lindsay vickery
  • lv
  • music
    • listen
    • Works by Instrumentation
    • Works by Concept
    • 2014 onwards >
      • music 2022
      • music 2021
      • music2020
      • music2019
      • music 2018
      • music 2017
      • music 2016
      • music 2015
      • music 2014
    • music 2009-2013 >
      • music 2013
      • music 2012
      • music 2011
      • music 2010
      • music 2009
    • music 1997-2008 >
      • music 2004-8
      • music 2003
      • music 2002
      • music 2001
      • music 2000
      • music 1998-9
      • music 1997
    • music 1985-1996 >
      • music 1995-6
      • music 1993-4
      • music 1991-92
      • music 1988-90
      • music 1985-87
  • writing
    • Research Projects >
      • screening the score >
        • scrolling notation
        • rhizomatic scores
      • expanded music notation
      • realtime notation
      • scoring field recordings
      • spectral analysis as a compositional tool
      • computer controlled performance environment
    • research >
      • research 2021
      • research 2020
      • research 2019
      • research 2018
      • research 2017
      • research 2016
      • research 2015
      • research 2014
      • research 2013
      • research 2011-12
      • research 2008-10
      • research 2001-04
    • teXts
  • performance
    • performance 2017- >
      • performance 2022
      • performance 2021
      • performance 2020
      • performance 2019
      • performance 2018
      • performance 2017
    • performance 2009-16 >
      • performance 2016
      • performance 2015
      • performance 2014
      • performance 2013
      • performance 2012
      • performance 2011
      • performance 2010
      • performance 2009
    • performance 1997-2008 >
      • performance 2005-8
      • performance 2004
      • performance 2003
      • performance 2002
      • performance 2001
      • performance 2000
      • performance 1999
      • performance 1998
      • performance 1997
    • performance 1985-1996 >
      • performance 1992-6
      • performance to 1991
    • solo performance
  • gallery
    • scoreplayerscores
    • environmental scores
    • nature forms
    • landscapes
    • graphic scores
    • schematics
    • spectrograms
    • oddities
  • Blog
  • Blag

residual drift [2015]

23/8/2015

0 Comments

 
to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Varésè' death a work was created using the composer's percussion work Ionisation as a source. Apart from alluding to the origin of the piece from the residue of a Varésè work, the title uses terms from particle physics which perhaps bear the same  "fantastic" qualities  in our own time that the term ionisation did in 1931. 
In theory residual drift could be performed in conjunction with a performance of the source work. A sonogram of a recording of Ionisation was used to generate a score and accompanying pre-recorded electronics. The image of the sonogram was rendered in illustrator focussing on the range of the bass flute C2-around C4. Because sonograms are probably least effective at visualizing percussive works, features such as snare drum rolls appear as continuous pitches. This deficit was put to use in transforming Ionisation into a score for a solo instrument that makes its sound through "continuous" (as opposed to discrete) actions. The first few seconds of the Ionisation sonogram and the score of residual drift are shown below (note the "piano roll" style pitch indication is used as a "playhead" for the scrolling score to orientate the performer.
Picture
The sonogram was processed in Photoshop and then Illustrator to further "smooth" the features and to reduce hue variation. The bass flute graphical score was rendered in broadly three hues, corresponding to varied tonal qualities of the bass flute:  normal tone, diffuse tone and noise/breath. In performance the method of rendering these qualities is determined by the performer. The instrument is amplified to accentuate these tonal variations.
Picture
A sonogram of the sonification rendered by Photoshop. 
Picture
A sonogram of the sonification rendered by Illustrator. 
Picture
A sonogram of the false harmonics sonification.
Picture
The electronic component was rendered by resonifying the sonogram using processes first developed for my work 
unhörbares wird hörbar [2013] and discussed here and here. Originally a long file (24294px) was used generating 38 minutes of audio that was compressed to 8 minutes, but finally a short 4859 px version was sonified creating an audio file of roughly 8 minutes without compression. The change was made to avoid the continuous "flutter and wow"-like effects created by compressing the file by a factor of five.
The final version of the electronics part incorporates three versions of the sonification: processed by photoshop, processed by illustrator with added false harmonics and a version featuring a sonogram of just the upper harmonics of the recording (which were excluded in the image used to make the score). The high harmonics version prominently features the imprint of Ionisation's characteristic sirens.
Because the resonification software I built renders the audio in a mono file the audio was also spatialised using a process similar to that used in my work in nomine tenebris [2014] - that is detected pitches in to audio file were used to spatialize the mono track. Detected pitches were also used to generate "false harmonics" in one of the recordings by ring modulating the audio multiple times to add higher but related upper frequencies.
The three audio files were mixed together with some EQ and audio compression to create the final electronic part. The scrolling score and audio file are both played in the Decibel Scoreplayer. The work was written for and is dedicated to Cat Hope.

0 Comments

evolution of the score for between-states

12/8/2015

0 Comments

 
12 transformations of acoustic bass flute and bass clarinet recordings were created using various audio processing ideas I've been exploring. The transformations were then edited leaving the most interesting outcomes still in their original temporal position - and therefore all relating back to the source acoustic recording (see right).  The audio was mixed down and a score was created from a sonogram of the resulting track. The initial idea was to construct a notated score from the sonogram. The process involved annotating the sonogram as a MIDI-layer in Sonic Visualiser  and then exporting the MIDI-file and audio to Finale notation software for score editing. 
Picture
patchwork of recordings of audio transformations
Picture
between-states audio sonogram (detail)
Picture
score created in Finale from MIDI-annotated sonogram (detail) 
Unfortunately in this case I was unable to develop a satisfactory accommodation between the degree of detail in the score and the scroll-rate required to read it: if it was over-detailed it had to move too quickly to accurately read. For the first performance a simplified sonogram score (below) was used with a pitch-guide fixed at the left of the page. The pitch-guide replaced the single-line "playhead" that is used in most scrolling scores in the Decibel Scoreplayer. I had used the same approach  to read Percy Grainger's Free music in the mac version of the score player (and this had later been coded into the iOS version by Aaron Wyatt. The pitch-guide had the advantage of providing more detail to the performers more "morphological" information about the sonic shapes and could also be scrolled more slowly than a conventional score. However in this version each player was allowed to choose which shape they would render with their instrument.
Picture
simplified sonogram score (detail)
The (possibly) final version of the score identifies sounds to be performed by each performer (bass flute - red, bass clarinet - green) and contains text annotations and hue variations to represent different timbres. Since the parts are more defined the  full (unsimplified) sonogram is able to be re-added giving the performers a greater indication of the context in which their sounds are heard.
Picture
annotated sonogram score (detail) "pitch-guide" to the left
0 Comments

new recording of web of indra [1993]

6/8/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Web of Indra [1993] originally written for Magnetic Pig got a dust off from the trio Mixt. In this acoustic version of the work percussionist Paul Tanner also manages to work some magic emulating the cello part. This is their rough mix of the recording. Thanks guys!
0 Comments

my spread in metal mag

3/8/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Graphic scores by Jaap Blonk and Lindsay Vickery in the fashion mag METAL.
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

trash vortex or ...with the fishes...

2/8/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Forty percent of the summer Arctic sea ice melts, and here we’re literally watching the death throes of the planet, and these corporations, like Shell, look at it as a business opportunity.   (Hedges, C. (2013) Rise Up or Die. Truthdig)
"The skeptics and denyers were hanged by their feet - heads submerged beneath the rising tide".
Picture
Picture
In 1979, a military team arrived to gather up contaminated soil and debris, mixing it with cement and piling the sludge into a 350-foot-wide blast crater on Runit Island in the atoll's east. When the mound reached 25 feet high, army engineers covered it with a saucer-shaped concrete cap. A 2008 field survey of the Cactus Dome noted that 219 of its 357 concrete panels contained defects such as cracks, chips, and vegetation taking root in joints. (Atlas Obscura (2013). Cactus Dome: A Concrete Cap for a Nuclear Crater. Slate)
Picture
Other contributors to the jellyfish boom are the “dead zones” created by what scientists call “eutrophication.” That’s when farming pesticides and sewage pumped into rivers meet the ocean. Japan’s now-annual bloom of Nomura jellyfish, which each grow to be the size of large refrigerator, capsized and sank a 10-ton trawler when the fishermen tried to haul up a net full of them. (Guilford, G.(2013). Jellyfish are taking over the seas, and it might be too late to stop them. QZ)
Picture
Our first observations of elevated methane levels, about ten times higher than in background seawater, were documented . . . we discovered over 100 new methane seep sites… If even a small fraction of Arctic sea floor carbon is released to the atmosphere, we're f'd. a feedback loop where warming seas release methane that causes warming that releases more methane that causes more warming, on and on until the planet is incompatible with human life. (Jason Box)
Richardson, J. H. (2015) When the End of Human Civilization Is Your Day Job. Esquire.   
Picture
Captain Moore had wandered into a sump where nearly everything that blows into the water from half the Pacific Rim eventually ends up, spiraling slowly toward a widening horror of industrial excretion. For a week, Moore and his crew found themselves crossing a sea the size of a small continent, covered with floating refuse. It was not unlike an Arctic vessel pushing through chunks of brash ice, except what was bobbing around them was a fright of cups, bottle caps, tangles of fish netting and monofilament line, bits of polystyrene packaging, six-pack rings, spent balloons, filmy scraps of sandwich wrap, and limp plastic bags that defied counting. p. 121
There is more plastic by weight than plankton on the ocean's surface. p. 124
By 2005, Moore was referring to the gyrating Pacific dump as 10 mil­ lion square miles—nearly the size of Africa. p. 125
"Except for a small amount that's been incinerated," says Tony Andrady the oracle, "every bit of plastic manufactured in the world for the last 50 years or so still remains. p. 126 ( Weisman, A. (2007). The Earth Without Us. Thomas Dunn: New York)
Picture
0 Comments

    lindsay vickery

    test version

    Categories

    All

    Archives

    September 2020
    October 2019
    September 2018
    August 2018
    March 2018
    October 2017
    September 2017
    May 2016
    April 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.