Components of My Musical Language

            My musical language consists of the synthesis of various components.  Most of these components have developed since I began studying Western classical music formally seven years ago.  However, at the heart of my musical style are influences outside of this tradition, I grew up listening almost exclusively to popular music written since 1960.  Issues related to the following categories form the foundation of my musical language:

• Form and structure
• Pattern or process recognition
• Parallel Generative Processes
• Motivic development
• Influences from popular music
• Extra-musical Content
• Instruments Combined with Digital Audio/Video
• Newness: Transformation Through Aesthetic Judgments

In this essay I will discuss each of these categories with references to various musical and extra-musical influences, in addition to presenting examples from my own work. 

Form and Structure

            I believe that one of the most important aspect of my compositions is their formal structure. After determining the basic materials of a piece, I outline an overall form that I believe will be appropriate for these materials and will result in significant moments. I create formal structures through a mix of predetermined procedures or proportions—abstracted from the musical materials or extra-musical influences—and improvised solutions to local concerns.  Often the large-scale procedures or proportions will also be applied to, or influence smaller-scale aspects of the work.  This notion of “quasi-self-similarity” amongst variously sized parts is influenced by the concepts of fractals in nature, art, and mathematics.  A fractal is a “rough or fragmented…shape that can be split into parts, each of which is” approximately “a reduced-size copy of the whole.” 1
            An example of this in my work is in the piece Object Metamorphosis for wind ensemble and digital audio.  I based this composition on an artwork by Jorge Garcia Almodovar entitled Black Modules, which is pictured below. 

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My interpretation of Almodovar’s work influenced my composition in terms of the composition’s fundamental pitch structure and proportions.  I grouped the ten modules into six segments.  Each segment has its own section of music associated with it.  These segments were mapped to a pitch progression (G-F-G-F-B-G) and proportional durations (3-2-3-2-4-2).   Both the pitch sequence and durational pattern operate on various structural levels—global, sectional, and local.  The overall proportions of the work are approximately the result of multiplying each of the proportional durations above by 45 seconds.  The structural pitch relationships between the sections result in augmenting the initial intervals: G-C-F-Bb-B-G.  Each of the individual sections is also governed by free variations of the proportions, as are many of the phrases.  The example below presents the brass section that concludes the second largest climax of the piece.  The material circled in green in the example presents the pitch and proportion structures discussed in a slight variation (3-2-3-1-3-2).

           
            A clear preoccupation with proportion is also apparent in my work S**p Crackle *O* for digital audio and video.  The video clarifies all local and large-scale structural relationships between the sections and the musical materials.  Essentially, a few imagines are mapped to certain musical materials and sections of music in a fairly one-to-one manner.  After this initial mapping, these relationships can be varied in order to create recontextualizations and to subvert the listener’s expectations.  

            The fundamental importance in my work of form and structure has many influences.  The eighteenth-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant’s aesthetic ideas have form at the basis.  Kant emphasizes form, as design and composition, over material or specific foreground properties, which he considers decoration:  For Kant, people’s appreciation of aesthetic beauty resulted from their underlying appreciation of the structure of an artwork. 
I also consider the concept within the field of physics of “elegance” as an influence on the importance I place on structure.  The notion of elegance in physics is the idea that the theory that explains a phenomenon with the least number of, and most concise basic principles will be true.  In physics this elegance is often referred to as beauty.  In my work I try to establish “elegant” generative properties for formal structures.  The simplicity of the background proportions in Object Metamorphosis demonstrates this. 
Another influence on my concept of form is the minimalist artwork prevalent in the 1960s and 1970s that emphasized formal proportions.  Donald Judd’s works are an example of this.  Below is a picture of an artwork by Judd that placed form and proportion at the forefront.     

Pattern or Process Recognition

            I find pattern and process recognition to be fundamental to the appreciation of music.  However, I think the immediately apparent, foreground processes most apparent in many minimalist works detracts from the appreciation of the materials and form of the work.  I also find such works to be too linear in construction.  Examples of these pieces include Come Out by Steve Reich, I am Sitting in a Room by Alvin Lucier, and Piano Phase by John Adams.  On the other hand there are works with entirely unapparent, background processes, such as Structures I by Pierre Boulez and Music of Changes by John Cage. In constrast with immediately-apparent and enitrely obscured processes, I prefer works that have a sense of order.

In my work I am primarily interested in creating a sense that there is an order for most events in a work without the listener being able to readily identify the musical features that elicit that sensation.  Thus, my goal is to instill the listener with a feeling that order exists, but not to have them be distracted by having musical processes and patterns to much in the foreground.   An example would be the background structure that helped generate the materials and form for Object Metamorphosis (discussed under the form and structure tab). 

Another example in my work occurs in 10 to the Power of Negative 33 for clarinet and electronics.  In many phrases of this work the material in the clarinet occurs in retrograde, often varied, in the electronics at the same time.  While some listeners may be able to identify this, I imagine that most listeners will only be able to sense that there is cohesion without being able to identify the impetous for that notion.  Below is an excerpt from the score of this work: green lines separate the phrases; related groups of material between the clarinet and electronics are circled in red (both parts of the score are notated in Bb, the clarinet is the top staff and the electronics are presented underneath).

 

There are many influences that helped me to formulate this concept.  There is a notion within cognitive science that how one perceives an object can be strongly affected by features of the object of which the perceiver is unaware.   To me this indicates that background-ordering features of a work can provide the listener with a sense that the work is ordered without the ordering processes being in the foreground.  I find more recent music by Pierre Boulez, such as Repons and Anthémes II, to be examples of compositions with a sense of order.  Also, pieces by Helmut Lachenmann, such as Mouvement (- vor der Erstarrung) and Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern, and the work of Salvatore Sciarrino demonstrate this concept to me.

Parallel or Alternating Generative Processes

Related to my aesthetic views regarding form and order are my views about generative processes for material.  For both readily apparent and sensed processes, I generally incorporate a contrary process, a diversion, or a temporary suspension of the underlying process.  I have numerous sections of works that consist of two primary types of material, each of which has its own generative process, that alternate in an interruptive manner.  An example occurs in Inconspicuous Impulses for piano and electronics (excerpt below).  There is a two-minute section of this work that alternates between two generative processes in this manner.  The green line separates the two processes at their first alternation in the example.   This type of alteration dominates the following 2-minutes of this work with varying proportional relationships between the two types of material and incessant variation for each material-type. 

Often, as in this case, minimalist processes influence one material-type, while the other contrasting material is influenced by modernism.  This is also true in my works Promethea for saxophone and digital audio and The Role of Fruit and Alchemy for harp and digital audio .  In contrast to my aesthetic conception of process as it relates to form, this aspect of my work is influenced by what I find satisfying about minimalist works—the materials themselves and local generative process.  This feature is also influenced by the work of György Ligeti.  Ligeti’s music often has contrary processes employed simultaneously or the suspension of a process prior to its logical conclusion.    

Motivic Development             

Within the contexts of the aesthetic traits discussed thus far I prefer to present a limited number of musical motives.  These motives are constantly developed in order to create diverse sections of music.  My composition Exterminate all the Brutes for saxophone and digital audio is constructed primarily from a single 4-note motive [0,1,3,5].  This motive generates material for vastly different sections of music.  The six examples below are from the six primary sections of the work. 

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I consider Ludwig Van Beethoven to be the composer who most influenced my work in this regard.  Also, Arnold Schönberg’s concept of developing variation has influenced my development of motives. 

In addition to motive concision and unity with incessant variation, I often present two to three distinct motives, each of which has its own development process.  These motives will develop in parallel, not one after the other.  Also, the process of development from the original version to the furthest removed variant will not be presented linearly for any motive.  My composition that best demonstrates this feature is MHCHAOS for flute and computer.   The opening of the piece presents the three primary motives or the work.

Various potentials of these motives are realized throughout the work in a non-linear manner:  The two excerpts below present instances of these three motives that demonstrate this process.  The colors correspond to the previous example.

            The music of Elliott Carter and Lee Hyla particularly influenced the incorporation of non-linear development processes in my work.  This is also another example of a feature that I consider providing a sense that the composition has order, rather than presenting readily identifiable musical processes at the forefront of the music.

Influences from Popular Music

Popular music has influenced my work in various ways.  In the past my music incorporated many features of Rock & Roll music, particularly rhythmic aspects.  However, this has changed to some extent.  I consider popular music to influence my work in the following ways: overall sound quality and clarity of my electronic music, specific material allusions, and sectional divisions. 

The popular music industry has some of the most talented producers that create the clearest audio mixes with optimum sound quality.  I regularly listen to popular music and try to emulate its clarity, in terms of spectral content and layering.  Many very interesting pieces in the academic, electronic music field fail to match the production quality of popular music: for me, this is aesthetically regrettable.  In addition to general sound quality, I pay attention to the advancements in technology employed in popular music.  Producers in that field have excellent skills with overall dynamic control, compression, and reverb.  Examples of excellently produced artists—some of whom produce their own work—that I try to replicate in terms of their sound quality are Kayne West, the Black Eyed Peas, Timbaland, and Lady Gaga.  I think my work Promethea for saxophone and digital audio, with video by Barry Anderson, is very successful work in this regard.

My electronic music incorporates materials from popular music.  For example, in Promethea, Inconspicuous Impulses, and Bioluminesence for flute, clarinet, piano, digital audio and digital video there are bass sounds that are directly influenced by bass sounds in rap music.  Also, I frequently incorporate sounds that replicate those in noise and glitch music: noise refers to the frequent presentation of full spectral sounds without strong harmonic or pitched content, and glitch refers to the use of fragments of sounds or sonic artifacts from intentionally digitally destructive processing on samples or during sound synthesis.  S**p Crackle *O* is an example of both noise and glitch music.  The following score excerpt from P.S. My Uncle Helped Develop the Patriot Missile for two pianos and digital audio demonstrates a section that combines noise and glitch sounds in the electronics with instrumental mimicry of such sounds.          

All of my work is extremely sectional in its form.  There are rarely contrasting segments of music that flow together seamlessly.  Also, there are infrequently cohesive sections of music that last longer than two minutes.  I think that this is the most significant aspect of my work that results from my early musical experience primarily being with rock music.  I employ hard-edged sectional divisions that yeild clear forms.  Secondly, I think that such changes can have a wide variety of functions and create numerous affects.

In rock music one knows that there will be a change, but the songwriter can withhold that change for longer than expected or make it before expected.  Also, the songwriter determines the extremity of the change.  These are the two primary features that determine the affect of the distinct sections that appear in my work: when the change happens, and how strong or weak the relationship is to the previous material.  Also, as in my work, sections in rock music rarely last longer than one minute.  Bands and individuals that have been particularly influential for me in this regard are Tool, System of a Down, the Boredoms, The Beatles, John Zorn, and Frank Zappa.

Extra-musical Content

My work is an abstraction of concepts and phenomena.  A combination of specific biological or scientific phenomena, sociopolitical issues, concepts of consciousness, other art forms, and events in human affairs typify the inspiration for my work.  With these impetuses I create two types of pieces: work based on content that bewilders me and causes me to question my understanding of reality; and activist pieces—pieces that are intended to challenge the interpreter’s conceptions, confront them with specific events in human affairs, or encourage them to learn more about a specific issue. An example of the former is the multimedia piece S**p Crackle *O*, which is based on a work of literature that challenged my conception of how humans perceive the flow of time and how cultural products contribute to that perception.  An example of the latter is P.S. My Uncle Helped Develop the Patriot Missile, this work explicitly ruminates on a variety of issues, indicated by extensive program notes, regarding U.S. foreign policy. 

Composers such as Frederic Rzewski and Lee Hyla influenced the manner in which I incorporate extra-musical content in my work.  Rock & Roll bands, such as Rage Against the Machine and System of a Down, influenced the type of content that I tend to choose.

The general notion that art can be an abstraction of concepts and phenomena resulted from my interestd in visual art.

Instruments and Electronics

Many composers who combine instruments and electronics in a piece tend to think of the two as highly distinct means of producing sound.  While I understand that instruments and electronics have various potentials (discussed below), I try not consider these to be much more significant than the differences between a clarinet and piano.  Rather, I think that differences between specific pieces of music software, or components of music software, correlate to the distinct possibilities of instruments.  Thus, while composing for instruments and electronics I do not think of combining them to be different than writing a sonata for flute and piano.  Usually I think of the computer sound as providing various possibilities and functions:

• An impossibly large percussion ensemble, e.g. one million different wood blocks
• An extension of the live instrument’s range, timbre, speed, dynamic range, etc.
• A means to incorporate sounds that could not otherwise be present that I may want in my music, e.g. a specific person’s voice or weed wacker

             While both acoustic and electronic methods of sound production are considered somewhat equivalent in my compositional process, I do not think of them as equivalent in performance.  The type of information that a listener can parse from a human performer is very different than they can from a loudspeaker.   A person watching an instrumentalist perform can relate the physical movement of the performer to the sound produced by the instrument, as well as link their performance dynamism and facial expressions to the affective content of the music.  A loudspeaker provides no such information. 
Though I do not treat instruments and computer generated sounds differently in my compositional process, I recognize that digital media provides an indiscrete continuum of sonic possibility and combination.  Additionally, there are no limitations of fluidity and speed, limitations that performers patently possess. Human performers provide an intermediary interpreter of the work, have the ability to respond to the performance situation, and engage the audience with their technical facility, expressive power, and stage presence.  The combinations of these media provide me with an expansive set of tools to create my work. 

and Video...

Digital video has become an integral part of many of my works, including works that have live performers. While some people feel that video distracts people from the music/performance or creates too many points of interest, I believe that these type of multimedia works create a multi-perspectival experience commensurate with contemporary media and society. I think that auditory and visual experiences can reinforce meaning and yield unique and profound relationships. Also, multimedia works reinforcement aspects of my aesthetic preferences already discussed.

There are five primary reasons I incorporate video in my work:

Clarify musical structure and materials:

As mentioned earlier, I think that underlying structural relationships are a fundamental feature of my work. Digital audio and instrumental sounds have no definitive meaning: this is to say that sound is entirely abstract and non-representational unless it is a field recording of a specific sound or a reference to a shared musical language that already has established extra-musical meaning. When confronted with a series of abstractions, underlying structure can be difficult to appreciate, either consciously or unconsciously. I incorporate video to reinforce large-scale structure in my work. An example of this is Bioluminescence: this work consists of six sections, each section has a distinct set of imaginary associated with it.

I also incorporate video to reinforce relationships between musical materials and to reinforcement motivic development. As discussed under the "generative processes" tab, my musical materials often develop non-linearly, there are sometimes competing generative processes, and the background processes that yeild the foreground material are generally not apparent. Examples of this include Externalities and S**p Crackle *O*: in these works specific musical materials become associated with various imaginery. This serves to reinforcement the musical development and other generative processes at work in these compositions.

Reinforce extra-musical content:

Extra-musical content in some form is integral to my creative processes and I think generally of importance to most audiences. Imaginery establishes, reinforces, and contextualizes extra-musical content in a way that sound by itself is not capable of doing. For example, my work Bioluminescence is inspired by a variety of ocean phenomena, most importantly the ability of biological organisms to emit light. While this influence is established in digital audio through the incorporation of water and electricity samples, it is clarified and explicitly established in the video with the presentation of ocean water and luminescent forms. There is no way to create a picture, even an abstract one, of a superpod of exuberant dolphins with audio alone; however, I present an abstract version of this image at the end of this work in the video. Likewise, my work Externalities reflects on social and environmental costs not incorporated into the pricing of goods in our current econcomic system. This concept is much easier to reflect upon with visual reinforcement.

Add another layer of content for interpretation and create a superior non-performance version:

I appreciate multimedia works because they add an additional layer of information one can chose to interpret or not. I think that this type of experience servies to enhance the overall meaning of the work and is commintant to people's experiences in modern society.

Given the difficulty of my performing my work and the limited opportunities to have performances of the type of music I write, I think it is very important to have a visual aspect that can be streamed online.

Explore cross-modal affects from specific combinations of sonic and visual material:

I am very interested in human perception. I believe that audio and visual events conflate into a singular expierence and can reinforce or conflict with each other. I consider my multimedia work to be an artistic expression of of the scientific experiments related to how humans process auditory and visual stimuli simaltaneously and construct singular, morphing impressions.

 

Newness through Synthesis   

All of the features discussed thus far, which are synthesized in my work, contribute to my original artistic voice.  I consider an artists original voice to result in newness.  This newness is apparent in either the creation of new materials, concepts, or processes; or in the synthesis of influences and processes unique to the artist.  

I consider newness, in the later sense, to be an important feature of my work.  For me, one of the most powerful things about art is that it causes an interpreter to construct explanations or new modes of analysis based on the unique experience engendered by an artwork.  Work that presents a new feature in any parameter, or through synthesis, for an interpreter causes the interpreter to make judgments about the work without having a previously acculturated notion or personally determined mechanism of how to construct such judgments.  The interpretative mechanisms an individual constructs in order to judge an artwork that has an aspect of newness are patently new to the individual.   

These new thought processes can affect the individual’s construction of reality outside of their experience of the work. I believe that this is the manner in which experiencing art causes transformative experiences: experiencing art helps us to transcend our everyday, structured thought processes and can thereby recursively transform our construction of reality.

The key to the synthesis of the diverse materials, media, and processes in my work is the structure.  As noted, I think that structure is the most important part of my work.  I try to create integral relationships between the materials and the form of a work, as well as make the structure clear and balanced. I think the key to this in my work is the combination of abstract, art-music inspired formal constructions, with popular music inspired sectional divisions. I try to relate the extra-musical content to the musical and visual material of my work, in addition to the form.  Like Kant, I believe that form is the most important and most universal aspect of art.