject matter and to the sonic aspect of their work.
Alex
Skovron takes a highly detailed and constructed approach in arranging the sound
of his poems, placing alliterations, rhymes, assonances and any other resonance
between vowel or consonantal sounds in a highly constructed and well developed
manner. He takes a similar approach to arranging the words and ideas of his
poems but this was not my focus when selecting ZOOMING IN; I was more
interested in the sonic arrangement of the poem.
Barry
Dickins takes a more 'stream of consciousness' approach to composing his poems.
His use of meter and rhyme is less constructed than Alex Skovron's, preferring
to let the reader construct the intonational, sonic characteristics, and
therefore the emotional characteristics, of the poem themselves. In Saint
Dymphna's Bells it is the meaning of the text that generates the emotional
response in the reader or listener, and that is what drives the intonation of
the reading. Dickins' reading conveys his very bitter, emotional relationship
to his text and it is this reading which generates the intonational
characteristics of the reading and consequently the pitch contours of the piece
Someone.
Felix
Nobis developed his poem Under An Open Minded Sky as I was developing
the soundscape to go with it. This meant that he was informed by the
soundscape, influencing the sonic structure of the text and the manner in which
the denotative and connotative aspects of the poem should be expressed. A
consideration when writing the poem was that it would be presented as a
performance; for this reason Nobis created parts of the narrative that would
allow for dramatic changes in the pitch, tempo, amplitude and timbre of his
reading. These aspects of the poem in turn influenced the pitch, tempo,
amplitude and timbre of the soundscape as it was being constructed.
While
these aspects were considered in selecting the poems to demonstrate the use of
language in computer based composition they are not focal issues in the thesis.
It is not, for example, necessary for ZOOMING IN or Saint Dymphna's
Bells to have or inspire a semantic relationship with the music produced,
or in fact to have any relationship beyond that of creating a sonic structural
core, however some definite semantic relationships can be found. On the other
hand Under An Open Minded Sky uses the semantic structure of the text,
expressed through the poet's use of speech sounds, as its prime driving force.
This chapter looks at the development of the three pieces over the course of
their composition and over the development of this dissertation.
The
compositional processes, methods and aims for each of the pieces (or group of
pieces as in the case of ZOOMING IN) evolved during the period of my
candidature. Over this time a number of approaches to each poem were developed,
explored and, in many cases, discarded. As my understanding of each poem
developed so did the composition and the presentation methods.
The
three texts explore three aspects of the human condition: the empirical, in
which the human being is a quantifiable object; the affected, where the life of
a person is subject more to the outside forces acting on their life than their
own free will and agency; and the existent, which sees life as a series of
events to which each human must reconcile themselves as best they can. The
individual texts, regarding these three aspects, are discussed in detail under
the respective headings below.
The
poem ZOOMING IN takes two paths, the first is a description of a
corporeal journey from outside the human body to within it, the second outside
into the mental state. It is a somewhat surgical description of the observable,
empirical aspects of a human being. The text pares away the layers surrounding a
human, beginning with the dot that magnifies to become a planet with features,
on to a building which houses a figure who is entered and is finally seen as
housing a dot. We then take another journey to enter the mind of the figure
through the forehead, passing some emotions to again finally return to the dot.
This
empirical, surgical, observation is reflected in the disembodied, non-human,
expression of the music resulting from the poem. The use of an electronic
device to produce the audio signal as the final representation is an example of
this disembodiment. Dissecting the text to its constituent parts, the phonemes,
reflects the similar dissection of human that the poem makes.
The
music takes an opposite approach to the text. Instead of beginning with the
layers that surround a human and then paring them away the composition process
takes the most essential core, the phoneme string, and surrounds it with an
accompaniment, giving it many layers. This places the core in a context, just
as the core of the poem, the dot. is placed within the context of space, the
world, and finally the human.
The poem ZOOMING IN does not offer any
commentary on what it observes: its description is completely mechanical and
impartial. The intention of the composition process is to reflect this
mechanistic and impartial quality through the algorithmic approach described in
Chapter two.
By
using this approach the core, after it has been suitably adjusted, creates its
own context, properly reflecting itself through that context. In this way my
partiality and taste is minimised but still present through the constraints and
means of organisation I have imposed, just as the partiality of the poet is
also minimised.
By
using the execution of Ronald Ryan as subject matter, Barry Dickins was able to
discuss the impositions placed on a person by the state. Saint Dymphna's
Bells draws the distinction between an individual and the defining events
that occur in his or her life. In particular it concentrates on the events over
which he or she has no control, the random events which are imposed by an
unaffected, self-interested outside party and the defining events in an
individual's life which occur for no apparent or observable reason. At the same
time it focuses on the occasionally anonymous compassion that can be seen in
human interactions; this is exemplified by the anonymous ringing of Saint
Dymphna's bells.
Ryan
brought his execution upon himself by shooting a prison guard while escaping.
However at the time of his execution there were enough precedents to allow some
other kind of punishment. There were also claims that the government supported
and enforced the execution for political rather than for judicial reasons, and
there was doubt as to whether it was Ryan or his partner in the escape who did
the shooting.
Ryan
became a pawn in the events that took his life. The poem describes this
passionately and compassionately, without shirking from the horror of the
events. The intention while composing Someone was to represent the
inevitability of Ryan's life while exposing the compassion and fear that
existed in it.
Presenting
Someone as an installation, thus creating an aural environment in which
the audience is immersed and has no control, other than to leave it, reflects
this inevitability and imposition. As soon as the audience enters the
performance space they discover the continually shifting nature of their aural
environment. It is then up to the audience to place themselves in the
environment in such a way as to make their experience the most agreeable
possible. The shifting quality of the composition is created by the harmonic
action and content of Someone, shifting between the lighter perfect
intervals and the darker minor intervals.
The
random selection of Parts also reflects the random nature of many events that
affect people's lives. Therefore a comfortable position at one time may become
uncomfortable in the future. This reflects the nature of events in a human
being's life.
Under
An Open Minded Sky was first commissioned to open a literary festival. This
meant that the audience consisted of people concerned more with words than with
music. Within this context a high degree of dramatic theatre was used in the
premier performance. This included stage props of beer bottles and broken
glass, and many photographs of the Saint James Park war memorial and the
smaller, poorer houses from the Hawthorn area.
Part
of the commission required that the poet and composer produce a work in which
the text and music evolve together to form a fully integrated piece reflecting
the Hawthorn community. It was decided that the text should be concerned with
the citizens of that community, which is renowned for its wealth and power. To
this end much time was spent in the parks and shopping centres of the area,
getting a sense of the people who make the community from day to day.
The
war memorial in Saint James Park provided a focus for the piece. As described
in the poem, broken beer bottles, junk food wrappers, cigarette packets and the
general flotsam of a night of revelry were left littering the memorial. These
invisible revellers became the initial characters of the narrative Sam and Max,
who inspired the other two characters, Valerie Maynes and Mrs. December. These
four came to represent the less conspicuous of the community.
The
poem uses violence, from the small domestic scale to the larger worldwide
scale, to frame the existence of the main characters. These characters do not
begrudge their situations or the events that have shaped and are shaping their
lives, simply accepting them with regret or joy. It is the reader, through his
inflection and intonation, who comments on their lives.
The
listener is invited to share the poet's opinions of the characters and to
engage in their regrets and joys. The soundscape draws from each of the
characters and the various events of their lives, as described in the poem, to
support or contrast these opinions and to comment on and elucidate their joys
and regrets.