H        O        M        E

Chapter 6: CONCLUSION

Areas For Further Exploration

CONCLUSION

                The three processes described and discussed here show that there are definite relationships that can be drawn between language and music and that these relationships are useful in composing music. The two points brought up in the introduction:

                1. That a poem's sonic structure can be used to create a musical structure; and

                2. That a poem's aural expression can be used to create a musical expression, are shown to be very useful starting points for the composition of music.

These points are discussed, along with musical compositions created to illustrate them, in Chapters 2, 3 and 4.

                In Chapter 2, USING THE PHONEMIC STRUCTURE OF A POEM AS THE BASIS FOR MUSICAL COMPOSITION, the sonic expression of a poem is deconstructed to its constituent, significant parts, its phonemes. The relationships between these parts form a rule based structure which is translated to another medium, music in this case. These rules, and consequently their aural expression, are based in a system of phoneme relationships unique to the English language. Within this system the poet constructs the sound of the poem in a way that is both rigorous and intellectual, based on his conscious use of the sounds of the English language, and at the same time intuitive and transparent, due to his long use of and practised expertise with that language. Therefore the sound system of the English language becomes a filter through which an artistic expression is created.

                The seven studies of ZOOMING IN presented here illustrate the use of a poem's sonic structure to create a musical structure. Here the speech sounds of the poem, its phonemes, are directly translated into a musical expression by replacing those phonemes with MIDI notes[1]. This means that the system used to arrange these phonemes directly influences the arrangement of the notes in the musical expression, creating a melody based on the phoneme arrangement of the poem. In the studies presented, the phoneme translation is developed into musical compositions resulting from the processes given in that chapter, first as a direct rendition of the translation, and then as filtered through my artistic sensibilities.

                Chapter 3, COMPUTER MANIPULATIONS OF A DIGITIZED AUDIO PERFORMANCE OF A POETRY READING, looks at the actual sounds of a poem, as produced by its author when reading that poem, and how these can be translated into a musical expression. By affecting a segment of the poetry reading through computer based granulation techniques, thereby producing a time compressed or lengthened rendition of that segment, the minute changes in its audio stream become more significant audio items. These affected audio segments are then passed through processes which produce glissandi, creating pitch variation. The resulting audio stream is then passed through ten comb filters, creating a ten part harmonic accompaniment. By using the spectra of the actual reading to affect the durations of each of the comb filters, the accompaniment develops a more intricate and musical harmonic structure. Finally, a panning process provides 180 degree stereo spatial placement for the audio stream[2].

                Through these processes the installation Someone creates a musical expression from an aural expression. Here the actual sounds of the poem Saint Dymphna's Bells, as produced by its author, is the single sound source and generates many aspects of the composition. The exceptions are the glissandi and panning motion, which are based on Fibonacci divisions of the duration of each part, and the harmonic fields, which are based on Pythagorean octave divisions. These are my input to the composition and reflect my musical interests.

                Chapter 4, ENHANCING THE EMOTIONAL IMPACT OF A TEXT THROUGH ELECTRONIC MANIPULATION, looks at using the sounds of a poem, as expressed through the poet's voice, to create a setting which illustrates my interpretation of that poem. The gist of the poem, its semantic motion and its structural motion as I see it, is reflected through some fairly standard processes of electronic and computer based composition. These include harmonising, delaying, pitch shifting (through adjusting the speed of sample playback and therefore altering the tempo) and ring modulating segments of the reading or other recordings of the poet's voice. By using these processes to affect the sound of the poet's voice the soundscape is created.

                The actual reading of Under An Open Minded Sky is also affected through time displacement techniques, giving a sense of distance from the listener or of displacing the voice from itself, both temporally and spatially. This is heard in the segments where reading is treated with a long delay between the left and right channels, creating an effect similar to hearing an announcement in a baseball or cricket stadium.

                The compositional approach taken when constructing the soundscape and affecting the reading differs from those taken in ZOOMING IN and Someone. Here the purpose was to enhance a reading of a poem, not to create a distinct musical composition.

                The three areas of composition shown here are in accord with the styles of current musical traditions. The first and most abstract, ZOOMING IN, produces music reminiscent of the styles of instrumental composers such as Luigi Nono and Stefan Wolpe in their piano music. Nono's .....sofferte onde serene..... and Wolpe's Form IV: Broken Sequences for Piano, foe example, have similarities in their approaches to gesture and density. Someone resonates with the style of electronic composers such as Paul Lansky, who affect the voice as shown in the pieces by Lansky discussed above[3]. Under An Open Minded Sky concords with the style of the many composers who create computer or electronically generated or enhanced musical settings for texts, for example Katharine Norman's Trying to Translate, which uses taped effected voice, piano and effected piano to accompany a piano part played live, and, as discussed above, Roger Reynolds' The Vanity of Words, which uses effected text segments to accompany uneffected text segments.

                The three relationships drawn are: the phoneme string of a text as a string of sounds devoid of lexical, denotative or connotative meaning and therefore similar to a string of notes; the intonational contour of speech being similar to a melodic contour; and the emotional impact of speech sounds being similar to the emotional impact of musical sounds.

                I have interpreted these relationships through the compositions put forward in this thesis. In ZOOMING IN and Someone the speech aspect of the text is either completely disguised or partially masked. While the role of speech in both these compositions may appear less obvious than in Under An Open Minded Sky, it is still the driving force of all three compositions.

                The degree of my interpretation in regard to the text increases from ZOOMING IN through to Under An Open Minded Sky. The style of interpretation also evolves: ZOOMING IN takes an extremely mechanistic approach, where the meaning of the text is not considered in the composition of the piece. Someone looks at the meaning of the text as it affects the reading of the text, and uses that to influence the compositional approach. The processes used in Under An Open Minded Sky are completely determined by the meaning of the text through my interpretation.

                This degree of interpretation is entirely appropriate for the explorations undertaken in my thesis and the results show that effective music can be made through these processes. The music produced shows that the continuation of this approach to composition, especially with the continuing improvements in hardware and software power, elegance and availability, is both viable and fruitful.

Areas For Further Exploration

                This thesis explores just one area of human communication and explores it in a way heavily skewed to the composition of music. Theories of lingual communication are not explored in sufficient depth or compared with theories of musical communication for definitive theories to be made on possible connections between language and music. This was not the intention of the work.

                The dissertation does not take into account other areas of human communication: for example, theories of communication and aesthetic appreciation such as humour theory, theories of visual arts, information theory and the operation of the mind. As these theories become more quantifiable with improvements in understanding of the operation of the human mind and the technology that explores them, it will become more viable to use them in ways similar to the use of language described in this dissertation.

                Speech is essentially an interactive activity. As computing power increases it may become possible to develop algorithms that model other aspects of human interaction, for example, the motion of people in a room or the interactions of two opposing sports teams. This assumes that there is some form of conscious or innate organisation in these activities. It is also possible to use the algorithms and other compositional processes presented here with sources other than speech.

                It is hoped that the discussion presented here enhances the use of text or speech as a compositional aid and that the compositions presented contribute to this process.